GPX File here
On Monday the 3rd April 2023 I drove to Hampton Court and parked up for free at Hurst Meadows Car Park on Graburn Way KT8 9BF to walk this section on the Thames Path from Hampton Court to Staines Upon Thames.
I walked down Graburn Way and onto The Thames, a little way up from where I left off before at Hampton Court Palace but this small stretch will be covered later when I return by the 216 bus.
On The Thames I am immediately met with some rather fancy houseboats moored on the far bank.
I walk on along the South Bank passing through Hurst Park.
I pass the houseboat Astoria owned by Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame.
The Astoria is nothing like most of the contemporary luxurious yachts owned by celebrities around the world. But, this does not mean that it’s is not an exceptional boat. The 27-meter Astoria has its own retro charm and a very interesting story attached to it. Permanently anchored at Hampton, London on the River Thames, the Astoria is owned by the famous musician David Gilmour.
David Gilmour first noticed the Astoria when he was being driven down a road (because he was banned from driving for a year due to drunken driving, he could take in the scenery.) Gilmour saw the top of the boat and asked the driver to stop so he could take a good look. Even though he loved the look of the Astoria, Gilmour had no idea he would eventually own it. He continued with his journey.
Soon after, the musician noticed the boat yet again, this time in a Country Life magazine he was perusing while he was waiting to be seen by his dentist. Gilmour called the seller and arranged to view the Astoria. Although he didn’t think about converting it into a recording studio at the time, Gilmour loved the boat and thought of it as a “very, very beautiful, magical place.” Of course, he had to have it.
After he bought the Astoria in 1986, David Gilmour realized that he had spent too much time in window-less recording studios and thought it would be a great idea to use the light and airy boat to work from. Gilmour and his band, Pink Floyd, began recording their music from the Astoria, even though it wasn’t soundproof. The background sounds of the river, like ducks and other boats rowing, became part of some of the recordings Gilmour and his band made from this alternative studio. In fact, several of the Pink Floyd records were made on the Astoria in a tiny little room, including A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Endless River, and The Division Bell. Parts of other records like Pulse and also the Pulse movie were mixed in the floating studio. Over the next decade, Gilmour continued making recordings there, including his solo albums like On an Island.
The Astoria was built in 1911 for Fred Karno, an impresario who paid a whopping £20,000 for it, a small fortune at the time. The idea was to have a houseboat permanently moored on the river outside his hotel, the Karsino.
Even back then the boat was designed with music in mind, and could comfortably accommodate a complete 90-piece orchestra on deck. Besides enough space for grand performances such as this, the Astoria has three cabins, the main saloon, and a kitchen and bathroom. It has a robust and beautiful mahogany frame and is decorated with ornamental metalwork canopies and eye-catching balustrades. The boat lets a lot of light in through many steel-framed Crittal windows making it a bright and airy space.
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| Garricks Temple to Shakespeare |
In 1754, the celebrated actor David Garrick purchased
Hampton House (now Garrick’s Villa) which overlooks the river Thames at
Hampton. He commissioned Robert Adam to improve the house, adding a classical
portico and orangery. At some point in 1755 he decided to build a garden folly by
the riverside which he intended to dedicate to his muse Shakespeare as a
‘temple’ to the playwright whose works he had performed to great acclaim
throughout his career. Garrick used the temple to house his extensive
collection of Shakespearean relics and for entertaining his family and friends.
The temple now houses an exhibition about Garrick himself, featuring a number
of reproductions of works by major 18th century artists, including
Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hogarth and Zoffany.
The temple was built in the Classical style popularised by the Italian architect Palladio with an Ionic portico, four columns wide by three deep, flanking the entrance. Several steps lead up to the portico. The temple's architect is unknown as Garrick’s decision to build it is not recorded in his own papers. Robert Adam and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown have both been suggested as possibilities. An ‘Ionic Temple’ of similar design stands in the gardens of Chiswick House a few miles away. This may well have been the inspiration for Garrick's Temple, Garrick had spent his honeymoon with his wife Eva Maria in June of 1749 at Chiswick House, home of Lord and Lady Burlington. The Burlingtons were close friends of the Garricks and had acted as guardians to Eva Maria before the wedding.
On 4 August 1755, his neighbour and friend Horace Walpole wrote to a correspondent: "I have contracted a sort of intimacy with Garrick, who is my neighbour. He affects to study my taste; I lay it all upon you – he admires you. He is building a graceful temple to his master Shakespeare and I am going to adorn the outside, since his modesty would not let me decorate it within, as I proposed, with these mottos:
“Quod spiroetplaceo, siplacea, tuum est.
That I spirit have and nature,
That sense breaths in ev’ry feature
That I please, if please I do,
Shakespear, all I owe to you.”
To preside over the interior of the Temple, in 1758 Garrick commissioned a life-sized marble statue of Shakespeare from the eminent Huguenot sculptor, Louis François Roubiliac. Garrick almost certainly posed for the statue himself – showing the Bard at the precise moment of inspiration. Completion of this commission was not without difficulties. The original version showed faint veins across the face (natural blemishes in the marble), which Garrick found unacceptable. Roubiliac had to remove the head and replace it with another of a purer marble. The original statue, bequeathed to the British Museum, is now in the British Library (without its plinth). The excellent copy now in the Temple was presented to the Temple Trust by the British Museum. In the Zoffany painting showing the Garricks resting in front of the Temple, the statue can be glimpsed through the open door of the building, reminding us of Garrick’s devotion to his idol.
After Garrick’s death in 1779, the villa and the temple remained the property of his wife Eva until her death at the age of 98 in 1822. Thereafter the temple passed through a succession of owners until 1932 when it was purchased by Hampton Urban District Council. By the mid 1990s the Temple was in serious need of repair and the garden sadly neglected. After a campaign supported by a group of distinguished actors, The Temple Trust, The Hampton Riverside Trust, donations from local groups as well as a successful application by the Borough of Richmond upon Thames for money from the National Lottery's Heritage fund, it was restored in the late 1990s and reopened to the public as a museum and memorial to the life and career of Garrick. It is reputedly the world's only shrine to Shakespeare.
Did you know that the Vikings sailed this far up the river!?? Apparently to raid Chertsey Abbey!
Walking along I pass Tagg Island. This island is accessed from a bridge on the north side of the river. As you approach the small island of Garricks Ait ahead you get good views to Hampton across the river, with the skyline dominated by its large and attractive St Marys church, which dates from 1831.
I now reach the Memorial Sundial. The seats and plaques and interactive “fun” sundial were constructed by sculptor Stephen Broadbent of Liverpool and the base by Entech Services Limited, Ingatestone, Essex.
A little further on and across the river from me was Platt’s Eyot, with its warehouses and boat yard.
Along the bank a little further on are canal boats moored, I often wonder what this life is like living on the water.
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| Coal Tax Post |
Although you can’t really see it from the Thames Path, to my left are a lot of bodies of water…the Molesey Reservoirs Nature Reserve, Queen Elizabeth II Storage Reservoir, Bessborough Reservoir, Walton Advanced Water Treatment Works and Island Barn Reservoir, and across the river Sunnyside Reservoir and the Thames Water Hampton Water Treatment Works.
I pass the ferry across to Sunbury and walk on.
I now reach Sunbury Lock and its weir.
First built in 1812 Sunbury Lock is a lock complex of the River Thames near Walton-on-Thames, the 3rd lowest of 44 on the non-tidal reaches.
Walking on I pass Walton Rowing Club as I now approach Walton On Thames.
I pass the pub called the Anglers of Walton. The Anglers has existed since the mid 18th century in various forms – mainly as an Inn, Hotel and latterly Public house. The place was popular among local fishermen, who would spend hours on the river shore. Acquired by Fuller, Smith and Turner Brewery of Chiswick around 2010.
There is a running club event here today and now and as far as Walton Bridge I have to share the path with runners bounding back and forth, noisy sods too!
Along the banks are now full of swans that approach you wanting to be fed.
They seem to be more prolific the closer you get to Windsor. Did you know that Queen Elizabeth II owned all the swans in England. According to the official Royal Family website, the Crown has held the right to claim ownership of all unmarked mute swans swimming in open waters across the country since the 12th Century. Some of the swans are owned by the Vintners and Dyers, but are marked by those companies. I wonder if the swans were passed onto King Charles after her majesty’s sad death.
I walk on crossing a bridge over Walton Marina.
Up ahead is Walton Bridge, as I approach I see a sign saying that the ferry ahead that I would need to use is closed as the river state is high and the water conditions dangerous and I sadly need to use the alternative route.
I walk on under the bridge and up the river a way before realising I need to cross the Walton Bridge to use the alternative route. A severe lack of Thames Path signage here. So I walk back.
I cross the Walton Bridge over The Thames.
I follow Walton Lane into Lower Halliford.
I turn left onto Russell Road and follow this busy road but get a quick glimpse of the Thames once again.
At a roundabout I turn left again onto Chertsey Road and I pass Church Square on my left. I divert off a short way to see the church and the pretty square.
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St Nicholas Church here in Shepperton. |
A church has stood on this site since the 7th century. The early church would have made from wood and thatched with reeds. The monks from Chertsey Abbey may have originally ministered to the villagers, but the entry for Shepperton in the Doomsday Book does include a priest. In the 12th century a more solid structure of stone and flint was built. In 1605-6 high floods inundated the church. Some timber and stone were salvaged and incorporated into the present building which was completed in 1614. A hundred years later the Rev Lewis Atterbury, at the suggestion of Queen Anne, added the tower. This is built in Thames Valley brick, contrasting with the rest of the building, which is in a chequered design of stone blocks alternating with squares of flint rubble. The tower contains six bells, five of them dating from 1877 and the smallest bell named Little Nicholas was installed in 1980, when the tower was strengthened. The clock was placed in the tower in 1769. There is an external staircase leading to the gallery, added in 1834. There is another external staircase leading to the smaller Manor House Gallery over the baptistry. This enabled the Lord of the Manor to cut across the fields from the Manor House and enter his own pew without having to mix with the rest of the congregation. From this vantage point he could also keep a watchful eye on the Rector!
The choir and clergy vestries on the south side were added in 1934. It is noticeable that the chancel and the nave are not quite in alignment - this could have been an error by the architect or maybe the builder. The pew are called "box pews" and date from the 19th century. On the gallery you will see a coat of arms painted directly on to the panelling. It is the Hanoverian Royal Arms, probably those of William IV. There are many reminders of past worshippers in the church, the stained glass windows, stone and brass tablets and war memorials. The chancel screen, reredos and choir and clergy stalls, along with the glass screens at the back of the church and the gallery, were all given by relations and friends in grateful memory of past parishioners. The organ is a Bishop organ installed in 1908. Originally a choirboy was paid one old penny to work the bellows for each service.
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| KINGS HEAD PUB |
Here are two old looking pubs, The Anchor and the Kings Head.
Dating back to the 15th century, it is steeped in history and was originally a coaching inn, with the top bar being stables. It has been reported that Admiral Nelson courted Lady Hamilton at The King's Head when he came to Shepperton to visit his brother, a vicar at nearby Laleham village.
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The Anchor Pub |
Many historic inns claim to have been frequented by Dick Turpin and the Anchor is no exception. Few believed such stories until renovation works some years ago revealed a pistol hidden in the rafters bearing the chilling inscription ‘Dick’s Friend’. What we can say for sure is that, with the world famous Shepperton Studios just around the corner, many world famous actors and musicians have stayed, dined or just popped in for a drink. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were regular visitors during the filming of ‘Becket’ in the 1960s and it was here that one of the most famous love stories of the 20th Century blossomed.
Originally a coaching inn, the Anchor has stood on its present site for over 400 years. The original Anchor Inn dated back to the 16th Century and was a timber framed building. This original building was replaced in the 1800s with the brick built building that you see today. However some of the panelling, which is such a feature of the ground floor, probably came from the original building.
The intricate panelling that can be seen in the Disraeli Room came from the former residence of Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, and must be one of the first examples of recycling. As you walk around the Hotel take time to enjoy the history of the place. If these ancient walls could talk we have little doubt that they would tell a very colourful tale.
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I walk on by the sadly closed ferry, was looking forward to the boat trip!
I reach Shepperton Lock and Weir.
A weir is recorded at Shepperton in the 1086 Domesday Book and in the 14th century. A reference to a sluice or dam at Shepperton occurs in 1293 and tolls being raised on passing barges which would imply a flash lock.
The lock was built in 1813 on the site of a small watercourse known as Stoner's Gut which ran across the meander cutoff. Stoner's Gut had posed difficulties to navigation and barges usually went to Weybridge including from the 17th century up the Wey and Godalming Navigations to the south. Various accounts at the end of the 18th century record flood waters using the gut and of a chapel built on piles over the river which was washed away. An alike event in one account washed away much of the main church of the town downstream by the river, prompting its being largely rebuilt in 1614. The gut was for a time dammed. In 1805 came the first suggestion for a lock. After strong opposition, the proposal was put forward again in 1809 and a wooden lock was subsequently built. A stone lock was built in 1899, next to the existing wooden one which was then filled in and removed.
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| Shepperton Weir |
I walk on passing a private island of houses, its called Pharoah's Island.
It was purchased by the Treasury to give to Admiral Nelson after the Battle of the Nile (1798). He used it as a fishing retreat. The island was known as Dog Ait until at least the end of the 19th century. Tory MP and High Court Judge Sir Cyril Atkinson built the first house on the island in 1903 and named it Sphinx due to his interest in Egyptology.
I walk on, following the river. Nothing of any real interest for a while and my legs are starting to ache after walking non stop.
I walk on through Dumsey Meadows towards Chertsey.
I reach the pretty Chertsey Bridge.
The first bridge on the site was built some time after 1299 as in that year the king and his family were carried over the river by a ferry-woman called Sibille. The earliest written forebear to this bridge is that of 1530: a "goodly Bridg of Timber newly repaird". By 1580 it was dilapidated and the Crown, who had acquired responsibility from Chertsey Abbey, was trying to find someone on whom they could pin the bill for repairs. The documents record the dimensions as "210 feet in length and 15 feet in breadth". In 1632 the bridge, which was slanted upwards from Middlesex to Surrey, was described as like the work of a left-handed man. The slant was more annoying to navigation and passage was reported in 1774 to be very inconvenient and dangerous
The present stone bridge was first considered in 1780 and replacement of the old one began in 1783. There were 184 piles for the old bridge, which were cut off six feet below high-water mark, and the materials of the old bridge fetched £120 at auction in August 1784. The architect of the new bridge was James Paine and the surveyor was Kenton Couse. It was built at a cost of £6813 4s 11d. In an early example of contract dispute, the contractor built the number of arches specified, but as they did not reach the shore, the counties had to pay, at extra expense, for linking the bridge to the banks.
Walking on I reach Chertsey Lock.
Way back in the 16th and 17th centuries there was a ford across the Thames here at Chertsey, although this was later discarded in favour of a ferry carrying people and goods across the river.
This part of the river was referred to as Laleham Gulls - an area of shallows causing all sorts of difficulties for barges and other river traffic. Eventually the Corporation of the City of London realised the need to improve navigation here and between 1811-1815 they built a series of large locks along the Thames, Chertsey being one of them. This project was described at the time as 'one of the most outstanding examples of river engineering in history'.
The local landowner, Lord Lucan (ancestor of the 'disappeared' Lucan) claimed that the lock and lock house spoiled his view. So the lock house was 'sunk' into the ground, causing a later resident to complain of the 'low and therefore damp situation of his bedrooms.'
I walk on and walk beneath the M3.
I now am passing Laleham and its campsite.
The path is just going on and on, I just wanna reach Staines now, I'm tired!
I reach Penton Hook Lock.
Problems were long caused in erosion and to navigation by floodwaters topping the neck of the meander (a seasonal meander cutoff). The Corporation promoted the funding of the lock with formalised weirs in 1809, and Parliament passed its enabling act 1814. The lock was completed in 1815, two years after Chertsey Lock, as the Thames lock farthest upstream controlled by the City of London Corporation, whose arms appear on the Lock Cottage built in 1814. It soon became the sixth lock proceeding upstream, as it is today.
The main weir was built in 1846 when positioned below the offtake of the Abbey River, a medieval-established leat and so sited for the benefit of watermill power; the grain mills were by the end of that century superseded by large industrial granaries. Horse, cattle and crop farming tenants had conflicting interest of reducing its flow; in spate, the weirs elsewhere reduced the flow of the main river for a mile or more (such as beside Laleham Park). For a few years the leat was sourced above the main weir thus increasing the flooding of Laleham Burway and other fields of northern Chertsey; its shallow course has banks without bundings and few sluices. These interests outweighing those of the outdated mill led to start of the Abbey River being moved to below the main weir of Penton Hook, reducing the enhanced flows along the Abbey River. To resume additional flood relief channels, as of the early 2020s, the Environment Agency proposes new instances of channels below this lock and that below to act in the same way as the Jubilee River upstream which fast tracks flows from above Maidenhead to below Windsor.
The lock was rebuilt in 1909.
I am now walking into Staines Upon Thames.
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| St Peters Church, Staines Upon Thames |
St Peter's Church, Laleham Road, Staines, was founded in 1873 by the vicar of St Mary's, Staines as a mission chapel. It was first called St Peter's Mission Chapel. A temporary 'iron church' was built circa 1885 and a permanent parish church consecrated in 1894.
The earliest document to refer to Staines is the Antonine Itinerary, thought to have been written in the early 3rd century AD, in which the location appears as Pontibus, meaning "at the bridges". The first surviving records of Staines from the post-Roman period are from 1066, when the settlement appears in two separate charters as Stana and Stane. In Domesday Book of 1086, the settlement is referred to as Stanes. It later appears as Stanis (1167), Stanys (1428), Steynys and Staynys (1535), before the modern spelling "Staines" is first used in 1578. The name derives from the Old English stān, meaning "stone", and may refer to a Roman milestone on the London to Silchester road that survived into the early Anglo-Saxon period.
In order to promote the town's "riverside image" and to distance it from its association with the fictional character, Ali G, Spelthorne Borough Council voted in December 2011 to change its name from "Staines" to "Staines-upon-Thames". The formal renaming ceremony, conducted by the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, Dame Sarah Goad, took place on 20 May 2012. The Royal Mail adopted the new name in mid-2013.
I walk into Staines Upon Thames and to the Bus Station and catch the 216 bus bus back to hampton Court Palace.
I had another quick look at Hampton Court Palace.
Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief minister of Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the king to check his disgrace. The palace went on to become one of Henry's most favoured residences; soon after acquiring the property, he arranged for it to be enlarged so that it might more easily accommodate his sizeable retinue of courtiers. The palace is currently in the possession of King Charles III and the Crown.
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You can join the Lindt GOLD BUNNY Hunt around the gardens right now! |
I cross over Hampton Court Bridge to follow the river back to my car.
I reach Molesey Lock and weir.
A lock was first proposed in 1802 because of then-shallows upstream at "Kenton Hedge and Sundbury Flatts above" — nothing came of the suggestion. In 1809 the proposal was resubmitted Parliament passed the Act for construction of the lock in 1812. Building began in 1814 and it opened in 1815 with an Italianate lockhouse. The first lock keeper was killed in a horse race at Moulsey Hurst and his successor discharged after incidents of stealing from barges. In 1853 changes were made to the lock in anticipation of lower water levels caused by the extraction of water upstream. Fish ladders were added to the weir in 1864 and the boat slide built in 1871. Such was the popularity of boating that in 1877 the navigation commission stationed a boat and crew in busy days above the weir in case of accidents. The lock was rebuilt in 1906. On the small lock island is a plaque commemorating Michael J Bulleid whose work for salmon conservancy allows them to scale the river.
I now walk back to my car after a 14 mile, I'm tired but that's another section completed!
