Day 19 - Walton on Thames to Hampton Court Palace

 Friday 29 September

A great and sunny start to our walk today, starting back at the riverside cafe "Wilde Brunch Cafe" by the bridge at 10:30am.

Realised very early on, it was very hard to drink and carry hot chocolate whilst wanting to take photographs every few seconds!  It was such a lovely morning on the river with boats, ducks, canoes and geese.

This bridge is the 6th on the site, it carries the A244 road between Shepperton and Walton on Thames.

This section passes by Wheatley's Ait, this used to be the exclusive preserve of a commune of Victorian bachelors who would come for weekends and holidays, until they got bored and allowed women to join them - on the provision they went home before midnight!

It's a 20 acre island with homes on now, where you have to park your car on the mainland and walk over a bridge to get to your house.

Also along this stretch is The Swan where in 1920 Jerome Kern (1885-1945) the up and coming American songwriter who wrote Old Man River, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and the Broadway hit Showboat, met his wife Eva, who was the landlord's daughter.

We arrived at Sunbury Lock, a little bit beforehand was the handsome Lock House, which was built on the old lock site in 1812, the lock was built by the Corporation of London.  Every July this is where the 'Royal Swans Upping' starts.

We then arrived at Hurst Park, this spot has some sporting history to it, but now is a large housing estate and some green grass alongside the river.

The first game of cricket took place here in 1731, the first game of golf in England in 1758, one of the earliest balloon ascents in 1758 and the first horse race in 1790.

It started as Hurst Park Race Course,  first laid out in 1890, which then closed in 1960.

The racecourse was the scene of an arson attack by Clara Elizabeth Giveen and Kitty Marion, the two suffragettes created a revenge attack following the death of Emily Davison at the Derby in 1913.

During the 2018 summer heatwave, the ground was so dry you could just make out the course's pre parade ring.

On the opposite side of the river is a beautiful boat called Astoria.  

It was built in 1911 and in the 1980s became a recording studio by it's new owner Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

He bought it after seeing it advertised in Country Life whilst waiting for his dentist's appointment!

I found this short video on youtube which is worth a watch.

Along from here is Garricks Temple, an 18th century Folly dedicated to Shakespeare, built in 1755 for actor David Garrick, who lived in the house behind, to celebrate the successes of Shakespeare.  It's a white octagonal temple, with Ionic portico.  It has been restored and is now open to the public between 2pm and 5pm on Sundays between April to September.

We passed some lovely looking boathouses moored on Ash Island and Tagg's Island, before arriving at Molseley Lock, there is a lovely 4 minute video of Tagg's Island on youtube here and another with Ben Fogle exploring the glamour of the island in pre-war days.

Just a little further and we were approaching Hampton Court Bridge, which we walked over and into The Mitre Hotel for some well earned lunch.  We were keen to try here as it's the sister hotel to The Retreat Elcot Park just 10 minute from us at home.

We sat outside under the big marquee ceiling, it had been a much shorter walk today, as our next plan was to spend the afternoon at Hampton Court Palace.

We had walked about 5 miles and 12k steps on this walk.

Susan had gnocchi for lunch

And I had aubergine

Just before we left we noticed that the hotel's launch was called Em!

From here we headed over to Hampton Court Palace to spend the rest of the day exploring the palace and gardens.

Hampton Court Palace was the home and court of Henry VIII and his many wives and children, it's set amongst 60 acres alongside the River Thames. 

After Henry seized all the wealth of the English Catholic church, he became the richest monarch in English history, and spent a fortune on palaces and other lavish treasures.  Hampton Court was 'devoted to pleasure, celebration and ostentatious display'.

Once the Palace was finished in 1540 it was the most modern, sophisticated and magnificent palace in England.

There are some beautiful Tudor rooms to see, the huge kitchens, incredible ceilings and amazing tapestries, King Henry owned about 2000 of them, many with silver and gold thread that glittered in the candle light.

This was our last walk of 2023 as Susan travelled to USA and then Winter came followed by never ending rain!  I'm glad we've got the soggier areas of the Thames Walk done and dusted.

Day 18 - Runnymede to Walton on Thames

 26 August

We woke to beautiful sunshine and a quiet river.

We went downstairs at our hotel, The Runnymede, for a HUGE buffet breakfast, a breakfast made for walkers, it was delicious.

We loved our brief stay at the hotel, it had everything we needed plus so many other lovely things such as the pool, river view etc

We were headed into this direction underneath Runnymede Bridge towards Staines for our walk today.

If you are interested in history, then this spot became of very important historical interest in the 1980's; in 1975 the development of the M25 was underway and had reached Runnymede, and construction of a bridge over the river was about to start.

Local archaeologists spotted some pottery fragments first of all, these were dated at 750BC, so a team from the British Museum were dispatched to come and have a look. Well, what they found became so significant it led to the site being protected as a Scheduled Monument in June 1980.  Over the following summers during 1984 - 1990, further excavations were carried out.

The finds can now be found in The British Museum.

Before these excavations little was known about late prehistoric SE England prior to the Iron Age, the archaeologists were able to build a much clearer picture of the Late Bronze Age through their findings of evidence of structures, pot fragments, flint and metal tools, jewellery and animal bones, Runnymede was obviously a place for regular social gatherings, it is also clear that the river played a fundamental role.

Egham Museum created a documentary in 2017 about Runnymede Bridge and this can be found on the website HERE

A big moment of the whole walk was making the marker of walking underneath the M25, leaving behind the countryside of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

And who knew how amazing these bridges were underneath!

We love arriving at bridges, walking underneath and looking up, seeing the reflections, the design and hearing the rumble of all the traffic going overhead.

But almost immediately we were surprised to find ourselves back in lovely woodland!

But it was quite brief as we were about to enter Staines upon Thames

A river crossing point since Roman times, the barons used to gather in this area before meeting King John at Runnymede. 

The Romans built a road from London to Silchester which runs directly under the modern high street of Staines upon Thames and crossed the river by bridge.  For the next 500 years or so this was the only crossing over the river outside London!

 A stone commemorates the fact that Staines was a horse-changes site in 1805 when news was being delivered about the death of Horatio Nelson.  

Did you know the town used to be a major producer of linoleum!

1864-1969

The Domesday book which was published in 1086, a large land registry put together by William the Conqueror, the whole of Staines was valued at £35!

Staines Bridge, designed by George Rennie, son of John Rennie who built the original Waterloo Bridge, has 3 arches in white granite and was opened in 1832.

In 1197 King Richard I needed money to pay for his Crusades so he sold the rights over the River Thames between the Estuary and Staines to the Corporation of the City of London.  In 1285 the limits of this jurisdiction of his was marked with boundary stones and The London Stone, a replica can be found in the Memorial Gardens. 

Posing a bit further down from Susan posing was this chap and his swan, this is

The Swanmaster

by Diana Thomson.

In the 12th Century all the Mute Swans in the land were owned by the Crown (and eaten!)

The Crown still owns all the swans and in early July the Swan Master and his team of Swan Uppers row along the Thames for 5 days checking the health of swans, counting them and measuring the Cygnet population.  It's a Swan Census!

 In the Middle Ages and after, apart from their meat, the swans' quills were also used for writing.  Quills from geese were much more commonly used as they were cheaper, and preferred by many people who found a swan’s quill too stiff to write with easily. However, a swan’s quill was said to last as long as 50 goose quills, and Queen Elizabeth I preferred to write with a swan’s quill. 

There is alot more information, photographs and history on the Vintner's Company website.

We walked towards Laleham village, mainly for a loo and coffee stop, it had been very quiet up til now.  We certainly didn't need food, we were still going well on our super charged breakfast!  (Laleham means 'village of twigs or willows')

I didn't realise at the time that Laleham, apart from it's history, is the seat and home of the Lucan Family, since 1803, with the 2nd Earl.  The 7th Earl was the one who famously disappeared in 1974 after being accused of murdering their family nanny at their London home.  When the Lucans left, Laleham House/Abbey was divided up into flats and the 70 acres of grounds were given to the public as Laleham Park.

There was a church (All Saints dates from the 12th century and monks from Westminster operated a grange and watermill here in the 13th century) a post office/small shop with machine coffee, a closed pub, so not really worth a detour from the path!

Houses and boats were getting really interesting and bigger from here!

We had a little rest at Penton Hook Lock, all the locks have really good information boards, they help you see the shape of your river journey, and how the section you're currently doing fits in with where you've been and where you're off to next.

We were aware of alot of water, more than just the River, at Penton Hook there is a really impressive loop, in the early 19th century the narrow neck of the river was broken by flood waters, so often, that barges often took a short cut.  The first lock to address this was built here in 1815.  The whole area around here is now run as a Nature Reserve, it's popular with anglers and is quite the wildlife haven.

Big shiny houses, Surrey prices!

And yes this is a house, barrel style ... would love to know the history of this one ...

This was our first walk on a Saturday along The Thames Path, there were lots of families, bikes and dogs around, it was lovely.

Hello, another bridge, this time it's the M3 crossing the river.

We were needing a rest, loo break and coffee/hot chocolate and found the pub called  The Kingfisher, this would be a perfect spot for lunch but we were STILL full from breakfast!  It's a big pub, really friendly staff, great menu.  We sat in a little corner, readjusted our shoes and laces and had a breather.

The clouds were coming in and we needed to work out how much further we were going to walk for Graham to meet us at the other end, and where.

We'd walked 5.5 miles 13,000 steps.

We didn't see any of Chertsey, it's known as a large commuter town due to it's proximity to London and it's transport links with the M3.  It was built up around the Abbey, founded by the Bishop of London in AD666 and it grew to become one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in the country until it's dissolution by Henry VIII in 1536.

After the dissolution the Benedictine community moved to Bisham, near Marlow, the buildings were demolished and the stone moved downstream to improve Henry's new home at Oatlands Palace at Weybridge.

And a fact for my Dad; in 1776 Chertsey Cricket Club was the first club to add the middle stump to the then normal two, due to gardener 'Lumpy' Steven's bowling skill!

On the eastern side of the bridge (or Middlesex side) is Dumsey Meadow, one of the few remaining traditional watermeadows on the River Thames, and home to a variety of wildlife.

On from here is a lovely spot, a riverside community called Ryepeck Meadow Moorings. 

A small community of about 10 houseboats, that have their own gardens on the opposite side of the path.  The mooring fee of £12k gives the houseboat residents access to parking, electricity, sewage, mains water, telephone and internet and bins!

Here is one that was for sale

Houseboat for Sale

We continued our stroll and stopped for some blackberries, despite seeing them on some of our recent walks, today was the first day they had developed some flavour.

This house is lovely, it shows you don't always need to have a glass cube!

This house on the path had Jake and Elwood on their balcony?!

It was getting busier along the river as we came into the Shepperton Lock area.

Shepperton means shepherds habitation and in the Domesday Lock it belonged to Westminster Abbey.  

The Lock here was a busy one and as you can see on the map, there is alot of water around this area, "a spaghetti junction of waterways".  The Wey joins here, well actually the Wey is not a river but a 'navigation' - a canal opened in 1760 to link the hames and the actual River Wey at Guildford and Godalming.  It is still navigable to Guildford but then the 4 mile section to Godalming isn't really used. 

The sign below explains that due to tight waterways and shallows it made river travel difficult and dangerous, so Shepperton Lock and Weir was built across the top at one end, which created Hamhaugh Island, and then later another one to create Desborough Island.  

We made our way along to The Ferry Point, a great spot for food, drinks, ice cream, shopping and Ferry Tickets.

There is a little ferry that takes you across the river, to avoid the long route round.  It is one of the last remaining ferries left on the River.

It's a couple of pounds each and you ring the bell if no-one is by the boat.

There's been a ferry here since Henry VI's reign, in the 1700s it cost a shilling to take a drove of oxen across for Kingston Market. (It reopened after a 26 year break in 1986).

I only know of Shepperton due to having a film buff son and the studios there, part of the Pinewood Studios group.

Shepperton is also the scene for the martian attack in War of the Worlds, I'll leave you to google that one!

Once we'd crossed the river we came across Pharoah's Island, this dates from the Battle of the Nile when the island was given to Lord Nelson.  There are 23 properties here with names such as Sphinx and Thebes.

Sphinx was for sale for £2.25million and was featured in Country Life, click on the link as the photos are amazing, especially the one from above.

We then came across D'Oyly Carte Island, named after the impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, who bought the island in 1887 after discovering it whilst on a rowing trip with his sons.

He built a large house, which he thought could be the country wing/annexe to London hotel in London - The Savoy, but he couldn't obtain a drinks licence and so instead ended up using it as a country retreat for himself and his family.

Previously he had worked in the theatre in Soho and was the one who brought together Gilbert & Sullivan, they wrote one of the songs for The Mikado whilst staying on the island.

D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901) moved into hotels, opened the Savoy in 1889 and then went on to own Claridges, Simpons-in-the-Strand and the Berkeley.

And here in the distance is Walton Bridge, where we were looking for a riverside cafe to meet Graham, just before that cloud opened!

There is a real history with the Walton Bridges, the first in 1750 was an unusual wooden geometrical design which appears in a Canaletto painting, which now hangs in the Dulwich Picture Gallery.  It was a picturesque latticework described as 'the most beautiful wooden arch in the world' and designed 'so that a damaged timber could be removed without having to dismantle the whole structure'.

I think I read it was designed and built to last for 200 years but only made about 30....

The second bridge, made of brick and stone which opened in the 1780s was painted by Turner.

(photo Sothebys)

It's not quite the same these days!

After a cuppa and cake, we ran to the car as the heavens opened, it wasn't just rain, it was a heavy rain storm with hail, we had timed our finish beautifully!

Our walk today was 8.8 miles 21,000 steps.

Home to make this delicious blackberry crumble!