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.

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(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!