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Elstree
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=== Elstree Reservoir === The dam was built in 1795 by French prisoners of war.<ref>London LOOP, Section 15, Hatch End to Elstree ([http://www.walklondon.org.uk/uploads/File/leaflets/loop15directions_31052010160251.pdf page 3] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111129120001/http://walklondon.org.uk/uploads/File/leaflets/loop15directions_31052010160251.pdf |date=29 November 2011 }})</ref> English watercolour landscape painter [[John Hassell]] writes: :"At the top of Stanmore Hill we enter on Bushy Heath, and at some distance on the right in the valley catch a view of the celebrated reservoir, the property of the Grand Junction Company, on Aidenham Common, at the foot of the village of Elstree. This noble sheet of water occupies a space of considerable extent on the verge of Aidenham Common, which thirty years ago was a barren waste; here the improvements in agriculture are indeed conspicuous, for at this place a poor, sandy, meagre, wretched soil has now by good husbandry been converted into rich pasturage. :"The reservoir has all the appearance of a lake; and when the timber that surrounds it shall have arrived at maturity, it will be a most delightful spot. From this immense sheet of water, in event of drought or a deficiency of upland waters, the lower parts of the Grand Junction and the Paddington Canals can have an immediate supply. The feeder from this reservoir enters the main stream near Rickmansworth, above Batchworth Mills, and supplies the millers' below with 300 locks of water, to whose interest the Duke of Northumberland is a perpetual trustee."<ref>John Hassell, "Tour of the Grand Junction", Printed for J. Hassell, 1819. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=UxIpAAAAYAAJ&dq=elstree&pg=PA11 page 11])</ref> In 1886, the [[Photographic Society of Great Britain]] featured an exhibition of photos of Elstree Reservoir by Edgar Clifton.<ref>"[http://erps.dmu.ac.uk/exhibit_details.php?serial=10070 1886 [Thirty-first] Photographic Society of Great Britain Exhibition]", Catalogue records from the annual exhibitions, Exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society 1870β1915, Exhibition, at De Montfort University website. Retrieved 20 September 2011</ref> During [[World War I]], then Major [[Keith Caldwell]] with No. 74 Squadron RAF, used Elstree Reservoir for target practice.<ref>Ira Jones, ''King of Air Fighters: The Biography of Major "Mick" Mannock, VC, DSO, MC'', Casemate Publishers, 2009, {{ISBN|1-932033-99-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-932033-99-1}}, 340 pages. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=-ELRA_xVJssC&q=elstree&pg=PA198 page 198])</ref> In 1918, one of the pilots accidentally killed a local resident when his machine gun misfired.<ref>''Flight'' magazine, Stanley Spooner, editor. No. 471. (No. 1, Vol. X.) 3 January 1918. ([http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1918/1918%20-%201014.html page 1014])</ref>
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