The Anonymous Widower

The First Legacy Venue Opens

I was born in Enfield and spent the first fifteen or so years of my life in Cockfosters, which in those days had a Hertfordshire postal address.

A couple of times, I cycled down to the Lea Valley to do a bit of fishing, although I wasn’t that good or keen. I also had three summer jobs at Brimsdown on the Lea, working for Enfield Rolling Mills. Incidentally, that job came because my father just phoned up John Grimston, the Earl of Verulam, and asked if they had a job for a sixteen-year-old, interested in electronics, in the company, where he was Chairman. The company was the biggest customer for my father’s printing business. I have a feeling that I have inherited my father’s nothing-is-impossible gene.

So yesterday, I was rather pleased to read that the first of the legacy venues has opened after the Olympics, on that river, which was part of my formative years.  The Lea Valley White Water Centre, where I watched the canoeing, is now open and will be expanded. Who’d have thought there’d be white water sports in the mountains of Hertfordshire?

I think it just goes to show, you just have to have enough imagination.

September 12, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Sport | Canoe Slalom, Olympic Legacy, Olympics, River Lea