A mooring remembered, but a better one found

Tuesday, 19 April 2011 20:03

We have discovered some lovely places to moor on the River Thames this trip - so far. Last time we were on the Thames it was a quick dash upstream from the Kennet and Avon Canal to the Oxford Canal, way back in 2008.

I had a memory of a mooring that was lovely - it was our only one on the Thames that trip.

19th September 2008, moored on the west bank of the Thames, but where?

So we made for this area after leaving Abingdon, finally. We returned there briefly to shop at Waitrose, mooring against Abbey Meadow so that we did not have to cross the bridge!

Returning downstream we came to the sharp left corner leading to the relatively long Culham Cut and the lock. The lock is one of the deepest on the Thames and our "rope work" worked!

Culham Lock

Leaving the lock, under the so-called "narrow" Sutton Bridge (not when you have negotiated bridges below Oxford Canal Locks!), we carried on down a straight section, past Appleford.

Sutton Bridge

Clifton Lock also has a "cut" - with a long weir stream leading off at the beginning of the cut. At the lock we asked the Lock Keeper about the navigable section of this weir stream to Long Wittenham that can be accessed below the lock.

Clifton Lock

"I have had 70 foot narrowboats go up it and they can wind by putting their nose against the banks. But don't go past the Plough Inn because there is a sandbar created by the weir". OK - we would go explore!

Cruising up the Long Wittenham weir stream

We came to the Plough Inn - the moorings are not very good for narrowboats - and winded easily. It was a pleasant diversion, with some nice riverside houses and we can say "we did it"!

The old (1350) thatched Barley Mow, east of Clifton Hampden Bridge. is pretty impressive. Once the site of a ferry (the ferryman used to watch for customers from the Barley Mow), the 1864 bridge was a toll bridge and has six arches.

Clifton Hampden Bridge

Burcot lines the northern bank as the river does a huge loop southwards. Above here, at Clifton shallows, the river bed is on solid rock, comparatively shallow and resistant to dredgers! Because of this, large cargoes had to be off loaded at Burcot Wharf.

Properties by the river

At the southern end of the loop is Days Lock. We moored above the lock in 2008 - on a lovely west bank, "field" mooring. But, bad luck, there was a narrowboat already there! Ah, but just before the lock cut there is a better one!

Epiphany moored at a lovely spot, east bank

Dorchester is a walk away, so maybe we will visit the Abbey Church and this historic town, a settlement since the Iron Age.

River Thames, Jubilee Junction up to Abingdon and downstream to above Days Lock
3 hours 26 minutes, 9.95 miles, 2 locks