Shall we, shan't we?

Tuesday, 08 November 2011 18:37

What a decision - shall we move or not?

November scene upstream near where we are moored

Why not - it might be dull and dank, but it is not raining and not too cold ......

So we turned around - we had been facing downstream last night - and set off upstream again. Pinkhill Lock was our first aim.

Approaching Pinkhill Lock

The lock island here is also a campsite and picnic area. It must be very pretty at the height of summer and nice and shady under all the trees above the lock. Fred Thacker writing in 1909 calls it "the happy isle of the River Country" and waxes poetical about its elusive charm with, on its "hitherward side, the deep meadows, emerald green beneath the purple woods, are broken only by the willowed banks of the immemorial stream". He finishes his hyperbolic paragraph, "This scene of the sweet cunning earth is one to be cherished in the memory beyond the very gates of death."

The Lock House

The garden here has been memorable since 1885, when the lock house was just a cottage; "a winsome little preserve, with its kitchen garden, flower-beds, sometimes a beehive, its stack of fagots, and a general air of rusticity". So wrote the Reverend Boney in his 1885 Royal River. It is still lovely ( I do not have the facility with words that some of the late C19 writers!).

Hollyhocks, begonias and roses all blooming still

On the side of the lock are some flood marks and the Lock Keeper keeps hens and a good kitchen garden amongst the flowers. The Lock Keeper had a visitor so we were locked through by them both - I suspect we were the first boat they had seen for a few days.

Flood marks and stray hen

Saying goodbye, we continued upstream with thoughts of finding a mooring. There is a good one just above the lock - designated 24 hour only, but we carried on. Soon we spotted the banks of Farmoor Reservoir on the west side of the river. Farmoor 1 was built between 1962 and 67, Farmoor 2, an extension, was completed in 1976; an advanced treatment works was built in 1995. It is a large reservoir and supplies the River Thames. 

Farmoor Reservoir and pumping station

The site has a long history and evidence of settlers from the early Iron Age has been uncovered. It was once an old river channel, so it is unsurprising that Romans, Saxons and Medieval Earls have all used or owned the land. Today it is a popular place to fish, walk, sail and enjoy the birds and nature trails. 

Opposite the treatment works is Skinner's Island. Skinner's weir was here. Joe Skinner tended the weir, lived in a cottage there and kept the inn. Father and Son are long gone and so too are any traces of the weir. It is now full of scrub and trees and home to wildlife like this heron guarding the channel.

Heron on post at Skinner's Island

There are a number of possible "rough mooring" places along here - but the "long beach", as I dubbed it, would not be a good place! However, it was not long before we found a mooring - opposite Shrike Meadow just above Skinner's Island. See map of Farmoor. 

Long Beach

River Thames, Eynsham Lock to Shrike Meadow
0 hours 54 minutes, 2.32 miles, 1 lock