Thames Path – Cholsey to Shillingford: Footage from a stroll on Saturday third April 2010 in South Oxfordshire from Cholsey station to a bus cease in Shillingford, primarily alongside a part of the Thames Path, although with a number of added detours, each voluntary and involuntary.
The Thames Path was formally opened in 1996, although I’d walked and cycled a lot of it in and round London a few years earlier earlier than and had made a really minor contribution to the session throughout its planning. I’d additionally photographed a lot additional to the east alongside the Estuary on a lot of its English Coast Path extension from Woolwich to the Isle of Grain.
From the early Nineties along with my spouse and one or each my sons we regularly made walks within the South-East, together with alongside the River Lea, the Pilgrims Means, the Grand Union Canal, the London Loop in addition to numerous unnamed routes largely alongside public footpaths all year long and in all types of climate.
Within the early 2000s we determined we’d attempt to stroll the elements of the Thames Path to the west of London, the place we had solely walked a number of quick sections, purchased a information to the trail and a sequence of OS maps. We have been nonetheless strolling in different areas as properly and it was not till April 2013 that we lastly lined the part of the stroll to the supply.
One of many causes it took us so lengthy was that we relied on public transport to get us to the river and again dwelling on the finish of every day’s stroll. So the stroll needed to be divided up for us into quick sections ending at a station or a bus cease and the additional west we walked the scarcer these grew to become. We managed to get just a little west of Oxford a day at a time, however past Duxford (a brief stroll from Hinton Waldrist which had a bus service) there appeared to be nowhere we might sensibly attain or return to by public transport earlier than or after a day’s stroll.
In 2013 we did full the stroll, reserving a few nights mattress and breakfast on the best way to the supply to take action.
However again to April 2010. We travelled to Cholsey by prepare, altering at Studying, a simple and comparatively quick journey – lower than an hour and a half. Cholsey isn’t on the Thames Path but it surely was solely round a mile to stroll to it, after which all the way down to Moulsford Railway Bridge on the Thames itself.
I’ll spare you the small print of the stroll although these are given at some size within the photos and textual content on My London Diary – and naturally in lots of textual content and on-line publications on the Thames Path.
Wallingford, the one main city on this part of the Path is properly value a go to – again within the day it had been “a very powerful city in Berkshire and had its personal Royal Mint from the tenth to thirteenth centuries. Devastated by the Black Loss of life, it grew to become affluent once more within the 18th and nineteenth century with the river permitting it to commerce with London and supporting thriving malting, brewing and ironfounding industries.”
However then got here the railways and all Wallingford bought was a brief department line, “now a preserved railway the place I used to be dragged a somewhat tedious kilometre or so to see Ivor the Engine pulling out of the station on the sting of city.”
We did additionally handle to overlook the trail in Wallingford, and make an attention-grabbing diversion earlier than retracing our steps. We noticed few different walkers, however within the Summer season elements of the Thames Path get fairly crowded. However one benefit of following a nationwide path like that is that they’re properly waymarked and likewise by no means overgrown, although there are typically diversions.
[Near to home we have one of these diversions in Egham, where a small bridge has been officially blocked since early 2024 and is expected to remain closed until at least 2026. The damage looks relatively minor and many walkers have continued to use the bridge despite the barriers erected.]
Above Wallingford the Path crosses to the other band of the river and goes to Benson and on to Shillingford. Right here we walked away from the river to a bus cease and stood ready for the Specific bus to Studying at the moment a roughly hourly service – and took an hour to get to Studying Station. Or at the least I stood ready however Linda determined to go for a stroll and I needed to stand within the bus doorway and persuaded the driving force to attend as I shouted at her to hurry in direction of us.
Thames Path- Cholsey to Shillingford
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Tags: Benson, bridge closure, bus, Cholsey, footbridge, Ivor the Engine, Moulsford Railway Bridge, Oxford College boat home, peter Marshall, public transport, Shillingford Bridge, South Oxfordshie, Thames Path, Stroll, Wallingford, weir
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