Day 20 - Hampton Court Palace to Richmond

 30 April 2024

Yay!  Finally we found a day of promised sunshine and an unflooded section of Thames Path, can't believe it's almost May and we've just done our first walk of 2024!

Today our walk was from Hampton Court Palace to Richmond about 8 miles along The Thames Path.

We drove to Richmond and parked on a driveway with the Just Park app, which cost £14 for the day, and from there caught an Uber (£20) to Hampton Court Palace which took just over 30 minutes.

(Note: toilets and cafe are at the station just over the bridge - useful tip!)

The Thames Path starts here on the 5km long Barge Walk, named after all the barges that used to park along here. Until the 18th century all arrivals to the Palace arrived in state barges, and when Queen Victoria opened it to the public many came on pleasure boats.

There are so many amazing trees along this stretch, it felt very green, banks of cow parsley and some last flurries of blossom.

We arrived at Kingston, here you cross over the bridge to the south side of the river to continue the walk. (ignoring the urge to enter the huge John Lewis!)

There has been a bridge here across the Thames since at least the 12th century, and it was the only fixed crossing between London Bridge and Staines Bridge a further 14 miles upriver, until Putney Bridge was built in 1729.

The bridge shown here was completed in 1828, built in Portland Stone, with five elliptical arches, it now carries the A308 across the river.

Another beautiful stretch of the path under the trees on the south side.

Just here you can catch a boat to Hampton Court Palace or Richmond from Turks Pier.

Dreamy House - we spotted plenty of wisteria clad houses 💜

Through Canbury Gardens and on towards Teddington.

Teddington has the largest lock complex on the River Thames, with three separate locks.  And this is where fresh water changes to salt water. The first lock here was built in 1810. 

The stretch of river between here and Kew is known as The Arcadian Thames, which forms a unique collection of views, ornamented buildings, and designed parkland, places that have inspired architects and artists for over 500 years.

We were ready for lunch and crossed the bridge to The Anglers pub for some food.  We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine.  We had walked almost 5 miles, our strolling along had taken 2 hours.

After lunch it was a short walk to spot the stone pillar that marks the 'Thames Conservancy Lower Limit 1909'  this marks the boundary line between the Environment Agency's jurisdiction over the river and that of the Port of London Authority.

On the other side of the river is Twickenham, but we couldn't see it due to Eel Pie Island.

Named after a dish served on the island from the 16th century, sampled by Henry VIII.  (eels baked in a pie with a squeeze of lemon, mixed herbs, fish stock and pepper).  The island is 2 acres, one of the largest on the Thames and featured in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, where he writes of a 'cold collation, bottled beer, shrub and shrimp and to dance in the open air to the music of the locomotive band'.

In the 1950s and 1960s the hotel was popular for it's concerts featuring the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and Eric Clapton and other rock, pop and jazz groups. George Melly worked at the hotel, as did Mick Jagger!

It became quite a loud and noisy island, with the sound carrying across to Twickenham, so in the end it lost it's drinks licence, and eventually the hotel was closed and demolished.

Today 300 people live on the island with a rich artist community.

It is only open to visitors a couple of weekends a year, usually July and December through the Open Studios scheme.

If you have a cool £2million you could buy this house

Next we were in the Ham Lands Nature Reserve, where we kept spotting and hearing the shrieking green parakeets.

Soon after here we came upon Ham House, a beautiful National Trust property, built in 1610.  We had our membership cards and thought it would be a great place to stop for tea and cake!

The Cafe was round the back, with the wall clad in gorgeous wisteria that smelt so sweet and lovely, we were sat in a walled garden with produce starting to grow for the season.  Afterwards we walked around the lawns and back of the house, such a perfect and peaceful spot.

Back on the path, we could see a huge building, called The Star & Garter on Richmond Hill, across from Petersham Meadows.  It was built in the early 1920s to provide accommodation and nursing facilities for over 180 seriously injured servicemen. Formally opened by George V and and Queen Mary in 1924.

It was sold in 2013 for £50million to be turned into apartments. 

Through Buccleuch Gardens and we found ourselves at Richmond Bridge, by several cafes and boats for hire - we had finished our Thames Path walk for the day.

(Just a short walk through the town centre back to find our car).

Day 11: Moulsford to Pangbourne

 Monday 3 April 2023

It was great to be back out on the Thames Path, we had missed the walking, the river, the countryside, the fresh air, the chat, the heron spotting and the food found en route!

We were dropped off on the main road before taking Ferry Lane down towards The Beetle & Wedge a beautiful riverside inn and restaurant.

It's where I took my husband for his 30th birthday all those years ago when we were dating!  They had a small motor boat for pootling along the river, which you could hire and was one of the reasons I booked it, but that morning they messaged to say it had to go for a service.  He has never forgiven me passing him some oars and making him earn his birthday cake.

They have a stunning terrace which was very peaceful when we arrived, but already we could see how full and fast flowing the River Thames was.  We had expected it after all the rain, and we were walking not quite sure if we would actually make Pangbourne or whether it would be flooded and some pathways closed.

We were off to a good start with this interesting house!

This is Sphinx Hill or The Egyptian House by 'architectural terrorist' John Outram, it was finished in 1999, a modern interpretation of an ancient Egyptian home, it boasts richly coloured interiors, beautiful gardens and sweeping views down to the river. 

good article here about him in The Guardian

and the owners who commissioned the John Outram to design the house Here

It was for sale last Summer, here are some more photographs from the sales details

And hello welcome to the mud, early on in our walk.

Below is Cleeve Lock and Weir, where you could hear the water rushing through, the first lock here was built in 1787.

Weather wise it was a lovely sunny day, and we had decided to leave our coats in the car, which is good as we would have been carrying them otherwise.

It started to get much muddier as we walked into Streatley, branches and fence posts helped us cling to the sides, most of the other sides had just disappeared into the river.

You can see the amount of water lying around Streatley.

At this point we saw the gate we needed to reach! ....

Susan managed to spot a Heron, but we didn't have our cameras ready, it was chased off by two other birds.

There was only one thing to do; socks and boots off, trousers rolled up to knees and a deep breath as we walked into the freeeeezing water.

Eldest should always go first 😄

Between us we had wet wipes and tissues, so sat on the pathway and got ready to walk again.  Our feet felt very refreshed after that, I think all feet should go into freezing water before starting a long walk, I usually do it at the end.

We met a few people out for a stroll, who we had to inform they wouldn't be having a very long stroll on that section of the path.

Around the corner we came across St Mary's Church, beautiful with the blue skies and the daffodils.

Above the door is a blue plaque from The Gap Festival Heritage Trail which reads: Lewis Carroll 1832-1898 (real name Charles Dodgson)  the author of Alice in Wonderland, preached in St Mary's in 1864.

After 1066, Geoffrey de Mandeville was made Lord of Streatley Manor for his valour at the battle of Hastings.  He made a generous gift of land to support the priest.

The present church and chancel were practically rebuilt in 1864.

Finally we made it to this beautiful terrace for a much needed hot chocolate and cappuccino.  It's the Coppa Club at The Swan, it's next to the bridge that goes across into Goring.

Lots of lampshades and lighting inside, it was very nice.

And onto the bridge where we stopped to read the Danger Water Pollution sign alerting us to the raw sewage currently in the Thames ....

The map below shows the shape of the River Thames and where we are currently walking to and from.

This area is called The Goring Gap, it marks the change from the flat, wide Oxfordshire plains upstream to the steeper sided valley downstream.

The Gap between the Berkshire Downs and the Chilterns, through which the Thames flows, was formed by meltwater from an icesheet.  For thousands of years huge volumes of water wore away the soft chalk.

This section of the river at Goring and Streatley is perhaps the oldest crossing of the Thames, The Ridgeway (which is also a National Trail and thought to be the oldest road in Britain) and Icknield Way provided a pre-historic trade route from Dorset through to East Anglia, which crossed the river at a ford at the end of Ferry Lane.

Villages grew by the crossing and in Anglo-Saxon times Streatley was in Wessex and Goring was in Mercia.  Streatley was the larger village and remained so whilst the coaching route to Oxford passed through it.  The railway was built on the opposite bank so while Goring expanded, Streatley, hemmed in by steep hillsides, did not and is still much as it was 100 years ago,

(Thank you to the very useful sign full of information just down from the bridge!)

As soon as we joined the pathway we saw we could be in trouble!

A great 'floating' dining room above the opposite river bank, if you click on the photo it should come up bigger for you.

Lost pathways and river banks!

OK, decisions needed to be made, so the map came out ...

From the map we could see there was a bridlepath that ran parallel to the Thames path, so we headed up for that, we attempted several walks back down to the river but it was flooded for quite some way.

We could see across the river some building works for The Grotto, this is a property I'd read about before we started our walk, it's a Grade II Listed building, set within 8.5 acres with 400m of waterfront.  

It was originally built in 1720 by Viscount Fane for his wife Mary, it was a fashionable retreat designed for a lady's recreation and leisure. Lady Mary was a Maid of Honour for Queen Anne.  The house was much smaller and had an attached annex to it which was known as the Grotto as it was elaborately decorated with shells for Lady Mary.

Over the years it became Basildon Park and Manor, in 1875 it was bought by a long term tenant who went on to become the High Sheriff of Berkshire, Arthur Smith. 

It stayed a family home until 1953 when it became the Institute of Park and Recreation Administration, who used it as their head office and training college until about 2007.

I did read that it was then sold very quickly above the asking price after appearing in Country Life to someone who used to go past it daily on the train to London, but sadly over the years it has gone into disrepair and then even worse a fire in March 2021 which was attended to by 8 local fire stations.

These PHOTOS show the house before the fire in 2018 when it was derelict.

And now, it has it's own new website, planning permission and is on it's way to becoming a small luxury hotel with eco lodges in the grounds, a wellness spa, restaurant etc

THE GROTTO NOW

We went under the railway bridge, we had had the trains close by for most of our walk today, and started our climb, we had the lovely Downs and river to the right of us and then the Chilterns with their beech trees up to the left.  

It was lovely and peaceful, we spotted a few butterflies as we headed through Hartslock Wood

Susan wasn't happy to see the steps! But we made it to the top of Hartley Steps, according to the map Beale Park was over on the opposite side of the river but we couldn't see through the trees.  A place we both visited many a time when our children were small.

We then followed the perimeter fancy fence of Coombe Park on our right, I knew there had to be a story about the fence ...

Coombe was an amazing estate, built in 1865 as a private residence with hundreds of acres, which at one point also included a Stud Farm, it's horse Willonyx won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1911.  

In the Second World war it became an US Air Force rehabilitation centre and the Red Cross ran it until the end of the war.  Then due to restoration costs a large part was demolished.

It had beautiful gardens designed by Humphry Repton, who also landscaped Longleat House and The Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

Fast forward to 1982 it's entrepreneur owner created a football pitch in the grounds where Reading Football team came to train!

In 1994 bankruptcy happened and it languished until 2016 when it was repossessed.  The current owner bought it in 2018 for about £10 million.

brochure here

newspaper article here

*

We then found ourselves past the Church Cottages and Church in Whitchurch-on-Thames ready to go through the toll booth (free for pedestrians, 60p for cars) and over the bridge into Pangbourne.

An iron bridge built in 1902 - Whitchurch Bridge

We were headed for The Swan pub in Pangbourne that according to it's website served food from 12-8pm, but no, not any longer, when we arrived at 3:10pm they had stopped food between 3-5pm.  We were starving due to our diversions between the Thames Path and the bridleways.

We pushed on into town and found La' De restaurant open with food, thank goodness!

Lovely friendly staff and great food.

I then headed along the Reading Road to find the house I'd lived in when I was little!

Susan had this great image on her phone of our walk today, you can see where we kept walking to the flooded riverbank and then back up to the bridleway, then down again!

This did result in today's walking being further and longer than planned, we had covered almost 9 miles, 20,000 steps and 4.5 hours of walking.

We are now 86.8 miles into our walk, almost half way!

This swan was happy balancing on one leg, Yoga Swan, but now I've seen the photo it makes me think of the Two Ronnies and me signing off!

Thanks for reading.