Martin Booth's recent tumble from his bicycle on a rail by the Grand Union Canal close to the former Croxley Mill site has prompted three readers to write in with snippets of information on the subject of the spur line which ran from the Watford to Rickmansworth branch line.

Mr J N Harrington, of Croxley Green, wrote to say that there were sidings close to the canal and suggests there may be other pieces of rail buried on the site, now occupied by the Byewaters housing development.

John Sargent wrote in by e-mail: "My grandfather, Albert Nobbs, drove the little steam engine at John Dickinson's Croxley Mills until he retired in the 1950's.

"As I recall, the engine was charged with steam from the factory's boiler system and was used to pull the coal wagons. A branch line off the Watford to Rickmansworth railway (now the Ebury Way) was used to deliver coal to the mill site. The mill's own little engine was then used to carry the coal to the boilerhouse as required. The machinery in the mill was driven by steam and an old book on the mill says that the coal shed could hold 4,000 tons of coal."

Colin Knight, of Watford, sent in extracts of a book called West of Watford, the story of the Croxley and Rickmansworth Branch Lines, published by Forge Books.

The extract states that the Dickinson Croxley Mill was opened in 1830 on the site of a former mill building and enlarged 1886, with an "Egyptian front" to make it more pleasing to Lord Ebury, of nearby Moor Park.

A private spur line from the Watford to Rickmansworth branch was laid in 1899 to transport coal from the Midlands and china clay from Cornwall direct to the mill.

The line between Common Moor and Rickmansworth Church Street was lifted in 1968, but British Rail retained a contract to carry oil fuel supplies from Watford to Croxley Mill. Apparently, there were two trains scheduled every week until 1981, but these became intermittent as Dickinson's ran down operations prior to its own closure.

According to the extract, the branch was closed on on Thursday, January 20, 1983, as it was claimed the the single line token had gone missing and floated away down the river. The track was eventually lifted around 1986/87.

The mill site also boasted an internal tramway which was used to carry the rags, esparto grass and wood pulp used in paper production.

Do any readers have memories of working at the mill or on the branch lines? Does anyone possess pictures which they would like to share?