The Thames Path by Leigh Hatts

“The presence of lock-keepers’ homes along the River Thames has made a huge contribution to improving safety and reducing crime, vandalism and antisocial behaviour along the riverside” says Reading West MP Martin Salter.

Writing in Thames Guardian, the journal of the River Thames Society, the MP backs the lock-keepers’ campaign to able to contue living in their lock cottages. The Environment Agency has announced plans to sell or rent 22 of the Thames’ 57 lock cottages.

Mr Salter, who represents a riverside constituency, lists the lock-keeper’s important duties as he sees them:

“* Ensuring safe passage of vessels – miscalculation in the packing of locks can result in injury and/or damage to property.

* Monitoring weir and water levels – the constant observation of water levels at the lock sites ensures that any necessary adjustment to the weirs can be undertaken with the minimum of time delays to avoid flooding.

* Providing information – the lock-keeper is the source of information for both the boating and general public.

* Checking licences – the appropriate licence, of which there are many, must be issued to any unlicensed craft.”

Many walkers having found lock-keepers helpful with advice, information and even a cup of tea will agree with Mr Salter. 

The new chairman of the Agency is former cabinet minister Chris Smith.

A new bridge has been built over the River Thames to take thousands of visitors to the Reading Festival. 

The temporary structure, made out of the stage used for Madonna’s tour, has just been completed upstream of Caversham Bridge. 

In recent years young campers on the Mapledurham side have had to queue for a ferry to reach the festival site by the towpath on the Reading bank. 

Youngsters using one of the camping areas at the Reading Festival have had to queue in recent years to take a boat to and from the main site. Festival director Melvin Benn has wanted to build a crossing for some years.

“It’s a dream come true” he said yesterday after inspecting the £1m bridge which opens tomorrow for the use of festival goers only.

The bridge will be dismantled later this month and re-erected next year.

Faith In The Frame, a new 10 part series for ITV1, is being launched with a programme devoted to Stanley Spencer’s painting The Resurrection in Cookham Churchyard.

The first programme goes out on Sunday evening 31 August and sees Melvyn Bragg chair a 30 minute discussion with novelist Howard Jacobson, art expert Tim Marlow and former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries who had Cookham in his diocese.

The painting, completed after three years of work in 1927, shows part of the churchyard through which the Thames Path now runs. Included is the kissing-gate leading back to the towpath.

It is interesting that a work by a Cookham resident, who loved the river, ranks in this series alongside paintings by Bosch, Chagall, Botticelli and Bruegal.

See page 103.

Those living in the London ITV region will have been able to enjoy Peter Ackroyd’s 30 minute Thames programme this evening.

This first episode visited the source near Cirencester and claimed that the Rhine was once part of the Thames.

Most interesting was an interview with the owners of Rose Isle just downstream of Oxford. They plan on never leaving.

Also featured was nearby nearby Iffley Church. Peter Ackroyd is good on churches and their relationship with the water.  

Ackroyd on television, as in his Thames book, deals in themes so there are plenty of shots of the towpath up and down the river. 

There are four programmes and next Friday the theme will be art. 

The Sky Arts channel will show the series next month starting at 8.30pm on 4 September.

Those wishing to cross the Thames at Hambelden on weekdays during August and much of September may be delayed for about 15 minutes on weekdays. This is due to repairs being carried out on the weir.

See page 113.

Henley Management College, founded in 1946 and one of the top-ranked business schools in the world, is to be known as Henley Business School from this academic year.

This is the result of a merger with upstream Reading University. The faculty will consist of the Schools of Management, Economics, Real Estate and Planning and the International Capital Markets Association Centre.

Henley has for some time been the world’s third largest supplier of MBA education. 

The Henley Business School’s riverside building is at Hambleden just upstream of Henley-on-Thames. The house was bult in 1853 and known as Greenlands when occupied by the family of WH Smith.

See page 113.

Oxfordshire County Council reports today that work on improving the towpath upstream of Wallingford Bridge has been completed.

The path, alongside the castle’s meadows known as Queen’s Arbour and Castle Medow, was often slippery and wet weather halted work four times since last autumn. 

Councillor Roger Belson, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, said: “I’m delighted to say the work has now been completed and that local people will be able to use this stretch of the towpath whatever the weather.

Work started on 1 July and cost £11,000.

A range of agencies contributed to the county council project, including the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, the Environment Agency, South Oxfordshire District Council and tenants who granted access to the site across their land.

See page 148.

The death of journalist John Whale has been followed by many interesting obituaries.

He had a very full life and saw many changes. For example he was an ITN political correspondent in the days when the reporter had to travel on the tube from Parliament to the central studio to deliver news of a Commons debate. Later, as editor of the Church Times, he saw the paper into a new office and managed the change to new technology.

He had a love of the Thames and he walked the Thames Path with his daughter-in-law. But this was not  a one off and he walked other routes around London.

In the guide I mention his custom, whilst still Church Times editor, of swimming once a year from Shillingford Wharf, near Dorchester in Oxfordshire, to nearby Shillingford Bridge. This is some distance and not a straight line. I don’t recommend anyone trying it today but Shillingford Wharf is a delightful spot to pause on the Thames Path for a picnic. 

His interest in the river was heightened when he lived at Barnes where he wrote a history of the church which had been consecrated in 1215 by Archbishop Stephen Langton on his way back from securing King John’s agreement to Magna Carta upstream at Runnymede. It was the destruction by fire of most of the church and the row about how to rebuild which led to John Whale and his wife Judy to move away and settled in central London. His view that a modern church should be built at the base of the surviving 16th-century tower prevailed.

See pages 52 and 150

This week there have been reports of flooding at Newbridge in Oxfordshire.

No more rain is forecast over the next fews days but as the water travels downstream from Newbridge flooding can be expected on other sections of the towpath.

The Environment Agency’s flood information number is 0845 988 1188 where you can hear recorded messages.

See page 182.

The Paynes & Borthwick Wharves redevelopment at Deptford has been halted.

The £60m project which would have included 275 flats and a diversion to the Thames Path has been delayed indefinately by developer Lane Castle.

Estate agent King Sturge launched the scheme last June at its Canary Wharf office backed by extensive advertising. The intended completion date was January 2009.

Planning permission was granted only after a long dispute with the Creekside Forum, representing local residents and conservationists, which objected to the demolition of Borthwick Wharf for an 18 storey tower. 

The current Thames Path upstream route follows Borthwick Street behind the wharves before turning inland into Watergate Street.

See page 19.