The Thames Path by Leigh Hatts

Work is due to start this morning on removing the central span of Temple Bridge.

The footbridge, upstream of Marlow, has been closed since 2023 when it was suddenly deemed to be unsafe.

The work should take about a week.

However, no decision has been made about restoration or rebuilding and there is certainly no funding currently available.

The cost of this week’s dismantling may be as much as £300,000. Full replacement could potentially cost around £2.5million.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is expected to eventually meet the major part of the cost with possible contributions from Oxfordshire County Council and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

An indication of a way forward could be made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in next year’s Budget after final costings are made available.

The bridge, replacing a ferry lost in 1953, is a vital link in the Thames Path. The current diversion via Bisham involves walking along a narrow and unpleasant main road.

The closed crossing, a 267 foot West African hardwood single span, is only 36 years old which has raised questions about a possible lack of maintenance.

Environment Secretary Virginia Bottomley performed the opening ceremony eight years ahead of the Thames Path inauguration.

The last Sunday in September sees sheep being driven across Southwark Bridge.

In medieval times sheep farmers drove their sheep northwards across London Bridge into the City of London to sell them at Smithfield

Those farmers who were Freemen of the City were excused paying the bridge toll.

This century the City’s ancient Woolmen’s Company, founded in 1180, has each autumn invited a freeman to drive sheep across one of the bridges.

Although London Bridge has been used it in now the queiter Southwark Bridge where the annual sheep drive is held.

It is staged as a charity event raising funds for The Woolmen Charity and The Lord Mayor’s Appeal.

A well-known freeman is invited to drive the first sheep over the water before others follow.

One year Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen was in the lead.

This year farmer and BBC Countryfile presenter Adam Henson joined in.

Walkers will find the path between Albert and Victoria Bridges in Datchet closed today Wednesday 17 September due to the US State Visit.

Datchet has good views of Windsor Castle and its Home Park across the river.

The Red Arrows will be over Datchet just before 4.45pm but the best place to view the fly past is from The Brocas meadow upstream of Windsor Bridge. It is planned to be east to west over the castle towards Clewer village on the opposite bank. Expect a lot of photographers.

In central London the Honourable Artillery Company will be firing a 46 gun salute across the River Thames at noon from the Tower of London as Donald Trump arrives upstream in Windsor.

At the same time the King’s Troop will fire a salute at Windsor Castle.

Although President Trump and his wife will be leaving Windsor Castle on Thursday morning it is unlikely that the Datchet path will be reopened before Friday morning.

Doggett’s Coat and Badge rowing race is on the River Thames today Wednesday 10 September.

You may see the single sculling boats being raced by apprentice watermen from London Bridge to Chelsea. Founder Thomas Doggett used to commute by water from his home in Chelsea to the City of London.

This is the world’s oldest continuous rowing race having been held since 1715.

The winner’s prize is a Watermen’s red coat with a large silver badge added.

The race starts on an incoming tide at 12.15 and Chelsea is usually reached within thirty minutes.

City livery cutters are expected to be on the water downstream of London Bridge from 11.30pm.

Award-winning author Georgina Moore’s second novel is set around her home on the River Thames.

Her houseboat is moored at Tagg’s Island a little upstream from East Molesey and Hampton Court.

The island is named after Royal Waterman Tom Tagg who ran a boatyard and hotel there in the 19th century. It was originally Walnut Tree Island which is the name of the island in the novel River of Stars published by HarperC0llins (£16.99).

The fictional Walnut Tree Island is a fusion of downstream Eel Pie Island, opposite Ham House, and Tagg’s Island.

Both islands had hotels but it was Eel Pie’s where the pop concerts were staged which feature in the opening. The toll bridge is also borrowed from that island.

Garrick’s Temple with its squelchy lawn, making an early appearance, is nearer Tagg’s.

There is a vital map of the reimagined Thames which will help readers who might be confused by knowing the real river well.

This is a story of love and generations which starts in the 1960s when the Thames Path was only a dream.

The Ferry inn at Cookham is closed for refurbishment.

Reopening is planned for Friday 26 September.

The riverside terrace is depicted in Stanley Spencer’s 1936 painting The Ferry Hotel Lawn, Cookham.

The Norwegian Saga Farmann arrived in the Pool of London on Tuesday night and moved to St Katharine Dock on Wednesday afternoon for a week’s visit.

Goring’s Royal Mail sorting office which closed last year has been listed by Historic England.

The building next to the bridge will be familiar to many walkers who take a break at the next door Pierreponts Café.

The former sorting office, which is now for sale, is a boathouse best seen as you start to cross the river to Streatley.

The boathouse was built about 1894 for Samuel Saunders and designed by local architect Percy Stone who was later responsible for the rood screen in the church.

Saunders was born at Streatley’s riverside Swan inn which had been the home not only of his father Cornelius but also his grandfather Moses who was the last ferryman before the bridge opened in 1837.

Having patented the construction of a lightweight hull for fast steam launches, Samuel Saunders relocated to the Isle of Wight where he pioneered the flying boat and craft for the First World War. The company is best known by its post war name Saunders Roe.

The Saga Farmann longship is being rowed up the Thames on Tuesday evening 26 August.

Tower Bridge is due to open at 10pm but there will be chance to see the Viking vessel depart in daylight at 4pm the following day when she will berth for a week at nearby St Katharine Dock.

The Saga Farmann is Norwegian and based on a reconstruction from the year 998. On its long and complicated journey to London it has travelled across land, as the original will have done, as well as on water.

The overnight mooring in the Pool of London is expected to be between Cannon Street and London Bridges.

An early London Bridge was pulled down on 8 September 1014 by Norwegian King Olaf II who had ropes from the crossing attached to his boats before ordering crews to row hard.

This was part of a friendly plan to save Southwark from the Danes.

Olaf was later declared a saint and St Olave’s church subsequently stood next to London Bridge until being demolished in 1927. Today the figure of St Olaf can be seen on the site – where the Thames Path turns inland to Tooley Street.

Walking from Vauxhall towards Battersea Power Station it has long been necessary to briefly join the main road opposite Waitrose before returning to the river at Tideway Walk.

The obstruction was the Heathwall Quay pumping station but following completion of the Tideway Tunnel Project work there is now a continuous path joining Prescott Wharf to Tideway Walk.

The official opening of the Heathwall Quay path was performed yesterday by Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan.

There is also the addition of a viewing platform giving a view immediately upstream of Nine Elms Pier.

The sand dredger Bowbelle was berthed at Nine Elms Pier in August 1989 before moving downstream after dark and being involved in the Marchioness Disaster.

The new path joins Tideway Walk next to the permanently moored Battersea Barge.