Tuesday 25 September 2018

The River Thames

Saturday 15th September
We arrived to find a busy river Thames, however, we managed to get onto the Tesco moorings just around the corner from the K&A confluence.
Turning upstream on to the Thames

 Once we had restocked we set off, passing through the very busy boatyards just below Caversham Lock. We had to get a license to cruise the Thames and luckily for us we were able to do this at the lock, the fee for a 7 day license for our boat was just under £65, the fee is calculated on the area of your boat.
The lock keeper gave us some useful tips on moorings up stream and suggested that Mapledurham would be a good place to stop overnight. He said the moorings were just above the lock  some five miles from our current position. We set off making good progress along the deep and wide river. Some of the properties along side the river are just incredible and must be incredibly expensive, several of the boathouses alone were bigger than the average semi!


Thames Properties
The river flows through a wide valley, with the Great Western main line to Bristol closely following the river to the south, overlooked by steeply wooded slopes, there are peaceful river meadows to the north stretching out towards more steep and wooded hills.
Arriving at Mapledurham, with a variety of different boat types, we were all crammed into to the lock chamber, all boats are instructed to cut their engine in the Thames locks and each boat is required to rope up fore and aft before locking up commences.
I asked the lock keeper about the moorings here and he said there was space on the north bank just after the lock, unfortunately the moorings are against an field bank with large trees preventing us from getting close, regrettably we had to abandon our attempt to moor here and move on.
It was a shame because we would have liked to explore the grounds and estate village, as they were the location for the filming of The Eagle Has Landed, Midsomer Murders, and Those Magnificent Men In their Flying Machines among many others.
We carried on upstream heading for Whitchurch lock, there were limited moorings here and they were all full. Being a weekend we began to think we may have been better waiting on the K&A for a few more days. I asked one of the boats coming down the lock if they knew of any moorings further up, by now we were getting tired as we had been of the go for eight hours or so. He told us that there were plenty of moorings at Beale Park a little way up stream.
The moorings at Beale are free for twenty four hours and are up against a earth bank with no mooring rings or decent edge to tie against. We edged along finally finding a spot among the reeds and bushes, we tied up using mooring pins, hammered well in as there are some large boats moving around here creating a large wash so mooring does need to be as secure as possible.
Beale Park moorings

We walked up to see if we could see into the park but it is mainly shielded by trees and bushes. The park is a charitable trust set up by Charles Beale and has a large collection of birdlife including some rare species. By the time we arrived it was closed so this is one to explore another time.
After a peaceful night we made our way up to Goring some three miles upstream, the lock keeper had advised us to arrive late morning as the moorings fill up quickly. We traveled up the steep wooded valley arriving at the moorings to find one spot just long enough for us.
The moorings at Goring
Goring is a typical quintessential, Oxfordshire village, it does however suffer from a lot of traffic, bringing in a lot of visitors. One famous resident of the village was George Michael who lived just off the river.
George Michael's House
The riverside is charming, overlooked by the lock, weir and road bridge.
The bridge leads to Streatley on the south bank, another pretty village. We crossed the river  and had a walk around, exploring the church of St Mary, here we met the church warden who showed around, he was a very interesting person to talk to as he is a historian, specialising in the history of the Post Office.
The day was, lovely, warm and sunny so we went back to the boat and relaxed in the afternoon sunshine.
Goring Lock
Monday 17th September
We left Goring around 9 am heading for Abingdon 17 miles and 7 locks upstream. Shortly after leaving our berth we arrived at Goring lock, occasionally the lock keepers are away from duty and this was the case here. The Environment Agency have a notice at each lock, when a lock keeper is on duty the notice states his presence against a white background, if he is away the notice reads "Self Service" on a light blue background. Seeing the notice we pulled up at the lock mooring and Lucia went off to operate the lock. On this stretch of the Thames the locks are all mechanised so it is a case of pressing buttons to operate the gates and paddles.
Lucia had to empty the lock and whilst we were waiting for the level to drop another boat arrived to join us. Once through the lock we followed the other boat the short distance to the next lock at Cleeve. The pound between these two locks is the shortest on the river, by coincidence the pound above Cleeve is the longest. The leading boat had the lock prepared so we were straight in and quickly on our way again passing through peaceful countryside, the scenery surrounding us hinted at autumn with the trees beginning the change,to their seasonal colours. We passed under Moulsford railway bridge, another of Brunell's masterpieces, carrying the Great Western line to the south west.
Wallingford Bridge
Wallingford was the next point of note, however we sailed on passing under the impressive medieval bridge, connecting the town on the west bank to the village of Crowmarsh Gifford on the east.
We arrived at the moorings in Abingdon.
A busy Abingdon from the bridge
They are located on the north bank just before the town bridge. We took a stroll into the town and were pleasantly surprised at what a nice place it is. Crossing the bridge over the river the old gaol, now a leisure centre, looms over to the left, on the right is the Nags Head, built upon an island on the river. The beer garden of the pub spills down to fill the island and we thought what a popular spot it must be on summer evenings.
The town centre has a small market place dominated by the impressive county hall, now a cafe and museum.
Abingdon County Hall
We walked down to St Helens church with its tall steeple, the church grounds are surrounded on three sides by interesting Alms houses, the most impressive been the Long Alley built in 1446. To the other side is the curiously named Twittys actually named after a benefactor to the poor of the town. The town also had an abbey although very little remains of it now, the abbey was one of the first of the larger abbeys to surrender to Henry VIII in 1538.
Long Alley

We had planned to move on the following morning but summer was rapidly sliding into autumn with the first storm of the season forecast for the following day. We decided to stay put, safely moored on rings, beside the park.
Sure enough the winds arrived on Tuesday evening, a remnant of a hurricane, the  strong winds continued into the morning. The council owned moorings allow visitors a three day stay so we remained a second night. Wednesday brought calmer conditions and we got underway heading towards Oxford. We negotiated Abingdon lock, making use of the facilities here. We made our way up to Sandford Lock, just to the south of Oxford by which time the wind was picking up again so we made use of the moorings above the lock to tie up on secure bollards. We had a walk up into the village, now a suburb of Oxford, on the way up we passed a row of Walnut trees, the wind had brought down all the fruit making for easy pickings from the ground.
We have noticed that all varieties of fruit seem to be in abundance this year, we even saw a quince tree, struggling under the weight of its fruit.
Thursday morning was a lot calmer but now the rain had arrived and we had a wet trip up towards Oxford, as we entered the city we passed by the college boat clubs each with a large boat house, home to many, sleek, racing sculls.

Oxford college boat houses

We resisted the temptation to stop at the moorings above Osney lock, passing under the very low Osney bridge, fortunately we were forewarned by the lock keeper and removed the chimney before passing under. Just after the bridge we noted the Sheepwash Channel, leading up to the start of the Oxford canal, we plan to return here later to start our journey back up to the midlands.

Our journey took us north west of the city passing the huge expanse of the Port Meadows, a popular spot of dog walkers, then through the meanders leading to Kings lock, the last of the mechanised locks on the river.

Ruins of the old nunnery above Kings Lock

Just above the lock is the second link to the canal known as Dukes cut. Our route turned to the west following the river. We had hoped to moor above Eynsham lock but unfortunately there is only room for one boat and the spot was already taken, the lock keeper advised us to carry on up to the moorings above Pinkhill lock as they should be sheltered by the bank of a large reservoir. We arrived relieved to see that space was available, this mooring is a rough river bank and does not have any rings or bollards so we tied up using mooring pins.
The forecast was for another stormy night, this time storm Bronagh. Fortunately for us the wind was pushing the boat against the bank. The forecast had it bang on and we had little sleep that night, the boat was shaking and banging against the bank, terrorising poor little Scruff who awoke shaking with fear. I had to go outside a couple of times to check everything was ok, while doing so I saw the moon light up the shredded clouds against the night skies, very spooky.
We were up early the next morning, thankfully the winds had subsided a little an we were soon on our way, heading for Lechlade and the head of navigation.
Once we cleared the large Farmoor reservoir we realised just how much shelter it had given us, the
winds had returned just as we reached the most exposed and meandering part of the river. We battled on through several squalls, these consisted of lashing rain and very strong winds, at one lock we were pinned to the lock landing during one such episode.As we approached Lechlade the meanders intensified making for some of the most challenging narrow boating we have experienced. Moorings are very limited along this stretch so we had no alternative other than to carry on. On one of the particularly sharp turns we saw a boat that had been blown hard against the bank, they shouted to us not to stop and help them but get through before we too were pinned alongside them.
This part of the river has WWII pillboxes located every mile or so along the north bank, these were
part of a defence arrangement using the Thames as a natural barrier, the forces manning these defended the river and a strip one and a half miles wide. They were trained to blow up the locks and bridges in the event of an invasion.


Earlier in the day my sister Carole phoned and we had arranged to meet them in Lechlade, due to the
weather our arrival time was delayed by an hour so they walked down to St John's lock, the last on the river, and joined us there. From here it was only a short hop up to the moorings before Ha'penny
bridge.

Ha'penny bridge
The weather had improved significantly by this time and our arrival to the town was greeted by blue skies and sunshine.

Lechlade market square

We decided to remain in Lechlade for the next couple of days as the forecast was for heavy rain, as we were moored on the river I kept a careful eye on the water levels but even after the heavy rain the river level rose no more than a couple of inches although the flow did increase noticeably. We had to extend our license for a further seven days as, due to the weather, our previous one had expired.
On Saturday evening we took the opportunity of a break in the weather to walk up to the junction of the Cotswold or Thames and Severn canal, the other end of this canal is at Saul junction, by the marina we were in during August.



The Round house typical of the Cotswold canals

The junction of the Thames (left) and the canal (right)
We had traveled for 3 weeks and were only 36 miles from Saul.
Lechlade sits on the boundary of three counties, Gloucestershire to the west, Wiltshire to the south and Oxfordshire to the north and east.




Below St John's lock
Monday 24th September
Following a cold night,  the sunshine had returned for our trip back down the river to Oxford. The winds had now abated too so the temperature soon began to climb.
We passed under the bridge to wind in the wide stretch beside the riverside pub, soon arriving back at St John's lock.
We reached  the meanders, only this time I was able to enjoy the scenery, not having to wrestle the tiller against the wind. During our trip down we were treated to a display of all types of military aircraft flying in and out of Brize Norton a few miles to the north, as well as the more peaceful sight of Kingfishers, Heron and Kites.





We decided to break our journey back to Oxford at Newbridge, there are good field moorings here and they only charge £4 per night. Newbridge is a tiny hamlet with two pubs, one either side of the river close to, ironically, one of the oldest bridges on the river.


Newbridge - one of the oldest on the river

The temperature dropped rapidly after sunset but we were treated to a wonderful full moon rising into a velvet blue sky.


Early morning mist at Newbridge


The following morning we were treated to a mesmerizing sight, watching the mist rise off the fields and river with a milky sun rising from behind the bridge. There had been a frost over night so we delayed our departure until the sun did its work quickly thawing and drying the nights moisture.
We made our way down stream arriving in Oxford by early afternoon, luckily finding one of the last moorings available along East Street at Osney. We winded just above the lock and tied up, where we intend to stay for a couple of nights so we can spend time exploring Oxford.
From here we will travel the short distance up to the Sheepwash channel, this is our link to the Oxford canal and the end of our enjoyable time on the Thames.





1 comment:

  1. Love reading your exploits again ,sounded fun (mostly)again

    ReplyDelete

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