Out and About Spring 2021

River walk The Thames Path offers some wonderful walks all year around. Volunteer WENDY TOBITT guides you along the trail which for some people is a Sunday stroll to a pub and for others a personal challenge to raise funds for charity

E veryone who’s walking on the Thames Path enjoys beautiful views of the river, birds and meadows, and the sheer pleasure of just being somewhere away from home. The Thames Path is a 184-mile National Trail from the source of the River Thames in a Cotswold field to the North Sea beyond London’s Tilbury Docks. Every signpost along the Trail has the distinctive acorn icon. It is one of 15 designated National Trails in the UK, and opened in 1996 after a concerted campaign by The Ramblers and the River Thames Society, and years of negotiation with landowners to create it as a public footpath. If you want to walk the entire length in one journey, it could take between 10 and 14 days, depending on how fast you walk and how many stops to see interesting places. People often walk it in sections, doing one a month or a year, until they’ve completed it. The Thames Path is the only National Trail that follows a river, bringing with it a number of challenges for maintaining the surface and keeping it in good condition for the thousands of people who walk it every year. Steve Tabbitt is the National Trail officer with the task of leading a partnership of 34 organisations responsible for maintaining public rights of way along the entire length of the Thames Path, a host of volunteers, and raising funds for repairs and improvements. “Last year, as soon as the first lockdown restrictions were lifted, we noticed many people walking and running on the Thames Path, and that continued throughout the summer,” says Steve. “Let’s hope we have a dry spring again so that more people will enjoy the benefits of being beside the river.

“Be spontaneous, find somewhere on the Thames Path that you want to visit and head out there, subject to the Government guidelines on exercise and travel of course. “When you’re able to, give yourself an hour or two for detours to explore places you’re not familiar with. “Sometimes it’s good to just stand or sit still and be absorbed in your natural surroundings.” Spot wildlife The combination of trees, meadows, woods and the river is one that

Steve Tabbitt and Arken with Wendy Tobitt

Above Oxford fewer and smaller boats explore the willow-lined meanders that entranced artist, designer and philosopher William Morris as he sailed upstream from Hammersmith to his new home at Kelmscott Manor near Lechlade. The house is currently undergoing major restoration by the Society of Antiquaries to make it a complete museum to the Father of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Artist Stanley Spencer was inspired by the River Thames in his home village of Cookham. The Thames Path passes the Stanley Spencer Gallery, which everywhere on the Trail, and many of them are drawn together at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley. This is a popular attraction with its Wind in the Willows experience for children, the unique collection of rowing and boating including photographs by the renowned Victorian photographer Henry Taunt, and exhibitions of artists including John Piper. has exhibitions of his work. There are stories to be found

all Thames Path walkers appreciate. Here you can spot kingfishers and cormorants, listen to the mewing of buzzards soaring overhead, and if you’re lucky you may see otters slipping into the river. Dick Mayon-White, one of the volunteers who helps to maintain the Path, also wrote Exploring the Thames Wilderness, a guide to the natural Thames, encouraging people to spend idyllic hours discovering nature. In April you can enjoy the snake’s- head fritillaries flowering in North Meadow, Cricklade and also Iffley Meadows, Oxford. Near Goring you can step off the Thames Path onto the steep slopes of Hartslock nature reserve. Marvel at the beautiful orchids flowering from May to July. The Thames Path also takes you to riverside meadows, like Chimney Meadows near Bampton, which are full of colourful wild flowers at their best in summer. Artists’ ways The upper reaches of the Thames are so peaceful.



O&A SPRING 2021 22