Category: Updates

A agreed plan to divert the Thames Path back on to the historic towpath at Maidenhead has suddenly been reversed.

The decision was taken on Thursday evening by Windsor & Maidenhead Council.

Instead a pavement will be created in Ray Mede Road to make following the the road along the inland side of Bridge View flats safer for walkers.

Residents of the flats will be given car parking space in adjacent green Bridge Gardens public open space.

This is an astounding turn around. It has been known for decades that many wish the towpath at this point to be restored as a right of way. The issue had been known about when new residents moved in.

Hours before the meeting Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, said: “We are dismayed that councillors are being pressed to reverse a previous, unanimous decision. The Thames Path National Trail is of national and international importance, bringing visitors into the heart of Maidenhead—indeed, for three quarters of them the River Thames is the main reason for their visit.

“The route is severely marred by the dangerous gap, which forces people to jostle with traffic along the busy A4094. They are not only at risk of accident, but they cannot even see the river. This missing link is off-putting to walkers and visitors and highly inconvenient for local people too.

“The proposal to extend the pavement instead of creating a riverside route is outrageous. People will still have to suffer from the proximity of traffic and lack of river view. Also outrageous is the proposal to sacrifice part of the Bridge Gardens public open space for a private car-park to appease the residents of Bridge View. This is an abuse of a public open space and we shall fight it.

“The council should continue with its agreed plan of a creation order for the riverside route, which will cause minimum inconvenience to the occupiers of Bridge View. The riverside route is highly popular with national and local organisations and individuals; there is clearly a need for the path so the legal tests are satisfied.

“We cannot understand why the council is threatening to adopt this wimpish attitude to resolving this long-standing problem. There is a clear and popular solution. We say it must get on with creating the riverside route for the benefit of all.”

Today, Friday 6 June, the Open Spaces Society repeated its intention to fight the decision.

The Rivers Thames and Severn have been connected by the Thames & Severn Way.

A footpath has been marked out by volunteers from the Cotswold Canals Trust. It mainly follows the towpaths of the Stroudwater Navigation and Thames & Severn Canal between Lechlade on the Thames and Framilode on the Severn but in places deviates to use other paths including the Thames Path.

Upstream walkers on the Thames Path wishing to continue beyond the source can make their way to the nearby old canal path behind the stone. The first landmark is the Tunnel House Inn.

The route has been marked using nearly 500 specially designed waymarks provided by Stroud District Council which is co-operating in producing an online map. Meanwhile the canals map is helpful.

The local aim is for the Thames & Severn Way to be part of the National Trail so the full Thames Path could run from Dartford to the River Severn which is route once easily navigated.

Guiding Lights exhibition at Greenwich’s National Maritime Museum marks the 500th anniversary of Trinity House.

The Corporation of Trinity House, first recognised by Henry VIII on 20 May 1514, looks after our lighthouses and buoys.

It had started in March 1513 in nearby Deptford where mariners were unhappy about unregulated and unreliable pilots in the Thames estuary.

The only disappointment is that the exhibition fails to say much about the beginning and where in Deptford could be found the fraternity’s great hall and almshouses. Trinity House is now based on Tower Hill in central London and at Harwich.

But this display is an opportunity to see around 70 rarely seen objects from Trinity House and the NMM’s own collection.

The exhibition is open 10am-5pm daily until Sunday 4 January; admission free to both museum and Guiding Lights.

A London Pub For Every Occasion is published today May Day highlighting 161 of the capital’s 7,000 pubs.

The delight of this book is not just the choices but the pictures by Anna Hurley. Her Cutty Sark pub picture shows the lovely bow window above the cobbles. Other Thames pubs mentioned are The Dog & Bell at Deptford and The Mayflower at Rotherhithe. There is even The Pelton Arms which was for a time on the Thames Path whilst riverside redevelopment took place.

A London Pub For Every Occasion is a pocket hardback edited by Ben Olins and Jane Smillie and published by Ebury Press (£9.99).

The National Trail staff has published a useful list of toilet and water points on the Thames Path.

The arches on Payne’s and Borthwick Wharf at Deptford are being preserved as part of the massive redevelopment. They are often likened to a Venetian facade so the Venice Preserv’d Restoration play is being staged there until Sunday 8 June.

Full details of the play, tickets and where to meet (it’s nearby in Greenwich) can be found on the Venice Preserv’d website.

Thames Admirer has some interesting before and after flood photographs of the river above Oxford.

On May Day Thursday 1 May the traditional Jack in the Green will be on the Thames Path as it leaves the Dog & Bell in Deptford’s Prince Street at 11.30am.

The Jack will be dressed the night before from 8pm.

The pub is on the Thames Path, behind Convoys Wharf, and the May Day route will again touch on the Thames Path downstream at Deptford Creek (about 12.30pm) and soon after in Thames Street in Greenwich.

The tour continues during the afternoon around Greenwich pubs.

The Fowlers Troop Jack in the Green website has the full details.

The National  Trail website is still reporting flooding and a closed towpath upstream of Goring Bridge.

The very first programme on London’s new TV station London Live came live from the Thames Path on Monday evening.

Marleena Pone opened the broadcast from the riverside next to Waterloo Bridge.

London SE1 has the story and pictures.

On the second night the crew was downstream broadcasting live from the Greenwich Peninsula.