Down to Hampton Court

We are moored tonight near Kingston Bridge and tomorrow we are booked to go out on the tidal Thames from Teddington to Brentford where we will say goodbye to the Thames which has been our companion for the last 3 weeks or so. Here is an account of our journey from Reading to Kingston.

This is just one of many huge houses next to the Thames. We'd hesitate to speculate how much this might be if it came on the market, but many millions. The house is at Wargrave soon after we set off on Wednesday (12th August).

At Marsh Lock we met this superb barge coming out. She is a Humber Keel built at Thorne to carry 100 tons of grain between the docks in Hull and Doncaster. She was the last vessel built in the UK to carry cargo under sail. Have a look at https://hkdaybreak.wordpress.com/ if you would like to know more.

Here we are below Marsh Lock coming through Henley towards the church and the bridge.

Below Henley we passed Temple Island shown here. There seems to be a new convention of going to the right of the island here whereas our Nicholson's guide said keep to the west - which we did. We seemed to offend one rower.

This unusual building is St Mary's Abbey at Medmenham.

Wednesday was another roasting hot day so when we spotted a mooring under horse chestnut trees below Hurley Lock it was too good to miss, even if it did cost us £7 to the local farmer for overnight mooring.

After cooling down with our now customary swim and waiting for the heat to abate towards evening, we went for a walk around Hurley and found this large tithe barn.

Thursday was not quite so hot and we started the day by passing through Temple Lock which is approximately half way between Oxford and London. Below the lock is Bisham Church and Abbey.

Marlow is every bit as scenic as Henley with its church right by the suspension bridge.

When we visited Budapest we discovered that the Elizabeth bridge there over the Danube was built by the same chap who built the bridge at Marlow. His name was William Tierney Clark.

Just below the mooring pontoon for Marlow Lock we found this coot's nest with two young birds being fed by their parents.

Here is the view looking back from the lock towards the bridge. Notice the long weir on the left. This could be a real problem if the river was running high but fortunately it wasn't.

Now contrast this modest house beside the river at Bourne End with the huge pile at Wargrave shown above. Not nearly so ostentatious and much more our style. Cheaper too.

Beyond Cookham and its lock is a long straight wooded reach with islands where you can moor. The land belongs to the National Trust who also own Cliveden, the house on the top of the hill shown here. This house has a certain notoriety being the site of much of the goings on in the Profumo affair in the 1960s.

Boulters Lock follows Cliveden and, as you can see, it was well packed with boats. 'Gay Lady' to our left is heading to Gravesend, a lot further down the tide than we would consider going with Leo.

We spied a long queue ahead of us at Bray Lock and fortuitously noticed a gap in the trees with a bit of shade. So we contrived a mooring in the gap, tied to trees at both ends. It proved to be a good spot on the towpath so allowing a short walk when it got cooler. On our walk we followed part of the Jubilee River which was built to run parallel with the Thames to avoid flooding Windsor.

We'd love to show you a picture of Windsor in brilliant sunshine but sadly that wasn't possible on Friday. So this photo won't make the calendar this year. It still remains impressive coming through Windsor and beneath the famous castle.

At Old Windsor Lock we waited for the lock (we do a lot of that on the Thames) and when it emptied out came 9 of these little day boats. Never seen so many all together.

We found some good free moorings at Runnymede and went for a walk in the evening to explore all the memorials on the hill and below. This is the first we came to - the Air Forces Memorial. Unfortunately it closes at 4pm we were too late, so this photo is of the back of the memorial as seen from the locked gate. This is the one memorial that you can see from the river and is on the top of the hill above.

Further on and lower down the hill we found the J F Kennedy Memorial on an acre of land that we have given to the United States. The text at the bottom of the memorial was part of JFK's inaugural address and reads "Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill that we shall pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship support any friend or oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty." Can you imagine the present incumbent saying anything quite so profound?

Continuing the American theme this memorial was built by the American Bar Association. However it is to commemorate the signing of Magna Carta by King John and his barons in 1215. There is widespread recognition that this forms the basis of legal justice in jurisdictions all over the world.

On our walk back to Leo at the foot of the hill we came across this uninspiring concrete cylinder. It is called 'Writ in Water' and you have to venture through a passage into the inside to learn why.

In the middle of the cylinder is a second smaller cylinder which you walk round until, on the opposite side, is a passage to the centre and a circular pond with  a clear roof above it and with upside down writing around the rim which reflects in the water the right way up. We hope you can get an idea of this from the picture. The text is from the introduction of the Magna Carta document.

Yesterday we had quite a long cruise primarily because we couldn't find anywhere to stop where we wanted to. Here we are about to go under Chertsey Bridge with more heavy grey skies.

In this photo we are looking back to Shepperton Lock. Had we turned right here we could have gone up the River Wey Navigation. Had it been earlier in the year we might well have done so and we still hold an ambition to take Leo the whole way up the Basingstoke Canal. However we don't have sufficient time this year what with Covid delays, so that will have to wait for another time.

The pub where we were hoping to moor (The Weir at Sunbury) had poor moorings and loud music playing so we carried on. The reach between Sunbury and Molesey Locks has gained a reputation for 'gypsy' boats moored all over the place and refusing to move on when challenged. Here are two examples of rubbish tips on the water. The Environment Agency really needs to get a grip on this issue because this part of the river is quite spoiled by these people flouting the rules. Where these boats are not obstructing short term moorings, the shore of the river is too shallow to allow boats to get close as we tried several times. We had arranged to meet Helen's cousin, Nina, on this stretch but because of the problems we finished up having a conversation with Leo wallowing just off the shallows and Nina standing on the bank!

And here, complete with grey murky drizzle, is the splendid Hampton Court Palace where we spent last night after coming down Molesey Lock and under Hampton Court bridge. This and the mooring by Kingston Bridge where we are now have an online system for registering your boat on the mooring where the first 24 hours is free.

So tomorrow afternoon we aim to go through Teddington Lock (just a couple of miles downstream) and out onto the tidal river. On the tide we'll pass through Richmond and down to Brentford where the Grand Union Canal meets the Thames. Travelling further down through London is usually an option but at present Hammersmith bridge is closed to land and water traffic. Apparently it expanded in the recent heatwave and now has big cracks in the suspension supports. Anyway our next posting will be from the canal heading north.