A month after leaving the Source in Gloucestershire, the Thames Path 30th Anniversary baton has arrived in Woolwich.
The baton relay has involved hundreds of walkers and path volunteers and taken 24 days to complete.
The first party set out from the Source on Friday 5 June. Those there included Kate Ashbrook, Open Spaces Society general secretary, who had been present at the official opening in London thirty years ago.
The official opening in July 1996 was at the Thames Barrier where the new national trail at first ended/started. On that day the ceremony was preceded by a walk for guests from the Cutty Sark -the route replicated at the end of this year’s relay.
But on Sunday the walkers continued the short distance to Woolwich where the Thames Path now joins the King Charles III England Coast Path.
Forty years ago the plan was for the London end of the path to be at Westminster Bridge.
Leigh Hatts, who wrote 1984 Thames Path feasibility report and was also present at the 1996 opening, joined Sunday’s walk.
The Mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Cllr David Gardner, who has walked the Thames Path, said that he looked forward to being at the 50th anniversary celebration.
At the close of a post walk gathering at Woolwich Works, Thames’ poet in residence Robert Seatter read five of his thirty poems accessible via QR codes on the footpath’s fingerposts.
Also present was Rosalie Bloy who designed the 30th anniversary logo.
River Thames Society chair Peter Finch was presented with a personalised finger post in recognition for the help he has long given in maintaining the route through the capital.
Also receiving a finger post was Thames Path Partnership chair Wendy Tobitt whose many volunteer roles include looking after the path’s social media.
The final walk was hosted by the West London Ramblers whose chair Jackie Gower told walkers that the late David Sharp, who conceived the idea of a Thames Path, was one of their founding members and secretary.
