Nordic Walking The Thames Path: Leg Ten

Today is Sunday and Steve drops me off at the (much busier today) same car park as yesterday, where the green space is full of footballers! I’m heading towards Bourne End, but my end destination today is Windsor.

There’s a lovely wide gravelled path and it’s not long before I’m being passed by tired Ultra Challenge participants! On the opposite bank there is a fantastic castellated house and boatyards, on this side of the river is a wide expanse of grass between the river and a railway, which I hadn’t spotted until a small train passes by!

I’m passing some really interesting dwellings, most of which seem to be upside down in terms of living room and bedrooms all for better views of the river! Along here are sailing clubs and marinas and the river is busy with craft and more rowers!

At Bourne End the Thames Path crosses the river by the railway bridge and continues on the opposite bank onto the National Trust managed Cock Marsh and then Marsh Meadow, common land since 1272. I can see Cookham in the distance, there’s quite a few people out and about and I have to nip off the path to find a secluded spot for a comfort break.

I reach Cookham through the churchyard and visit Bel & the Dragon to get another stamp for my passport, I’ve stayed in Cookham and remember it being very nice, here the Thames Path takes you past the Stanley Spencer Gallery, an old Wesleyan Chapel reopened in 1962 as a memorial gallery to the work of local artist Stanley Spencer, most famous for his painting The Resurrection, Cookham which now hangs in Tate Britain.

The Thames Path now takes me down yet another Mill Lane across country to the riverside once more. Across the river is Cliveden Hotel and this stretch is beautifully quiet with open wide expanses of river.

I pass through the edge of Battlemead- meadows, wetlands and woodland rich in wildlife and important habitat. There are some huge houses beyond here as we approach Maidenhead, plenty for me to admire the architecture, fences and flora! I really like this Blue Globe Thistle - might have to see if I can find some for my own garden!

I generally photograph things that interest me, things that raise a smile as I pass by or things I want to remember and look up more about. As I approach the weir before Boulters Lock and there is a residence with a dinghy moored up outside with a statue of an elderly man in a top hat sat snoozing, it raised a grin from me! Boulters Lock is associated with the Victorian boating craze so vividly portrayed in Jerome K Jerome’s ‘Three men in a boat’ published in 1889, but it has a history stretching back to the middle ages! Boulters Lock was part of the fashionable Ascot Week race meeting in Victorian and Edwardian times. It became the custom on Ascot Sunday for fashionable race-goers to promenade or go on the river. On Ascot Sunday 1888 more than 800 boats and 72 steam launches passed through the lock! Just beyond here I am meeting Steve for lunch at Riverside Park.

After lunch I continue on my way and head towards Maidenhead Bridge passing through Bridge Gardens where the impressive Ada Lewis Trough Memorial was erected in 1908. It has started to rain. There’s been a bridge here since 1280 when Maidenhead was the hamlet of South Ellington, the current Portland Stone and brick bridge was built between 1772 and 1777. I cross the bridge and continue down the path onto the opposite bank and head down a residential street towards the railway bridge. More lovely houses adorn both banks and private moorings with private bankside gardens, some of which feature beautiful flowers like this scented rose!

I spot a survey marker, a bronze disc placed on the ground to denote a fixed point for surveying property boundaries, I’ve never seen one of those before! The Thames Path goes through Bray Lock before heading underneath the M4 and through the end of some gardens before reaching a patch of woodland, it’s really raining now.

I can’t feel the rain so much in amongst the trees! On the opposite bank I spot these outdoor dining marquees -not sure which hotel they belong to, but what a great place to eat!

Bray Marina is on the opposite side of the river and to my left is Dorney Lake, Eton Colleges Rowing Lake which is set in Dorney Lakes Country Park at a boathouse near the end of the lake Steve appears to hand me motivational Lindor through a locked gate, bless him. He’d been visiting the Rowing Lake. Pocketing one of them I carry on and pass a church that has both doors open and so I go to have a look. There really isn’t any information about it, but it is good to be out of the rain. It is a redundant Anglican Church since 1975, under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches, it is still consecrated and used for occasional services. It’s a shame there is no information board and the visitor book needs replacing as the current one is full! Back out into the rain and gloom and I pass through Boveney Lock. On the opposite bank is Windsor Racecourse.

There’s a plaque in the ground commemorating Dorney Lake as a host venue for the 2012 Olympic games. The next stretch goes through meadows where I am exposed to the rain and there’s a information board about ‘Athens’ the original site of a bathing spot in the River Thames used by boys from Eton College. The path goes under the A332 road.

Another piece of public art by Florosepoet (last one we saw was in Oxford) I’ve now reached The Brocas, a meadow owned by Eton College, public access is allowed subject to 5 rules: No fishing, no fires or BBQ’s, clear up after your dog, take all rubbish away with you and respect the privacy of local residents. Shouldn’t we all be doing those things in all public spaces anyway? I can now see Winsdor Castle in the gloom in the distance and I am nearly finished for today.

Underneath the bridge is this amazing mural painted by Cosmo Sarson in 2012, look him up he’s done some amazing stuff elsewhere too!

Through a couple of back streets into Eton, up over the pedestrian/cycle (iron and granite) Windsor Town Bridge that connects Eton and Windsor, I’m on my way to find Steve and Clara in a car park. I spot this unusual black swan, apparently native to Australia, but there is a small established breeding population here in Norfolk, they have been spotted this year in Windsor!