Month: November 2009

Candida Lycett Green takes a look at Inglesham Church as part of her ‘Unwrecked England’ series in Christmas issue of The Oldie. The writer, who is the daughter of John Betjeman, recalls joining her parents rowing up from Lechlade past the Roundhouse and landing at the farm behind the church. This is the same stretch […]

Last August I wrote about the pleasure of lunching at the Surrey Docks Farm cafe. Now it’s closed. The cafe is shut “until after Christmas” I am told by farm manager Kath. There are not enough winter visitors. But it’s worth calling in on Sunday 13 December for the Christmas Fair when the cafe will be […]

Eel Pie Island book by Dan van der Vat and Michele Whitby Eel Pie Island is a mystery to most of us. It hides Twickenham from the walker on the towpath but most of us are not sure what happens on the only inhabited island in the tidal Thames. There are myths about what used […]

Today MV Havengore which carried Winston Churchill’s body upstream after his funeral was back on the Thames. The vessel by chance retraced the same route as it sailed from its mooring at St Katharine’s Dock to anchor outside the Palace of Westminster where a short service took place prior to the two minute silence. The […]

The situation at Surrey Docks Farm near Rotherhithe, downstream from Tower Bridge, has always been rather confused. There are not many public footpaths in the capital and the towpath does not exist here. A planning application for path improvements at the farm makes it clear that the Thames Path route will be open Tuesday to […]

The slight and brief diversion away from the water between Shiplake and Sonning has ended now that the bank has been repaired. Pre-planted rolls have been installed along the top of piling to encourage natural vegetation.