On Wednesday the 3rd of August 2022, after a 2 hour drive I park up in Pangbourne River Meadow Car Park RG8 7DA. I break one of my rules and actually pay for parking on this walk.
It's £2.50 for up to 8 hours and you can pay by app.
Pangbourne's name is recorded from 844 as Old English Pegingaburnan (dative case), which means "the stream of the people of [a man called] Pǣga". In Norman times, the manor was given to Reading Abbey and the manor house – also called Bere Court – became the abbot's summer residence. The last abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, was arrested there in 1539 and subsequently executed in Reading. The manor was later purchased by Sir John Davis, the Elizabethan mathematician and the Earl of Essex's fellow-conspirator. His monument is in the Church of England parish church of Saint James the Less.
I leave the car park and turn right up Whitchurch Road crossing Whitchurch Bridge.
Whitchurch Bridge is a toll bridge that carries the B471 road over the River Thames. It links the villages of Pangbourne in Berkshire, and Whitchurch-on-Thames in Oxfordshire – crossing the river just downstream of Whitchurch Lock. It is one of two remaining private toll bridges across the Thames, the other being Swinford Toll Bridge. The bridge has a weight limit of 7.5 tonnes and is a Grade II listed structure. Its 1792-built, residential toll house is also listed.
Tolls currently range from 60p for cars to £4 for vehicles of over 3.5 tonnes. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles cross for free. A pre-paid multiple-use Bridge Card can be bought that provides cost savings on tolls.
After crossing the bridge and passing the Toll House I follow the road up and turn left by The Greyhound Pub into Eastfield Lane.
I walk up as far as the Whitchurch Primary School where I turn left up a tree lined footpath.
At the top of this path I turn right onto Hardwick Road and follow this quiet Lane up.
On my right I pass Bozedown Alpacas. They are a family enterprise with a wholehearted enthusiasm for the alpacas they breed and sell, and always keen to share their 29 years expertise. They can help you make the right choices for your alpaca experience, from pets to reliable breeding stock.
After walking alongside Hardwick Road for a distance, I reach a bend in the road and I walk on into the Hardwick Estate.
Hardwick is an organic, sustainably managed family run Estate covering 900 acres in the Chiltern hills in South Oxfordshire. The Estate comprises several farming and educational enterprises, 430 acres of mixed forestry, and is home to a small community in their rented properties. The Estate has been organically managed since 1975. They aspire to be a thriving rural community founded on ecological living and farming practices, as well as artisan crafts and skills.
They run a local firewood and timber business, hire out a riverside campsite for educational and family events, and lease plots of land for grazing or smallholding activities. Public footpaths and bridleways criss cross the scenic woodland. The Estate is also home to a stock free organic market garden, a forest school and education centre, a hemp growing cooperative, a biomass and solar energy company, a veg growers cooperative, a livery business, and a 300 acre organic farm.
I stop to say hello to the horses here.
Hardwick House is a Tudor house on the banks of the River Thames on a slight rise at Whitchurch-on-Thames in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall in the book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, although this is also claimed by Mapledurham House, Fowey Hall Hotel, Foxwarren Park and Fawley Court.
King Charles I of England visited the house while he was a prisoner on escort from Oxford.
Hardwick House was bought by Richard Lybbe in 1526; that family ended in an heiress Isabella Lybbe who married Philip Powys in 1730 and their Powys descendants had their home there for a further 130 years. Caroline Powys, wife of Philip Lybbe Powys of Hardwick House maintained a diary from 1756 which recorded the daily social round of her class in gossipy detail. She wrote of visits to neighbouring country houses, the winter balls and assemblies in Henley and the seasons in London and Bath with their plays, concerts and balls. Their great-grandson Philip Lybbe Powys, who later assumed the additional surname of Lybbe, was a rower and MP. He recalled as a child rowing from Hardwick to Mapledurham on Sunday afternoons.
Charles Day Rose purchased Hardwick House shortly before he was created a baronet of "Hardwick House in the Parish of Whitchurch in the County of Oxford" on 19 July 1909. Rose is said to have been one of the models for "Toad" of Toad Hall in The Wind in the Willows. Hardwick House and its surrounding estate have been in the ownership of the Baronets Rose of Hardwick for several generations and the current owner is Sir Julian Rose, 4th Baronet, who succeeded his father in 1966. In 1979 he also succeeded to the Rose Baronetcy of Montreal, and became the 5th Baronet in that line.
Hardwick House is a Grade I listed building, as is the adjacent dower house. The stables, and garden wall and gate pier have their own Grade II listings.
View down to the Thames below.
The path brings me out Mapledurham Road and I turn right and follow this for a short way and turn down towards Mapledurham House and Watermill.
I pass The Forge dated 1691, I suspect it as just that a forge for the Estate.
The six almshouses of Lister's Hospital still stand in the village, converted now into two cottages. The Trust has been commuted to a capital sum whose interest benefits sick or elderly parishioners.
A 12th Century family house and farming estate tucked in beside the Thames in the heart of a unique English village away from the distractions of town, business or busy hotels, Mapledurham is an oasis of peace. The estate is a haven of tradition coupled with a sustainable commerce to maintain the estate viability and ensure its longevity.
They have a diverse range of operations on the estate and these include a dairy farm, a hydro electric Archimedes screw turbine, traditional watermill for flour, an arable farm, golf course, several commercial lettings, tea room, two art studios, moorings and passenger boats to and from Mapledurham, a biomass heating system and a country events park to name but a few.
The location has attracted many film and television productions including The Eagle has Landed, Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders, Sharpe and The Big Allotment challenge. More recently we seen in Taboo, Hunderby and even Mr Tumble came to play!
Mapledurham also plays host to numerous wedding receptions, car rallies, reunions, corporate events, dog shows, falconry displays and craft fairs. The grounds of the House make a unique riverside venue for any number of events.
I reach St Margaret's Church at Mapledurham.
A church has existed on this site since Norman times, but the present church was begun in the late 13th century by William Bardolf the younger (d. 1289) and his wife Juliana de Gournay. Little original work is now visible since Butterfield's restoration of 1863.
Behind the church is Mapledurham House.
Mapledurham "the maple tree enclosure" appears in Domesday as two manors, Mapledurham Gurney belonging to William de Warenne, while Milo Crispin, Lord of the honour of Wallingford, owned the smaller Mapledurham Chazey.(pictured right)
The larger manor takes its name from Gerard de Gournay, to whom it passed as a marriage portion. It passed again by marriage in about 1270 to the Bardolfs, who were here for about 120 years, until the death in 1395 of Sir Robert Bardolf, esquire of the body to Edward III and Richard II and builder of the aisle, which bears his name. The manor passed in 1416 to his widows nephew, William Lynde, whose grandson sold it in 1490 to Richard Blount of Iver; it has belonged to his descendants ever since.
The Blounts claim descent from a Norman family, Le Blond, who came over with William the Conqueror. Richard Blounts great-grandfather, Sir Walter who married Sanchia de Ayala, a Spanish noblewoman, was Henry IV's standard bearer at the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403); Shakespeare portrays his violent death in Henry IV, part 1. His son, Sir Thomas (d.1456), was Treasurer of Normandy in the early years of Henry V's reign; from his eldest son Sir Walter, 1st Lord Mountjoy (d.1474), sprang the line which ended so illustriously with the Earl of Devonshire (1563-1606). Richard Blount, purchaser of Mapledurham, was the son of Sir Thomas' second son.
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| Mapledurham House |
Across the road is the reason I came here to see Mapledurham Watermill immortalised in te cover of the 1970 Black Sabbath album.
Unfortunately the estate is closed to visitors since the start of the Covid pandemic and has remained so and won't be open to public in 2022. Hence I was unable to get the right angle to replicate the album cover. The gates opened for a grounds person I snuck in quickly but was promptly thrown back out again, so photos through the railings had to suffice!
Mapledurham Watermill is a historic watermill in the civil parish of Mapledurham in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is driven by the head of water created by Mapledurham Lock and Weir, on the River Thames. The mill was built in the 15th century, and further extended in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It is a Grade II listed building and is preserved in an operational state.
The mill also houses a micro hydro-electric power station, using a 3.6-metre (12 ft) Archimedes' screw turbine to generate electricity for sale to the National Grid. The turbine produces some 83.3 Kilowatts, which is sufficient to power about 140 homes.
A mill was already present at Mapledurham at the time of the Domesday Book. The central section of the current mill building dates back to the 15th century. Originally the mill had a single water wheel on the river side of the building. The mill was increased in size in the 1670s, and a leat was constructed to drive a second water wheel on the village side. It is this second wheel which is still in use today.
The mill building is best known, and has gained worldwide recognition, for being featured on the cover of heavy metal band Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album in 1970.
The watermill is also known for its starring role in the 1976 film of The Eagle Has Landed, where the mill leat is the scene of the dramatic rescue of a local girl by a German paratrooper that results in the unmasking of Steiner and his men.
The mill was used as a filming location on the Children's Film Foundation's Exploits at West Poley (1985), starring Jonathan Jackson, Charlie Condou, Brenda Fricker and Sean Bean.
The mill appears in the introductory credits to the BBC television programme, Richard Hammond's Blast Lab, as the supposed hidden location of the underground lab. The mill also appears in the Midsomer Murders episode The Fisher King (season 7; episode 3), as the scene for the discovery of a body. The mill is also the location used for Mill Cottage in the Inspector Morse episode "The Day of The Devil"
The mill appears as a location in several episodes of the 2017 BBC series Taboo starring Tom Hardy.
I walk back up the road leaving the Mapledurham estate and back along the road passing Park Farm.
The sky is filled with Red Kites and the sound of their cries.
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| A Red Kite |
I pass Chazey Woods and I was surprised to see a chalk cliff up above the woods.
The path brings me out onto The Warren and I walk by many expensive homes with large grounds that lead down onto The Thames.
At the end of the road I am at St Peters Church in Caversham.
Dating from 1162, Walter Gifford, Earl of Buckingham gave the church to Notley Abbey, Buckinghamshire. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Christ Church, Oxford became the patron. Rectorial rights were restored in 1916. The church today consists of chancel, north and south chapels, north vestry, nave, aisles, south porch and west tower.
I walk down Church Road and have a quick look about Caversham Court.
Caversham Court is a public garden and was a mansion located on the north bank of the River Thames in Caversham, a suburb of Reading in the English county of Berkshire (formerly in Oxfordshire). The park lies within the St Peter's conservation area. The park is listed as Grade II in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
The medieval community of Caversham was clustered on the north side of Caversham Bridge to the east of St Peter's Church, which was built in the 12th century. Walter Giffard, the second Earl of Buckingham, donated the land for the church and neighbouring rectory, together with a considerable amount of land around it, to the Augustinian Abbey of Notley near Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire. They erected a small monastic cell there.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, these lands were given to Christ Church, Oxford. Over the next four centuries, the Old Rectory, which became known as Caversham Court, was occupied by some of the most influential families in the Reading area, who both improved and enhanced the site.
A Tudor replacement for the original house was built around two courtyards. Its beautiful timber-framing led to its nickname of the Striped House. It had a 1638 staircase, with bullet holes from a Civil War attack, and an elaborate decorated plaster ceiling. Parts of both are preserved in the Museum of Reading. In the 1840s, the rectory and garden walls were rebuilt to a design by A W Pugin who gave the house a castellated facade with fretwork balustrading. The house was demolished in 1933.
I walk back out of the gardens and continue along the road to the end and turn right onto Bridge Street.
I walk over The Thames at Caversham Bridge.
The first bridge on the site was built sometime between 1163, when a famous trial by combat was fought on nearby De Montfort Island, and 1231, when Henry III wrote to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire, commanding him:"to go in person, taking with him good and lawful men of his county, to the chapel of St Anne on the bridge at Reading over the Thames one side of which is built on the fee of William Earl Marshal and by the view and testimony of those men see that the abbot has the same seisin of the said chapel as he had on the day the said earl died."
William Marshal was the first Earl of Pembroke, the principal landowner in the Caversham area, and regent during the early years of Henry's reign. He had died at his home at Caversham Park in 1218.
The old bridge was the site of a skirmish during the English Civil War in 1643 and was left with a wooden drawbridge structure on the Berkshire half. The bridge was still in this state when it was depicted by Joseph Mallord William Turner in 1806/7, in a painting entitled Caversham Bridge with Cattle in the Water.
In 1869, the entire bridge was replaced by an iron lattice construction. When Reading Bridge was completed in 1923 work began on replacing Caversham Bridge with the current structure which is of concrete with a granite balustrade. It was opened in 1926 by Edward Prince of Wales.
Once over the bridge I join The Thames Path and follow this along the river.
Caversham is a suburb of Reading. Originally a village founded in the Middle Ages, it lies on the north bank of the River Thames, opposite the rest of Reading. Caversham Bridge, Reading Bridge, Christchurch Bridge, and Caversham Lock provide crossing points (the last two for pedestrians only), with Sonning Bridge also available a few miles east of Caversham.
Named areas include Emmer Green, Lower Caversham, Caversham Heights and Caversham Park Village. With the exception of the centre of Caversham and Emmer Green, which were traditional villages, much of the development occurred during the 20th century.
I stop at one of the benches along the Riverside for lunch.
Further along the river I reach a locked gate and I have to follow The Thames Path up over a bridge crossing the railway lines just past Tilehurst Station and out onto a housing estate on Purley-On-Thames. It isn't well signposted here and I get a little lost before finding my way. Needless to say I didn't bother with photos here and just wanted to get back by the river.
I eventually make my way onto Mapledurham Drive and this lead me to a footpath that leads me back to the river.
I am now at Mapledurham Lock.
Mapledurham Lock has been linked through the ages with the nearby corn mill - the only water mill working on the River Thames today. The mill appears in the Domesday Book, so it follows there was a dam or weir here in 1086, one of the earliest recorded on the river.
Mapledurham Lock made history in 1956 when it became the first mechanical lock on the River Thames. It used an early type of electro-mechanical system although it wasn't very successful and was converted to hydraulic operation in the 1974.
I try to walk across the lock to the island in the middle hoping to get a decent photo of the rear of Mapledurham Mill. But the lock keeper runs out shouting something, my second bollocking of the day!
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| The rear of Mapledurham Watermill. |
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| The African Queen. A floating hotel and restaurant. |
I continue to follow the River along, and can see where I walked up earlier in the day on the far bank.
Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, retired to Church Cottage in Pangbourne. He died there in 1932. E. H. Shepherd's famous illustrations of his book are said to have been inspired by the Thameside landscape there and the water voles of the river are thought to have inspired the character of Ratty.
I am now back at the car park in Pangbourne after 14 miles of walking.
I ditch my bag and boots grab my swim gear and walk over the bridge to the toll booth, no way down to the river here. So I walk back over the bridge , I didn't want to swim in then river by the car park as it was very busy with families so I follow the road up Shooters Hill, but for miles it was private access for the posh houses opposite, just as I was about to give up there was a fishing swim just before Beale Wildlife Park. So I got changed and had a nice relaxing and cooling swim before I drove home.
