After a couple of days off, I was ready to set off again. Reading is easy to get to by train from where I live in Northamptonshire – even more so since the full opening of the Elizabeth line last year. The only thing is that on a weekday I can only get an off-peak ticket after 09:00. So, with the trains running to timetable I arrived at Reading station by 11:15. My optimistic hope for today was to reach Bourne End. It was pretty overcast but at least it was dry.
I reached Sonning Bridge, about 3 miles away, by 12:15. When I walked the Thames Path last year, I couldn’t help but notice what looked like the front of a red letterbox that someone had attached to a buttress between 2 arches of the bridge. I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing! After Googling this when I got home I learned that this was the latest prank of an artist going by the name of Impro. Previous pranks included a black door with a letterbox, knocker and keyhole resembling those of 10 Downing Street and an old-fashioned dial telephone attached to the bridge, above which was a sign which read “Emergency Flood Line”.
In view of the above I was keen to find out what I’d discover attached to the bridge this year. It was a urinal! With all the current publicity against Thames Water and the amount of raw sewage being pumped into rivers I shouldn’t have been too surprised at this. What did surprise me was the response to a tweet I posted on Twitter (or rather ‘X’ as Elon Musk has decided it should now be known as). As I write this, my tweet has been viewed almost 96,000 times. I suspect this is all down to a certain Mr F Sharkey who commented on it. Feargal Sharkey is a singer who was a member of The Undertones (My Perfect Cousin, Here Comes The Summer, Jimmy Jimmy) in the 1970s/80s and went on to have a successful solo career (A Good Heart). He has subsequently become a figurehead for the campaign to prevent water companies dumping untreated sewage into UK waterways and coasts.
The Thames Path crossed Sonning Bridge and in so doing I crossed from Berkshire back into Oxfordshire briefly. I continued along the original tow path towards Shiplake. Shiplake Lock is a pretty lock and I decided to eat my lunch sandwich there. A fellow walker, Maggie, had the same idea and we got talking. She too was walking the Thames Path but camping as she went; hence the large backpack she was carrying on her shoulders. With all the rotten weather we’d had in July I felt rather sorry for her. After eating my lunch and taking some drone photos I continued towards Henley.
The official Thames Path takes you through Lower Shiplake but there is an alternative right of way that takes you alongside the river but adds over a mile to the walk. The right of way meets the Thames Path just before Shiplake Station. Had it been a lovely sunny day and I’d not been pressed for time I would probably have walked by the river but as it was still overcast, I decided to take the Thames Path and save a mile. Lower Shiplake & Shiplake have some stunning properties, many of which are hidden from public gaze by large wooden gates. The average property price in this area is £1.5 million!
The final property in Shiplakethat the Thames Path passes before rejoining the river is Thames Side Court. This property was (or maybe still is) owned by Urs Schwarzenbach, a Swiss billionaire whose name crops up all over the place in this area. He also owns Culham Court, paying £10 million OVER the asking price in 2006 just to get hold of it. I would be passing this later today on the other side of Henley. Anyway, back to Thames Side Court. Mr Schwarzenbach had a model railway built in the grounds complete with a 100% accurate scale model of St Moritz station. Whilst you can’t see the house, you do get to see part of the railway and station.
Back in the real world, I was soon alongside the river again on the final push into Henley. I was quickly faced with steel barriers blocking my way onto Marsh Lock Footbridge. Until May 2022 the Thames Path used this bridge as a means of getting onto the Marsh Lock island and off again. It really is a lovely bridge but due to safety concerns, the Environment Agency closed the Shiplake half of it meaning a detour would be required to reach Henley.
The Schwarzenbach family quickly stepped in and provided what should have been a temporary detour over their land, even constructing a wooden bridge to enable walkers to cross a small stream. With no progress from the Environment Agency in getting the footbridge repaired however, the Schwarzenbach’s gave notice that the detour over their land would cease in April 2023. Thankfully a change of heart saved the day – for now at least.
Walkers can still access the lock island from the Henley side of the footbridge.
Before reaching the centre of Henley I walked past the River & Rowing Museum whose Rowing Gallery is now known as the Schwarzenbach International Rowing Gallery, thanks to a hefty donation from that man Urs!
It was now almost 4 o’clock and Bourne End was another 12 miles away, including the ½ mile detour I knew I’d have to make at Temple. I didn’t want to leave things too late as I needed to get back to Northamptonshire and there was a rail strike the next day; sometimes services shut down early on the eve of a strike and I didn’t want to get stuck. With my foot starting to ache a bit I had a reality check and decided my target should be Marlow, just over 9 miles away.
After crossing Henley Bridge I was now on my favourite section of the Thames Path, heading towards Marlow. Such a shame that there was so much cloud. Slowly but surely the river and meadows between Henley and Temple Island a mile downstream were returning to normal after the Henley Regatta 4 weeks earlier.
Just before reaching Hambleden Lock I passed The Lockdown Lodge, a riverside pop-up bar and restaurant that opens for a few weeks around this time of year. For 2023 it is open until August 13th. I can thoroughly recommend stopping here although this year I carried on. After Hambleden Lock the path continued by the side of the river through a field of cows. At the end of the field, the path left the river and headed into Aston.
The Flower Pot Hotel at Aston is decidedly quirky. The former landlord had put together Britain’s largest collection of cased fish along with a few stuffed birds and animals. Not to everyone’s taste it has to be said. I’d heard that he retired in September 2022 and he’d said that any that the incoming landlord didn’t want would be sold off at auction.
As I’d not stopped at The Lockdown Lodge, I decided to have a sneaky pint here. The pub had been redecorated and the cased fish population substantially reduced. The garden was also much tidier and more inviting. With my eye on the clock, I quickly downed my pint.
After Aston the Thames Path takes you for a walk through the Culham Court Estate which includes a Grade II listed mansion with the greenest grass you’ve ever seen and a huge deer park. Needless to say, our man Urs owns all this but it’s not clear if he actually lives in the mansion. I absolutely love this place. The views from the mansion towards the river must be amazing.
At the end of the deer park, the Thames Path left the estate and once again I was back in the real world heading towards Hurley. At some point between Aston and here I left Oxfordshire again and was back in Berkshire. As I was getting tired now, it seemed like reaching Hurley Lock from the deer park had taken an eternity but it was only about 40 minutes.
I knew that after the lock, Temple Bridge, that would ordinarily be the last bridge I would have to cross today, was less than half a mile away. Between the lock and the bridge, I passed a load of very impressive Dutch barges all moored up alongside the path. There was also a celebration of some sort going on in a nearby marquee. I assumed the barges and the celebration were connected. I crossed paths with a lady who was very impressed that I was taking photos with my drone. She advised me it was a UK rally of The Barge Association taking place that weekend. She was looking forward to the next day when she’d be able to go on board the assembled barges with a view to maybe buying one of her own.
Temple Bridge is a beautiful footbridge crossing the river. It was specifically built for walkers in 1989 and was one of the final pieces of the jigsaw needed to create the Thames Path National Trail.
After crossing the bridge, you would ordinarily then follow the tow path all the way into Marlow. I knew it had recently been closed on safety grounds and that a detour had been put in place to avoid the bridge. The detour takes you down lanes and then along the streets of Temple and Bisham before eventually reaching Marlow. The detour adds ½ mile to the walk and part of it is along an unlit road with no pavements and a double bend for good measure. Thankfully only 2 cars passed me on this road.
I reached Marlow Bridge shortly before 19:30 on The Compleat Angler side of the river. The river here is the border between Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. After crossing Marlow Bridge into Buckinghamshire, I still had another ½ mile to walk to the railway station. The train service that runs on the Marlow branch line is known locally as "The Marlow Donkey". The pub of the same name is right by the station. I was tempted to have another sneaky pint but by now all I really wanted to do was to get home. 4 trains and almost 3 hours later I was back indoors. That was a long day!
The official distance covered along the river today was 17.4 miles but my FitBit told me that in total I’d walked over 21 miles. Having completed 7 of my targeted 14 stages I’d now completed 111 miles of the Thames with 121 miles to go.
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