Downstream: Trolleys, gongoozlers & boats

Monday, 04 July 2011 16:08

A grand decision - we are going to go downstream.... after we go upstream for a short cruise!

Fry's Island northern channel

Turning around, we did the Fry's Island circuit and took a neighbouring boaters mobile phone for a charge ......

We actually turned just above Caversham Court and here is the Mikron Theatre boat moored - no sign of life though!

Mikron Theatre at Caversham Court

The garden of the Court is of historic significance. The house was built for a Canon of St Peter's Church, which also stands by the gardens.

St Peter's Church

Various families lived in the house; the Simonds Brewery family converted it into a Gothic mansion and named it Caversham Court. Reading Corporation bought and demolished the house in 1931. All that remains of the original is the riverside Gazebo, now refurbished; the lovely gardens are open to the public. Read more here and here about the restoration of the gardens.

The 1663 Gazebo with a C21st replica wind vane (the original is in the church)

Caversham Lock, below Reading Bridge, is reached by a sylvan cut with a very long lock landing. The length was useful as we were held up at this lock whilst the lady Lock Keepers retrieved a shopping trolley from below the lock. It is not only canals that have this problem then!

Lock Keepers and the rogue trolley

By the time they were ready to operate the lock and let the cruiser waiting below in, there was a line of boats behind us and some hovering too. The Lock Keepers warned us that there were lots of boats coming upstream. The Henley Regatta was over and boats were deserting Henley for who knows where! The moorings at Tesco on Thames were chock a block and a wide beam narrowboat pulled out right in front of us. For a while we appeared to be racing each other.

Wide beam ahead of us

When we caught up, he shouted that he was going into the huge Thames and Kennet Marina just beyond Kennet Mouth. Leaving Kennet Mouth behind us we were now on new territory for Epiphany. We have been down to Henley on a hire boat (in the late 1970s I think) and John has been on hire cruisers on this part of the Thames in his youth.

Riverside house below Kennet Mouth

This riverside house has a sign on it - I am not sure of the link to the Simonds Brewery in Reading which was founded in Broad Street in 1758, but the sign reads "Simonds Ales & Stout Wines and Spirit .... ". The rest is obliterated. Maybe it was once a pub sign, as in this photo of Ye Boars Head. The Brewery moved to the site where "The Oracle" now stands and then out nearer the M4.

We negotiated the section known as "Dreadnought Reach", home to Wokingham Canoe Club - a family friendly club by the looks of the party there.

Wokingham Canoe Club

The Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake (created by Sport England and part of the Oxford University Boat Club facilities) is hidden away beyond the north bank of Dreadnought Reach.

Sonning Lock was ahead of us. It is a very pretty lock and acts as a magnet for walkers and gongoozlers. We had already seen lots of walkers on the Thames Path as we approached, so were expecting an audience.

Lock landing above Sonning Lock

This lock and Sonning Village deserve a blog of their own - so, sorry folks, you will have to wait for the next instalment!