A special beer in the evening, on the River Thames

Wednesday, 06 July 2011 21:44

John was up at dawn and had to take some photos!

Dawn over the river near Shiplake

What a beautiful sight - peaceful entertainment for the eyes. Later that morning we snuck out of our mooring below Shiplake College as we had a purpose in mind .....

We passed Phillimore Island, presumably named for one of the Phillimore family which has numerous graves in Shiplake Church cemetery. The 1st Baronet of Shiplake died in 1885. We called in at the services above Shiplake Lock to take on water, empty the cassettes and chuck the rubbish.

Shiplake House above Shiplake Lock

The area around the lock is very attractive and the lock island, owned by the Corporation of London (now City of London Corporation) from 1881, was leased in perpetuity to the Thames Conservancy Board (now Thames Water Authority). The aim was to conserve the island for bathing and camping. Camping in style from the looks of this tent.

Posh camping on Shiplake Lock Island

Below the lock the River Loddon enters the Thames beside the weir stream. It is such a pretty place I can see the attraction of camping and staying to explore. But we had a little further to go downstream.

Below Shiplake Lock

The riverside houses of Wargrave soon appeared - what lovely houses they all are. There are so many in this stretch down to Henley.

Riverside at Wargrave

We moored up outside the St George and Dragon pub - there is no overnight mooring here. However we wanted to explore our options as we would be coming back in the evening for the "special Beer". If we could have stayed overnight we would have had a meal there. Anyway they were expecting another boat for the evening entertainment. (A clue as to why we were coming back)

St George and Dragon pub

We finally found an overnight mooring downstream at Wargrave Marsh - a bit of a walk along Willow Lane to the main road and then along to the pub. We went prepared for rain as we would be sitting outside to watch the Mikron Theatre perform "Beer Street" - our "special Beer in the evening". A couple or three of the cast in and out of roles.

The cast in the "pub"

Nicola and Adrian as the past landlady and beer taster

Drunk Monks - the first brewers

Have a look at our Mikron album for more photos.

It was really funny, a reminder of what we are gradually losing, the real pubs that sell real beer. We were sad that we could not follow them to Goring to see "Hell and High Water". Mikron are at many other venues, their Ruby Anniversary Tour on the waterways lasts until the end of August. Go and see them, support them (they have lost their funding recently) and enjoy a great evening.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Mikron are appearing at Theatre in the Dock, Tooleys Boatyard. A late July weekend of music and theatre related to the waterways in a unique environment coordinated by Kate Saffin producer and playwright.

River Thames, Shiplake to Wargrave Marsh
1 hour 31 minutes, 2.23 miles, 1 lock