This Thursday 23 July is the feast day of St Bridget of Sweden who founded the Bridgettine Order.
Its English house opened on the banks of the River Thames at Syon in 1415 thanks to Henry V who was about to leave for France and the Battle of Agincourt.
The site is now occupied by Syon House which is the London home of the Duke of Northumberland. The location of the vast abbey church has been outlined on the edge of the tide meadow visible from the towpwath and Kew Gardens.
The convent is unique for it was not dissolved when evicted by Henry VIII. Instead the community went abroad to Portugal until safer times. These came in 1861 when the abbey relocated to Devon where its dissolution only came in 2011. Three sisters survive living independently.
The 600th anniversary of the abbey’s foundation was marked on Sunday 19 July with an outdoor ecumenical service attended by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Duke of Northumberland and Bridgettine sisters from other houses.
This Friday 3 July 2015 there are celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of St Mary’s Church at Rotherhithe which opened in 1715.
There had been a church there before. The present one stands on medieval foundations incorporating Roman bricks.
The Thames Path passes along the north side of the church and churchyard which has the tomb of Prince Lee Boo who sailed to Rotherhithe from the Pelau Islands in the 1780s.
On Friday there is a Solemn Mass at 7pm with the Bishop of Fulham presiding. The preacher is former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
Walkers will usually find the west end of the church open and the main building can be viewed through glass. The very early Georgian church has ships’ masts for pillars and an altar made from the Temeraire painted by Turner as she sailed into the breaker’s yard at the riverside village.
In the morning the Queen is attending a ceremony on the meadow which now has a marquee erected in case of bad weather. Her Majesty is being joined by Prince Philip, the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal.
There will be a big screen for spectators to see the ceremony recalling Archbishop Stephen Langton and the barons witnessing the agreement establishing the rule of law.
The Red Arrows are due to fly over at 12.15pm.
In the afternoon the National Trust is running a free ferry across the Thames to Ankerwycke Priory where Magna Carta might have been sealed in preference to the open field. There will be 30 minute tours of the priory ruins and a chance to see the 2,500 year old yew tree. The last ferry returns at 5pm.
A ferry will run to Ankerwycke Priory from the Thames Path
But the celebrations begin on the river before the big day.
Over Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June the Royal barge Gloriana, escorted by 200 rowed craft, will travel downstream from Hurley to Runnymede carrying a facsimile of Magna Carta. Stops will be made to recount the story of the great document.
On Sunday a statue of the Queen will be unveiled at riverside Runnymede Pleasure Grounds.
On Monday not only are the Red Arrows taking 12.15pm as the appropriate moment to salute Magna Carta but it is the hour when we are being invited to raise a glass of beer.
‘Magna Carta’ ale brewed by the Thames
Ale is mentioned in clause 35 of Magna Carta: “Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely the London quarter.”
Upstream at South Stoke near Goring, Ridgeway Brewery has produced Bad King John which is described as ‘a very English black ale’.
Clause 33 stated ‘All fish-weirs are in future to be entirely removed from the Thames’ and is taken as the City’s right to control the river from Staines to the estuary.
The towpath from Runnymede to London on Saturday and Sunday will see walkers from Barnes Church walking back home for their 800th anniversary service attended by Archbishop Langton’s successor Rowan Williams. Langton, returning to Lambeth Palace from Runnymede in 1215, stopped at Barnes to consecrate the new church.
Home Office minister Lord Bates is spending Monday walking the entire way from Runnymede to Westminster. “Each person will want to reflect the significance of Magna Carta’s anniversary in their own way,” he says. “For me that way is walking between two cornerstones of our great country.”
The diversion at Reading looks likely to remain in place until the autumn.
Not only is the towpath closed for building of a new bridge across to Christchurch Meadows but the passage under Reading Bridge remains close whilst the structure is repaired. Traffic is crossing the river again as reported on the regional TV stations but work continues with the pavements restricted.
Walkers on the Thames Path find the diversion just after passing Caversham Lock. There is an alternative route indicated down King’s Meadow Road but you can continue ahead past houses to a point nearer Reading Bridge. At this further point go left down a permitted footpath at the side of the Environment Agency building to reach the main road.
As far as you can go on the towpath at Reading
Here turn right to cross the approach to Reading Bridge. to Thames Water’s Clearwater Court building.
It is possible to go right down to the river but only for a view.
Closed towpath upstream where new footbridge is being built
The diversion continues along the main road (Vastern Road). Across the dual carriageway can be seen the new entrance to Reading Station in Trooper Potts Way. Go right down Lynmouth Road to reach the towpath.
The new pedestrian/cycle bridge will cross the river just upstream of Fry’s Island.
End of the diversionAn impression of how the footbridge will appear looking downstream on the towpath
The place to get the ‘authentic’ postmark, rather than the official one, must be Egham Post Office.
The stamp is issued on the 62nd anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. Her Majesty will be at Runnymede on Magna Carta’s actual 800th anniversary Monday 15 June.
The proposed building would replace the grass and trees.
This may be the last summer to enjoy the grass and trees on the Thames Path as it passes along the South Bank in front of the ITV studios between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridges.
Here the path is under a lovely canopy of trees but this is the very spot where the Garden Bridge is due to land.
According to The Observer thirty mature trees will be felled to make way for the bridge which will be planted with new trees.
Lambeth Council intends to grant a new lease for its riverside grass so that a retail building can be placed there to support the south end of the Garden Bridge.
The deadline for objecting to Lambeth Council’s ‘Notice of intention to dispose of Open Space’ is Tuesday 2 June. Objections to this proposal can be sent to [email protected]
The famous view of St Paul’s would be lost behind the Garden Bridge and the new building
Henry I was the son of William the Conqueror and brother of William II. Henry died in France on 1 December 1135 and his body was buried a month later, on 4 January 1136, in the abbey which had founded in Reading.
The Thames Path guide has always maintained that Henry is under the school playground next to St James’s Church.
This is the modern successor of the Reading Abbey which covered much of the adjoining Forbury Gardens park.
There were recent suggestions that the body was under the park but Philippa Langley, who was involved in the search for Richard III, has said that the King may lie under the playground or school car park. The latter spot, south-east of today’s St James’s church, now seems to be the most likely area for initial investigation.
The burial was near the abbey’s high altar but the exact length of the abbey church is uncertain.
The church’s dedication to St James recalls that the abbey church held the hand of St James the Great whose remains are now in Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain. The hand was the gift of Henry’s daughter Matilda who had inherited the relic through marriage.
