347 
spring tide, children in the warm weather may be seen wading well 
out into the river. 
“There was but little tidal scour in those days, for irregular 
banks, shoals, weeds, reeds and fallen trees, &c., coupled with the 
lateral flow over miles of swamps, would all tend to impede the 
flow in the river proper. Constant dredging at this day takes 
place upon the gravel shingle in the Syon reach of the river to 
deepen the Brentford channel for navigation, and from the above 
various causes it can be imagined that 2,000 years ago the river at 
this spot was much shallower than at present, and therefore easily 
fordable at low tide. All the accessories of a ford convenient for 
military purposes were to be found here. On the Surrey side a 
wide and level approach over a firm and low-lying bank (B.M. 13) 
led down to a shallow river of no width, flowing in this reach over 
a broad bed of gravel. , 
_ “The passage across probably lay up stream, a little above the 
line of route of the present ferry. ‘he old ford was a double one, 
intervening triangle of land forming the delta of the Brent lay the 
town meadow, happily named and still known as ‘Old England.’ 
Its old appearance has now, alas! gone for ever; nearly all lost in 
docks and buried beneath railway embankments. 
The following description is given of the stake :—“ It is part of an 
ecay, though, in process of dr ing, through exposure to the air, 
rifts’ or splits dew the wa ‘a rain have appeared. The 
its preservation to having been buried in the bed of the river. Its 
Upper end, which projected a couple of inches above the bed, is 
Tn December, 1903, Mr. Bunting, of the Thames Conservancy, 
“rote to Mr. Sharpe as follows:—*The remains of the line of 
take defence still exist in the bed of the river for about 400 yards 
below Tsleworth Ferry, It rans in a diagonal direction down 
have been carefully ascertained. In the course of dredging, the 
Stumps of many of the stakes have been extracted in the main 
ecame an obstruction or danger to navigation. 
Stakes have from their appearance indicated that they have been 
4 rb) 
tied or Interlaced in some way or other, 
