Nordic Walking The Thames: Leg Eight
Pangbourne to Lower Shiplake
(map part one)
Map Part Two
Leg Eight: Pangbourne to Lower Shiplake
When: Thursday 11th September 2025
Miles Walked: 16.09
Steps Taken: 30,184
Moving Time: 4:32:48
Elevation Gain: 163 ft
Steve dropped me off in the centre of Pangbourne opposite The Elephant Hotel, as I had spotted a shop yesterday that I wanted to visit, Garlands Organic is a health shop much like The Wild Food Co. in Malmesbury and it was good to stock up on some snacks and check out their range, they sell the same organic eggs! I wandered back to the river via a couple of charity shops (you never know what you might find) and beyond the bridge is a wide open space, Pangbourne meadow, owned by The National Trust, with benches along the river, there’s a few dog walkers about too. The path continues along a boardwalk and into another meadow before leading over more boardwalk (obviously gets wet in the winter months) onto a narrower strip of land alongside the river. Boats and kayaks appeared out of nowhere when I was trying to record a little video on this stretch!
Meadows give way to Mapledurham Lock and beyond the lock the path leaves the riverside and heads up past some paddocks and uphill through housing estates bringing you out in a small woodland in Purley-on-Thames coming out on the A329 briefly (welcome to Reading). Around 600BC Saxon invaders sailed up the Thames and settled beside the Kennet. These were the Readingas named after their leader Reada (The Red) who gave the town their name.
Now heading down the side of a red-brick building and across the railway bridge, down steep steps back to the riverside, it’s a bit of an uninteresting schlep to be honest. The path now runs alongside the river and in between the river and the railway line, at least the Horse Chestnut trees have decorated the ground in orange leaves. The path finally opens up to go through a boatyard and past some static caravans.
We are now on Reading Thames-side Promenade, a wide expanse of grass and tarmac path dotted with blue painted benches and willow trees, there are lots of folk using the path, cyclists, runners, parents pushing prams. It’s along here that I decide to race and beat the Wessex Hotel Boat!. I leave the promenade to meet Steve in the car park of the Rivermead Leisure Centre for lunch leaving the path in bright sunshine. During the course of lunch the heavens open and chuck bucketful’s of rain down! So it’s a bit greyer when I set off for the afternoon walk returning to the promenade, passing Reading rowing club.
I walk through the tunnel under Caversham Bridge and when I get to the other side it has started to rain again, so I pause and put my full set of waterproofs on as it feels like this is set in for the afternoon! Caversham Boat Services across the water caught my eye with their two stone lions flanking their path…rahhh! Christchurch footbridge comes into view and there’s a group of people ducked under the other side taking shelter. Reading Bridge (imaginatively named) has another pedestrian tunnel for me to walk through bringing me to Caversham Lock.
There’s a beautiful narrowboat moored up her called Sunshine on Leith with a Nessie painted on her bow! ( I see this particular narrowboat a few times in the days to come) Beyond Caversham Lock is King’s Meadow where I encounter strange looking geese. These are Egyptian Geese which were brought to Great Britain in the 1700’s, now common in the South of England. They have been around since the ancient Egyptians who considered them sacred birds. This stretch of riverside passes a Tesco supermarket and quite a few permanent looking moorings, it has stopped raining!
The Thames Path National Trail now goes through the Thames Valley Nature Reserve where I pass some young people getting some kayaking lessons at Wokingham Waterside Centre. In the nature reserve they have been coppicing the willow trees and laying mulch, so it looks a bit bare on the riverside . There are benches dotted all along the waterfront and one has a quote from Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows: “The mole never heard a word Rat was saying. Absorbed in the new life he was entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the scents and the sound and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water and dreamed long waking dreams…”
Author Kenneth Grahame has a long association with this area and the river Thames, he spent much time in Cookham as a boy, boating and exploring the countryside of the upper reaches of the Thames. He originally created the riverside adventures of Mole, Ratty, Badger and the troublesome Mr Toad as bedtime stories for his disabled son and they were collectively published in1908 as The wind in the willows. Grahame spent his latter years at a cottage in Pangbourne until his death in 1932.
Tree-lined paths lead me past Reading Blue Coat School’s grounds and down to Sonning Lock, there is a memorial gate to an old master from the Blue Coat School, simple with it’s gold crossed oars, but effective. I then reach Sonning Bridge, a Grade II listed brick and stone arch bridge which replaced (built 1175-1790) an earlier wooden bridge that had stood at the site since Saxon times. It is the only crossing point over the Thames between Henley-on-Thames and Reading which can lead to significant congestion at peak times! I cross over the bridge and pick up the path on the opposite side of the river.
The path winds it’s way along the meandering river with fields on one side and flanked by trees interspersed with moored boats. There’s quite a few rowers out on the water with their distinctive swish of the oar blades cutting the water and the shhh of the wheels of the sliding seats moving forward and back, a consistent rhythm sometimes accompanied by shouts from coach or cox of “every stroke counts” I reach the boathouse for Shiplake College, where there is a pontoon full of shoes waiting their owners return.
Beyond the Shiplake College Boathouse the path continues on to Shiplake Lock passing some stunning riverside residencies on the opposite bank. Shiplake Lock is quite pretty in itself! The path reaches a cobble and brick wall and turns left alongside it away from the river eventually reaching a lane which takes you towards Shiplake Station. Here due to a bridge closure at Marsh Lock, South of Henley-on-Thames, there is a 3 mile route diversion and I have opted to skip the diversion and meet Steve here. I stop at the Baskerville Arms to get my passport stamped and pop into The Corner Shop for goodies to go with my cuppa when we get back to our campsite!
