The Thames Path by Leigh Hatts

The Thames Path between London Bridge and Oxo Tower Wharf is to be improved in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The London-SE1 website has the funding information and details.

See pages 30-36.

High tides are due in London this weekend.

At London Bridge the high tides are Sat 19 March 1.37pm; Sun 2.23pm; Mon 3.06; Tue 3.47pm.

High tides also mean low tides at other times which makes the shore extra interesting.

Thames Clippers is warning that its services may be disrupted due to available headroom at Blackfriars Bridge. The Rotherhithe Hilton-Canary Wharf Ferry service may also not run to time due to low water conditions.

HMS Bulwark is moored at Deptford until Monday.

The ship, last on the Thames in 2008, has just undergone at £30m refit and will be taking part in sea training exercises before returning home to Plymouth.

She will shortly take up her role as UK Flag Ship.

See page 18.

The Independent has a feature on Wallingford which often appears as the backdrop for Midsomer Murders.

The Manor House at downstream Moulsford is one of the many nearby houses which has appeared in the ITV series.

See page 142.

The prospect of the Thames Path being diverted along the front of Chambers Wharf soon has receded following news that Thames Water has purchased the site.

The previous development plan has been abandoned and the site could become a works entry for the proposed Thames Tunnel sewerage scheme.  The good news is that this might leave the downstream King’s Stairs site unaffected.

The eventual plan is for Berkeley Homes to build flats on Chambers Wharf with a provision for a riverside path linking Bermondsey Wall East with Bermondsey Wall West.

Se pages 25-26.

At Oxford the River Thames flowed through the city not as one river but as a number of streams.

It is interesting to see a reference in Fr John Hunwick’s blog on 6 March to Blessed John Henry Newman contributing in 1828 to a fund for “raising the floor-level of S Thomas’s above the flood-level of the Thames”.

So the Thames flooded over a wide area. St Thomas’s Church is near Oxford Station so was this water from Osney or the stream to the east?

See page 171.

There is a temporary diversion until the end of April just west of Windsor.

At Boveney Church one is directed inland to follow the rowing lake. The return to the Thames is by way of the Dorney Court path.

This is to allow the towpath to be improved and vegetation cut back ready for the Olympics next year.

See page 93.

Chris Brasher lived at Petersham and set up the Petersham Trust in 1999 to preserve Petersham Meadows. For a time the riverside grass was grazed by cows – the nearest herd to London.

The Meadows have now been placed in the care of the National Trust which continues to pay the peppercorn rent of a posey of wild flowers to Richmond Council.

This seems appropriate as the Trust already looks after nearby Ham House.

See page 60.

It is worth crossing the river at Putney to have  look at Fulham Palace where the moat once fed by the River Thames has been revealed.

The moat, England’s longest and foolishly filled in about 90 years ago, has been excavated either side of the entrance.

See page 49.

The Oxford Mail reports that repairs to the towpath each side of Oxford have been completed.

See pages 166-176.