We arrive - only four years late

Thursday, 31 March 2011 11:03

One of the places we "promised" to cruise to in Epiphany was Lechlade, the navigational limit on the upper Thames. Well a promise made (to Richard Clarke who was with Bath Narrowboats when Epiphany was built) is a promise kept - four years later!

Epiphany on launch day

But first we had to get off our mooring at Eaton Hastings on a breezy day and a few miles more to do ...

The wind whipped across the river and the only way to get off the bank was to get the stern right out into the stream and there is an art to this! Both of us have had plenty of practice on the canals but a river with a current was a different matter. Fortunately John's "river craft" instinct took over and with judicious use of full throttle, reverse and forward gears he was successful!

Eaton Hastings Boat Club

Buscot Lock has a weir each side of it and was once the site of Victorian industry. The Buscot Estate and lock (now National Trust) was owned by Robert Tertius Campbell who made his money on the Australian gold fields. Around 1859 he built a distillery and sugar beet factory upstream from the lock, powered by waterwheels.

Footbridge over old weir stream

We were now into more Thames meanders, in the pelting rain - James Brindley's contour curves had nothing on nature and the power of a river current to cut through the land! The spire of Lechlade Church began to appear and disappear, according to the direction of travel. We needed to keep an eye out for channel markers as some bends are silted up and we had no plans to go aground!

Bloomers Hole footbridge around a "meander"

So we came to the highest lock on the river and the last - St John's Lock. There is a pontoon mooring before the bridge carrying the road to Lechlade, but no access to the lock from it - despite the usual notice saying "mooring for lock only". I spotted this problem before we pulled in, so we carried on to moor at the sani-station (no water, just rubbish, elsan and pump out) immediately below the lock.

St John's Lock

John took the camera and went to explore - I stayed on board to dry out! Old Father Thames now resides here. Commissioned in 1854, he came to St John's in 1974 via the Crystal Palace Exhibition and the source of the River Thames at Trewsbury Mead.

Old Father Thames

The garden here, which divides the weir stream and private moorings from the lock, is the work of a Lock Keeper who is a garden enthusiast. It is immaculate and peaceful.

Water feature and living accommodation for the lock fairies

After the lock there are more bends with the church in view again. Pill boxes abound along the upper Thames - we were well defended against the invasion that never happened, although I cannot help thinking that the very isolation of this area meant defence of it would have been very problematic.

Serene swan, church and pill box

We arrived at Lechlade in pouring rain and a real wind - it was fun mooring up with the need for all three ropes to pull Epiphany in - me on the mid and front, John on the stern! It really was time for lunch!

River Thames, Eaton Hastings to Lechlade
2 hours 21 minutes, 3.79 miles, 2 locks