Day 16 - Maidenhead to Windsor

 Wednesday 19 July

We got a lift into Maidenhead and back to the Riverside Gardens to start our walk, it was due to be a mixed weather day.

We walked to Maidenhead's Bridge, the first bridge here was 1280.  The Great West Road to Reading, Gloucester and Bristol was diverted over the new bridge and into the medieval town of Maidenhead, within a few years a Wharf was constructed next to the bridge and the hamlet of South Ellington became Maiden-Hythe, meaning new wharf.  In the other direction, the bridge takes you to Taplow.

In the 18th Century up to 90 coaches a day passed through the town, the coaching inns were particularly popular around here, because after Maidenhead came the thicket where many were afraid of being held up by the highway men.  (On the route from London to Bath, Maidenhead was exactly one day's ride from London).

It's current portland stone structure was erected in 1777 and is similar to Swinford Bridge, also designed by Sir Robert Taylor.

 A quarter of a mile downstream is Maidenhead's famous railway bridge, built in 1838-9 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to take the Great Western Railway over the Thames. It has the flattest and widest brick arch in the world with a span of 128ft that rises by just 24ft.  

The bridge was the subject of a painting by JMW Turner in 1844 called Rain, Speed and Steam which now hangs in the National Gallery in London.

The next section is known as Millionaire's Row, and the houses were HUGE and rather impressive, it was really peaceful too.

We loved the roses climbing around the balcony and verandah on the house below.

We saw our first blackberries of the season ...

.... and Susan officially tasted them and declared them very sour.

We arrived at Bray Lock, where there was quite a bit of activity from holiday boats, it was refurbished in the early 1990s 

The signs showed some rather impressive flood lines from 1894, 1947 and 1875.

The village of Bray is across the river, (Bray means Marsh) which you can't see much of, just the tower of the church of the 13th century St Michael and the vicarage.  Bray is known for it's high end Michelin starred restaurants; The Waterside Inn run by the Roux Family, in 1985 it gained 3 Michelin Stars, the only restaurant outside of France to receive this accolade, you'd need about £200+pp for the food per person plus your wine plus your service charge. 

The Fat Duck, owned by Heston Blumenthal, has a long waiting list and you'll need £300pp and a willingness to enter the sensorium of a menu.  I found an interesting review HERE .  He also owns the Hinds Head 'pub', this started life as a hunting lodge before becoming a coaching inn, Heston bought it in 2004, it's well known for it's Scotch Eggs!

Away from the food, Bray is also known for it's Vicar of old; he was a Protestant under Henry VIII and Edward VI, a Roman Catholic under Mary, and a Protestant again under Elizabeth; and the rules of his life became known in this ballad;

This is the law I will maintain

Until my dying day, Sir,

That whatsoever King may reign 

Still I'll be Vicar of Bray, Sir.

Bray is also know for Bray Studios which produced over 80 Hammer Horror films in the 50s and 60s, as well as many other well known films up to the current day, one of which is the Elton John biopic 'Rocketman'.

Down Place the main manor building has been on the banks of the river since 1700.  I loved the story how Down Place House was used during World War 2 to store duffle coats made for the English military mariners.  The house ended up falling into disrepair and the weight of the rainwater-sodden duffle coats caused the inside floors of the building to collapse!  The house became known locally as Duffle Coat Manor.

The studios are perhaps best known to may as the Home of Hammer Films who moved on-site in 1951. Really gruesome movies with pioneering special effects all created at Bray Film Studios. The site was chosen in particular for the Georgian architecture of the property, everyone lived on site whilst the movies were made.  

Over two decades Hammer created a cult genre of over 100 distinctive fantasy and horror films! Starring legends such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, films such as The Mummy, the Curse of Frankenstein and Terence Fisher's Dracula, all of which became global box office hits. The BBC 2020 Dracula has also been filmed here (from the makers of Sherlock) which makes it over 60 years since the original was filmed at the studios.

As well as the studios, Bray has sound stages for concert and rehearsal space, many albums and MTVs recordings were made here, and/or aired and recorded live here, bands such as Pink Floyd, Radiohead, David Bowie.

The noise levels were growing as we found ourselves reaching the M4, this is one of 3 motorway bridges that cross the Thames.

There were some steps leading up to the top which I thought was odd and alongside the 6 lanes of speeding traffic I saw a footpath for the people of Bray and Dorney village to reach each other.

It was amazing underneath, so many reflections from the structure and graffiti.

This was a new sign to us, it's the National Cycle Network Trail signpost.

This area comes under the Thames Valley Route, a distance of 99 miles, taking you out of London and on to Oxford, taking in some beautiful countryside.  This sign is halfway between Maidenhead and Windsor.

Monkey Island is up next, another 'eyot' within the Thames, it was originally known as Monks Eyot as it belonged to the monks from a cell of Merton Abbey located nr Bray.  In 1738 the Duke of Marlborough bought the island as he was a keen angler and he built a few fishing pavilions, some with painted ceilings depicting monkeys ....  Since 1840 the pavilions have been expanded and transformed into a discreet and luxurious 41 bedroomed hotel.  Some history here.  Bedrooms from £325 per night.

(Interesting fact: The Birmingham 6 spend their first night of freedom here in secret after being released from prison in 1991).

In the 1930's The Hut (known as the spot where Sir Edward Elgar composed his Violin Concerto in 1910) was a house on the Berkshire riverbank that overlooked Monkey Island, and it was bought by the Moss family and became the childhood home of Stirling Moss.

*

(Maria Assia Photography - Dorney Court)

Dorney Court house is around here, an unmarked footpath leads to it, we didn't go to explore.  It dates from 1440 and stands on slightly higher ground to avoid flooding, the house has been the home of the Palmer family since 1600.  Dorney means ' bee island' and their honey is sold here.

In a corner of it's Great Hall there stands a carved stone pineapple which commemorates the fact the the first pineapple ever grown in England was grown here.  

The story says that King Charles II was at dinner in London, cut the top off a pineapple that had been sent over from Barbados and handed it to Roger Palmer to give to his gardener to see if he could grow it at Dorney.  (I'm not going down the complicated rabbit hole that Roger Palmer just happened to be married to the most notorious of Charles II's many mistresses Barbara Villiers!)

We then walked underneath another bridge, Summerleaze Bridge, this bridge opened in 1996 as a footbridge but it also acted as a conveyor belt carrying gravel/sand (4.5m tonnes of it!) from the excavation of a 1.5 mile rowing lake developed by Eton college.  (It's named Summerleaze after the contractor from nearby Maidenhead)

Through the trees we caught a glimpse of Dorney Lakes, it's now a word class rowing and flat water canoeing centre,  It hosted the rowing, flat water and slalom canoeing and kayaking events during the 2012 London Olympics.  The site sits in a 450 acre site and is somewhere for the Eton College boys to practice their rowing and canoeing away from the crowded and busy water of Windsor.  It is also run as an events and conference site, filming location and hosts many other sporting events like triathlons. 

On the other side of the Thames you can just make out Oakley Court Hotel through the trees, a Victorian gothic style hotel with lawns running down to the river and 35 acres of grounds, it would have been another lovely spot for afternoon tea, but we were on the wrong side.  Cake Gods are conspiring against us recently!  The hotel dates back to 1859 and has an amazing history.

It had got really hot by now, so we had a stop here outside this lovely little chapel, St Mary Magdalene, chalk and rubble with a clapboard belfry.  The earliest parts date from the 12th and 13th centuries, and it's believed it serviced a wharf and it's bargemen, that shipped timber from Windsor Forest.  It is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

In the early 1980s, St Mary's was scheduled for demolition and The Friends of Friendless Churches saved it.

Windsor Racecourse is on the other side of the river, set within 165 acres.  700 years ago Windsor Great Park was enclosed as a hunting ground and many horse races took place here.  Windsor Racecourse is one of only two figure of eight race courses in Britain (the other being Fontwell Park in West Sussex).

In 1866 flat racing began here on the site, the races didn't try to compete with Ascot, but gave opportunities to owners of lesser horses in a pleasant setting not far from London.  Long jump racing was soon introduced (but was phased out in 1998).

During both wars Windsor was one of the few places allowed to still stage races.  On one occasion a flying bomb landed during the races but luckily no one was hurt.

In the 1960s the Monday evening racing started which continues to this day, the evenings run from Spring through to the end of the Summer. 

On our side of the river we arrived at Boveney Lock, a lovely spot with glimpses of the racecourse behind, and lots of boats travelling through, holiday boats and large cruiser boats from Windsor running river trips.

A timber lock here was built in 1838 costing £2,877 to build!  The lock you see today was rebuilt in 1898 and the weir rebuilt in 1913.

We walked over some wooden walkway bridges with some lovely words carved into the hand rails.

We reached the A322 Windsor relief road bridge, not the most exciting, but underneath was amazing graffiti.  It wasn't until we got home after googling, I saw that if we'd had faced our phones to the portraits they would have talked to us! Talking Heads! 

Another thing to add to our 'when we return to the Thames Path' list!

After walking through Brocas Meadow, you are then wow-ed by the view of Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world.  Stunning.

Founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th Century it has been home to over 40 monarchs.

He chose the site it is said 'for that it seemed exceedingly profitable and commodious, because situate so near the Thames, the wood fit for game, and many other particulars lying there meet and necessary for kings'.

I do remember driving along the M4 in 1992 and had the shock of seeing it in flames.  The fire destroyed 115 rooms including 9 state rooms.  A faulty spotlight ignited a curtain next to the altar in Queen Victoria's Private.  It took hold so quickly and spread into St George's Hall next door.  The fire was first spotted at 11:30am and by 2:30pm 225 firefighters from 7 counties were battling the flames.  In the end it burned for 15 hours.  

The restoration project was completed five years later to the day and the 50th wedding anniversary of the Queen and Prince Philip.

That is all I'm going to tell you about the Castle, you can research and visit it for yourself.  It's definitely worth a visit, there are some amazing rooms and views from inside.

We were very happy to make it into Windsor, we were starving!

Here is the official end of today's walk and where we will reconvene next time.  We'd walked for just over 3 hours and covered 7.4 miles and 18,000 steps.

There is every restaurant you can think of on the High Street alongside the Castle, we went straight for Honest Burgers, we were so hungry and tucked straight in, so you don't get a photo this time!

Back to Windsor Bridge, but not before I lost Susan into a fudge shop that was offering free fudge, I back tracked to find her and she'd gone, if you know Susan it will be of no surprise to know that she was outback in the kitchen talking/tasting all things fudge!  There is a 10% off code if you sign up on their website, it's worth going onto their website just for the recipe page, perfect if you have a sweet tooth.

We walked over the bridge into Eton, it was quiet as the college had broken up for the summer holidays; there are small independent shops, coffee shops, uniform and sports wear shops, stationers and galleries, one of the school outfitters Tom Brown Tailors have been at the same address sine 1784.

Windsor Bridge is at least an 800 year old crossing point.  Both river and road traffic had to pay tolls, in 1736 you could walk over it alive and pay 2d but if you were dead and being carried over in a coffin it would cost 6s 8d!  

Eton was inspired by Winchester College and founded by Henry VI in 1440.  70 poor scholars formed the nucleus of the school, and today there are over 100 boys who pay no fees at all to attend Eton.  For others it about £30k a term to include boarding and tuition. 

Part of the uniform is a long black tail coat, which is worn in mourning for George III.

We caught some glimpses of some of the school halls and houses.

First of all you come upon the beautiful Eton College Chapel, followed by the main entrance to the college.  Apparently we should get a great view of the Chapel from Romney Lock during our next walk as we look back.

Below is one of the Russian guns that was captured at Sevastopol in 1855 in the forecourt of the Geography Department.  In 1857 the Secretary of State for War proposed that surplus cannon from Sevastopol be given to town and cities on application.  Queen Victoria liked this idea and nearly 300 were distributed.

We stopped for pudding and cuppa at a lovely place called Enigma, with a window seat and planned our train route home.

We walked back up the hill to the station, there are two in Windsor, this one through the shops opposite the Castle is Windsor & Eton Central and the other one is called Windsor & Eton Riverside.

We travelled back to Newbury from Windsor via Slough and Reading.

Windsor is definitely worth a visit for castle, history, architecture, shopping, riverside, we can recommend it!

Day 15 - Marlow to Maidenhead

 Wednesday 5 July 2023

Ah lovely Marlow

"Marlow is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of. It is a bustling, lively little town' Jerome K Jerome

Above is the fantastic view of how we walked into Marlow on our previous walk, over the bridge (the only suspension bridge across the non-tidal Thames) passing the 4* Compleat Angler Hotel, such a gorgeous location towards All Saints Church (built in 1835 on the site of a 12th century church whose foundation were rotting away due to river floods) and the High Street.

Apparently the Compleat Angler was the first public restaurant to be visited outside of  London by the Queen, she was invited to dine there by the President of Hungary in 1999.

Many moons ago I worked in Marlow and that is where I met my husband Graham, we lived in a lovely little terrace cottage at the top of the town.  We just had to nip up and see how it was looking 30 years on!

Susan and I walked round the back of the church towards The Two Brewers pub, which has been serving pints since 1727, passing Thames Lawn a large house which was the home of Captain Morris, of HMS Colossus at the Battle of Trafalgar.  The house was in the Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as the home of MI6 Chief 'M', Bernard Lee.

It was at The Two Brewers where Jerome K Jerome wrote some of Three Men in a Boat, I have downloaded this book to reread whilst all of the Thames journey is in my head.

Many an author lived in Marlow, and you will see a few blue plaques around the place.  Percy Shelley and his wife Mary Godwin married and moved to Marlow into a gothic style cottage called Albion House, early in 1817.  He spent his time drifting down the river composing The Revolt of Islam, while Mary sat at home writing Frankenstein!

We bumped into a guy who was assisting a loader who was depositing this boat into the water, M. V Fringilla and taking her to Henley for the Festival.

Of course one of our most famous Olympians Steve Redgrave is from Marlow, born here in 1962, he gets a statue in Higginson Park.

We had a gentle walk, underneath the A404, along Shakespeare's Way looking across to Winter Hill, where this lovely big pink house has stood for years and years.

Winter Hill is thick with trees of Quarry Wood which is the 'Wild Wood' of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.  Grahame was sent to live here at The Mount with his Grandma when he was 5 years old after his mother died of scarlet fever.  His childhood was full of memories of playing in the garden by the woods, that went down to the river and after he married he moved back to Cookham Dean with his wife and family.  They lived in a house called Mayfield, (now a school) which is where he started to put together and share his bedtime stories for his son, that would eventually become The Wind in the Willows in 1908.

(There is a touring production of The Wind in the Willows currently showing til mid August, Alex's college friend is Ratty!)

And there is a lovely 5 mile walk put together by The Woodland Trust called The Wind in the Willows trail which starts at Cookham Dean Common's car park.

We spotted some beautiful houses through the trees, the riverside foliage and reeds are really starting to grow high now, so we were at just the right time to get a lovely peek at them!

Look at this one below Quarry Wood Hall, an ornate fake castle known locally as Cardboard Castle, it's divided into apartments. 

Another story I discovered about the woods here is that an opera singer from Australia called Dame Nellie Melba lived in a cottage here, she was the first artiste to broadcast on British radio in 1920 and then the first Australian to appear on the cover of Time Magazine in 1927.  Her voice could often be heard wafting through the trees here as she practiced!

The then Head Chef at The Savoy, August Escoffier named the Peach Melba in her honour!  

The day had threatened rain, in fact it was raining as we arrived in Marlow, but the sun was shining and the cagouls were back in our bags for a while which was nice.

Such a beautiful spot to have your house and boat, so you can pootle along when you feel like it!

Just on from here you see the little Marlow train passing by, it's not a particularly noisy one, it takes 23 minutes to go from Maidenhead to Marlow and Bourne End.

Maidenhead then connects you to London Paddington in 25 minutes.

Susan loved this white and pale blue trimmed house 💙

We were coming into Bourne End, you don't see the village here, just the marina, sailing club and some boats, and no you can't use their toilet. 😲 

Not a place to stop unless you happen to be a boat, just keep moving along.  In fact, move swiftly over the railway bridge.

The bridge was originally constructed in wood by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as part of the Wycombe Railway, it opened in 1854 and operated til 1870. It was reconstructed in steel in 1895 as the narrow spans on the bridge where unpopular with river traffic. A footbridge, cantilevered out from the railway bridge was added in 1992, to take the Thames Path across the river.

In 2013, the bridge was restored and repainted in green, and a large number of rusty rivets were replaced.

The view looking back taken from the top of the bridge.

Enid Blyton used to live in Bourne End, in a lovely thatched cottage, of course, from 1929 to 1938, in her diary she wrote "perfect, both outside and in, just like a fairy tale house and three minutes from the river'.  This is where she started writing The Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair, I LOVED the Faraway Tree!

We stopped for a moment, I think to readjust boots or drink water, and my eyes focussed in on the house across the river having a large metal giraffe and a wooden lion in their front garden!

It was quite a busy stretch here with boats, paddle boarders and ducks.  Plus alot of dogs out and about being walked today.

We arrived at The Ferry Inn, which I remembered from 30 years ago was a Harvester Restaurant!  The cushions were still piled up from the rain, but with blue skies still around we opted to sit outside, whilst watching the swan parents bring their cygnets up the slipway, very cute.

There are a few pub options in Cookham, but we wanted to stop by the river and watch the boats go by.

At this point we had walked 10,500 steps which was about 4.7 miles.  Two hours of gentle walking.

The bridge here was built in 1867, by Pease Hutchinson & Co, from Darlington, another iron bridge that replaced a wooden one.  It hasn't had any maintenance work since the 1980s and shortly will be closed for works to ensure it remains 'fit for purpose'.  

Cookham is a pretty little village, made famous by the paintings of Sir Stanley Spencer.  He was born and lived here.  There is a gallery located centrally in an old chapel. One of his famous works was of a scene just near to where we had lunch, "Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta" sold for £6m at Christies!

This one "Swan Upping" shows the bridge in the background, it currently resides in the Tate Collection.

We walked through the gardens of the Holy Trinity Church  

And like Bisham village on our previous walk, the cottages here have very tiny front doors!

We walked through some pathways and hidden houses, somewhere in there is Formosa, an island that covers 50 acres which makes it the largest island in the non tidal Thames.  

We were now back alongside a beautiful peaceful stretch of the river.

Where this HUGE tree called out to be hugged, Susan happily obliged.

It was so pretty and so tranquil over on the other side, and I realised it was the Cliveden Estate.

A spot Jerome K Jerome described as 'perhaps the sweetest stretch of all the river" and I would agree.

Stanley Spencer said "you can't walk by the river at Cliveden Reach and not believe in God'.

 

Run now by the National Trust, I pictured us popping in for a scone and tea whilst planning the walk and then worked out that the Thames Path had us on the opposite side of the river!

It is a very smart 5* hotel these days too, with amazing afternoon teas. 

80 acres of formal gardens, 300+ acres of woodland, stunning views.  Cliveden has been home over the years to an array of dukes, earls, viscounts and a prince.  It was a hospital during the first world war and is now a hotel.  It's been a hub for society gatherings, exclusive and notorious political gatherings!

It was bought in 1666 by the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers who had grand plans for it, it was a smaller plot then of just 160 acres, his main reason for buying it was that he wanted a residence close to London where he could entertain his mistress and friends. He instructed his architects to build a grand house.

In 1696 it was bought by Lord Orkney, shortly after he was made Lord Orkney, he thought it was too tall and lopped the top storey off!  This reduced it's height by about 20ft.  He did alot of work on planning the garden and colonnades. 

It stayed within his family for about 3 generations via the female line, during 1737-1751 it was leased to the then Prince of Wales.

And here's a fact; the Prince of Wales became the first person to killed by a cricket ball, when he was struck on the chest by one, causing an abscess which became fatally infected!

In 1795 the central main part of the building caught fire and burnt to the ground.

The Countess at the time continued to live in the wings until it was bought by Sir George Warrender in 1824, who replaced the burnt out central area and it regained it's beautiful glory .....  but in 1849 whilst owned by Harriet the Duchess of Sunderland (close friend of Queen Victoria who lived nearby in Windsor) it burnt down again!  And that was despite the Queen sending her fire engines. 

By 1852 it was rebuilt and Charles Barry was bought in to design it, he was the one that created the three storey Italianate style villa you see today.

In 1893 America's richest man at the time, William Waldorf Astor bought Cliveden for $1.2m, he remodelled alot of the house, the rooms, the staircase etc.  He loved classical sculpture and bought many pieces of his over from Italy where he had worked.

At the beginning of the First World War his oldest son failed his medical assessment to join the army, and offered part of the estate to the Canadian Red Cross to be run as a hospital.  In 1915 it looked after about 110 patients, but by the end of the war this had risen to 600.  In 1915 Winston Churchill and King George V visited the Duchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital.

In the end of 24,000 troops were treated at the hospital. 

There is a War Memorial Garden standing there today, where the hospital once was.

Waldorf Astor, the son we mentioned above, married Nancy Langhorne in 1906, and it entered a new era of parties, and became one of the centres of European political and literary life.  Nancy became the first woman to take her seat as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons in 1919.

In the 1930s the groups became known as the 'Cliveden Set'.  Books have been written about the group and the times around it.

But most people know Cliveden as being the set for 'The Profumo Affair', this is when Cliveden made the headlines due to John Profumo, who was Secretary of State for War, who had been discovered meeting a 19 year old model and dancer called Christine Keeler by the pool 2 year earlier. It became a scandal when it came to light that she was also in a relationship with a soviet naval attache called Yevgeny Ivanov!  Of course this ended Profumo's political career, and contributed to the downfall of the Conservative Government in the General Election of 1964. 

I didn't realise when I took this photo, that it is of Spring Cottage, this is where the scandal started from, the cottage was let out to Dr Stephen Ward, he was a 'society osteopath' who used it as somewhere for his rich and famous friends to meet ladies who weren't their wives, aka Profumo and young Christine Keeler.  It's now available as a holiday let!

Waldorf Astor had given Cliveden to the National Trust in 1942 but after his son Bill died and the scandal surrounding the house and Profumo, they left and by 1966 the Trust had taken over the managing of the estate and opening it up to the public.

Above the trees you can just see The Octagon Temple, it dates from 1735 as a tea room where one could take in the view, but Astor proposed the idea of turning it into a private chapel.  It's 172 steps down to the riverside from the chapel.

Time for a sit down ...

And a now you see us, now

 you don't moment with a swan and their goslings.

Shortly the end of Cliveden estate gives way to Boulter's Lock, the river's longest and deepest lock.  It was originally called Ray Mill Lock, due to the nearby Mill being owned by the Ray family.  Boulter is an old milling term.  One of the son's became the first lock keeper here.  The Mills were demolished in 1910, but it's still a name used around Maidenhead on road names.

Boulters Lock wasdmae famous by a painting by Edward Gregory called Boulter's Lock - Sunday Afternoon 1895 

It was a popular place to watch everything going on in ye olden days, it was a popular day out for Victorian and Edwardian families, as sometimes you could spot the Prince of Wales on his way through to visit The Astors at Cliveden.  There were pageants, carnivals and regattas and people came from far and wide.

It is by far the most popular lock on the river back in the days of 'punts and parasols'.  In June 1912 a new double lock was completed and opened for use.

A large house nearby is Islet Park House where Gerry Anderson who created Thunderbirds first created his puppet shows.

Just before the Lock, a channel cuts away to the left, and is the beginning of Britain's largest ever man-made river project, called The Jubilee River.  It was completed in 2002 and it runs for 7 miles to Black Potts Bridge east of Windsor.  It acts as an overflow for the Thames to alleviate flooding around Maidenhead and Windsor, which affects roughly 3000 homes.  It has a flat path running alongside which makes it great for cycling or walks with buggies.

Hidden high up in the trees is Taplow Court, a large Victorian house of Elizabethan origins. Since 1988 it has been HQ for SGI-UK, a lay Buddhist society.

It will be open on the afternoon (2pm - 5pm) on 6 August, 3 and 10 September 2023 to the public. You can take a picnic and find a spot in the 85 acres of grounds.  Admission and parking are both free.  Only guide & alert dogs are allowed in.  The house and grounds are open with tea & cakes available to purchase.

The name Taplow comes from the saxon chief Taeppa who was buried on the hill here, and this great hill, or 'mai dun' gives it name to Maidenhead, or 'mai dun hythe', meaning wharf.

Maidenhead is very much a commuter town, within 30 minutes of London by train, in the heart of the Thames Valley aka 'Silicon Corridor'.  It had it's first bridge built in 1280 which made it a very popular stop/location.  Then it became a major stop (aka staging post) on the coach route (Great West Road) between London and Bristol, followed by the arrival of the Great Western Railway in the early 19th century.  

There's sadly quite a few dying boats along this stretch ....

We stopped our walk at The Riverside Gardens and fell into Jenners Cafe, for a welcoming drink and snack.  There is also a small park, crazy golf (no energy) and an ideal spot to wait for our lift home.

We had covered 8 miles and 18,000 steps today.