I am not sure I like "popular" places on the Thames

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 20:53

As the summer progresses the River Thames is getting busier. We knew this when we started out but I am now missing the quieter northern waterways! However we can still find quiet moorings.

Our mooring on Culham Reach, we could get off at the back!

When the sun shines the Thames is gorgeous, busy or not - we had one of those days ......

This lamb was curious - maybe he was the mooring charge collector. No, he came around about 9pm, just as the sky let go of the rain it had been holding back.

Hello Epiphany

So we set out in sunshine and enjoyed the scenery down to Marlow, leaving all this behind for the popular town and river stretches.

Passing more moorings near Culham

There used to be a ferry at Medmenham. In 1899, the High Court took a while, but eventually decided that it was a public ferry and there is a memorial to this fact near the site - sadly the ferry ceased not many years later.

Site of old ferry

The Cistercian Abbey at Medmenham was founded in 1201 and annexed to Bisham Abbey 535 years later, only for the dissolution to put paid to the final two monks. An ancient arch and a single church pillar is all that remains. The rest is all "fake", created in the mid 1850s by Francis Dashwoods's notorious "Hell Fire Club".

Medmenham Abbey

There was a long queue for Hurley Lock, but we used the services there first and ended up second in the queue for the second lock-full to go down.

This cruiser was huge - but rather nice!

By now it was scorching hot and I was glad that we did not have much further to go. Below Hurley lock is the famous (well, it is even more now, thanks to BBC's Countryfile) boatyard of Peter Freebody. What gorgeous boats he built - sadly, Peter died in December, but his son Richard continues in the business of crafting traditional classic wooden launches, There is even one named for me - Oh I like it, just the thing to tow behind Epiphany as a "tender".

This footbridge and Temple Lock follow in about half a mile and the notice there let us know that we were now over half the way from Oxford to London, via the River Thames.

Temple Lock house and mileage sign

The reach below is used by many canoeists from the National Sports Centre at Bisham Abbey, a Knights Templar Manor House. Robert the Bruce and his wife Elizabeth, Queen of the Scots were imprisoned here.

Bisham Abbey riverside

It was all very quiet as we passed - no activity at all!

Bisham Abbey Church

And so to Marlow. We arrived at the right time as we were able to moor on the free overnight moorings above Higginson Park - they are available except on race days. By mid afternoon we were joined by two narrowboats, a wide beam and a cruiser. They are good moorings - no plank or bank to negotiate and pretty quiet away from the hustle and bustle.

Moored at Marlow with the iconic suspension bridge and All Saints downstream

River Thames, Culham to Marlow
2 hours 15 minutes, 4.12 miles, 2 locks