Thames Path
The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from one of its sources near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996.
In theory, the Thames Path's entire length can be walked, and a few parts can be cycled, but certain sections are closed for an indefinite period, including Temple Bridge at Hurley and Marsh Lock in Henley. Some parts of the Thames Path, particularly west of Oxford, are subject to flooding during the winter. The river is tidal downstream from Teddington Lock and the lower parts of these paths may be underwater at spring tides, although the Thames Barrier protects London from catastrophic flooding.
The Thames Path uses the river towpath between Inglesham and Putney and available paths elsewhere. Historically, towpath traffic crossed the river using many ferries, but few of these crossings exist now and some diversion from the towpath is necessary.
The Thames Path meets The Ridgeway National Trail at the Goring Gap, where the trails use opposite banks of the River Thames between Goring-on-Thames and Mongewell; the Thames Path follows the western bank and The Ridgeway the eastern.
Description and access to the river
The general aim of the path is to provide walkers with a pleasant route alongside the river. The way this is achieved naturally falls into three distinct areas, depending on the nature of the river in the area.The unnavigable upper river
In the absence of a tow path, the Thames Path uses all available riverside rights of way between the traditional source of the river in Trewsbury Mead and Inglesham, but is unable to run alongside the river in several places.The Thames Path starts beside the monument for the traditional river source and follows the water down the hill towards the Fosse Way. In the fields either side of the A433 are some springs; and south of this road, a small water channel can be found and then a pool and small weir, before reaching the A429 bridge near Kemble. On the stretch between Ewen and Somerford Keynes the bourne passes through fields and there are a number of watermills. The path then follows the watercourse through the Cotswold Water Park to Ashton Keynes, where the water divides into a number of streams; the Thames Path partly follows one of these and rejoins the river by Waterhay Bridge. Downstream from this point canoeing in the river is practical. The path wanders to and from the river amongst more gravel pits until Hailstone Hill, where a riverside path starts by the old railway line. A little further, the North Wilts canal from Latton formerly crossed the river on an aqueduct and ran alongside and south of the river to West Mill Lane. Here the path leaves the river to go through Cricklade, past Cricklade Town Bridge, rejoining the river east of the town, and now follows the river all the way downstream to Castle Eaton. The path next follows country lanes, a short stretch along a backwater to Hannington Bridge then goes across fields to Inglesham. In 2018 the path incorporated a section of permissive path alongside the river at Upper Inglesham.
Above Inglesham the river is not dredged and being without weirs to control water levels, it is often shallow, weedy and swift but after heavy rain flooding of the riverside paths is common. Today the Environment Agency is the navigation authority responsible for the Thames between Cricklade and Teddington. The navigation towpath starts from Inglesham, as does the ability to navigate the river for all but very small boats, although there were once weirs with flash locks to enable passage as far as Cricklade, and there is still a right of navigation up to Cricklade. The navigation above Lechlade clearly must have been neglected after the Thames and Severn Canal provided an easier route by canal for barge traffic and not all of the river downstream from Cricklade has a footpath alongside.
The navigable river with locks and towpath
The Thames Path uses the existing Thames towpath between Inglesham and Putney Bridge wherever possible. The former Thames and Severn Canal entrance is the present-day limit of navigation for powered craft, and is one and a half miles upstream of the highest lock, near Lechlade. Today, between the canal entrance and Putney Bridge, the towpath still allows access by foot to at least one side of the river for almost the whole length of the main navigation of the river, but not mill streams, backwaters or a few meanders cut off by lock cuttings, since towpaths were originally only intended to enable towing of barges on the navigation.File:Inglesham Round House - geograph.org.uk - 3260.jpg|thumb|left|Thames and Severn Canal and River Coln joining the Thames with former canal warehouse to left and Round House behind it, covered in greenery
Origin of the towpath
The Thames has been used for navigation for a long time, although owners of weirs, locks and towpath often charged tolls. The towpath owes its existence, in its current form, to the Industrial Revolution and the Canal Mania of the 1790s to 1810s, and so is related to the history of the British canal system. The Thames already allowed for passage onto the River Kennet Navigation and River Wey Navigation, but this period in history also saw the Wilts & Berks Canal, the Oxford Canal and the Thames and Severn Canal connected to the non-tidal Thames. It was not until a little after the Thames Navigation Commission were enabled the Thames and Isis Navigation Act 1795 to purchase land for a continuous horse path that the non-tidal navigation was consolidated as a complete route under a single authority, upstream to Inglesham. This improved the ability of horse-drawn barge traffic to travel upstream to the Thames and Severn Canal, which had opened in 1789 and provided an alternative route for boat traffic to Cricklade. The commissioners had to create horse ferries to join up sections of towpath, as the act did not allow them to compulsorily purchase land near an existing house, garden or orchard. The City of London Corporation, who had rights and responsibilities for the Thames below Staines from a point marked by the London Stone, had similarly bought out the towpath tolls of riparian land owners as enabled by the earlier Thames Navigation Act 1776.From the 1840s, the development of the railways and steam power gradually made redundant the need for horse-drawn barges on the non-tidal Thames, although people were still using the towpath to tow small pleasure boats in 1889. The towpath route has not changed since then, apart from now following Shifford lock cut; however, over time the towpath ferries became obsolete and the last towpath ferry to stop running was the rope ferry at Bablock Hythe in the 1960s.
Deviations
The main exception to towpath access to the navigation between Inglesham and Putney is a stretch of river where the former towpath was removed past Windsor Castle. The castle's private grounds of Home Park, Windsor were extended to include the riverbank and its towpath by the Windsor Castle Act 1848 , also involving the building of Victoria and Albert bridges and the removal of Datchet Bridge. This accounts for the Thames Path's diversion from the river at Datchet. There are two other short lengths of navigation which have no towpath: one between Marlow bridge and lock, and one past Whitchurch lock either side of The Swan public house in Pangbourne. At both these weirs, lengthy rope winches were required for barges to pass Marlow and Whitchurch in the days before steam power. It is also required to divert around Oxford Cruisers downstream of Pinkhill Lock, even though the towpath is still shown as a public right of way on Ordnance Survey maps. The remainder of the navigation between Inglesham and Putney has an existing towpath; however, river crossings are now missing at the sites of 15 former ferries and one former lock, so the Thames Path makes 11 other diversions from the remaining towpath because of the lack of a river crossing at their original locations. There is also a twelfth temporary diversion at Hammersmith Bridge, described below.Walkers can visit the lengths of river navigation not on the Thames Path using the current towpath, except for two isolated sections of towpath not connected by any public path at either end. The first is a short section of path on the north bank opposite Purley-on-Thames; this is still shown on Ordnance Survey maps but is inaccessible except by boat, caused by the lack of two ferries formerly diverting around Purley Hall. The second and furthest downstream is a particularly picturesque section of towpath within the National Trust grounds of Cliveden; here the lack of three ferries accounts for the Thames Path's diversion from the river at Cookham.
When Cookham Lock was built in 1830, Hedsor Water became a backwater and lost its towpath. Around 1822, Clifton and Old Windsor locks were built, with lock cuttings which cut across river meanders; here the towpath was rerouted along the lock cuttings and there is no public riverside access to these river meanders. However, some stretches of river bypassed by navigation cuttings still retain public footpath access: firstly at Desborough Island ; secondly, parts of older towpath accessible at Duxford ; and lastly, the river meander at Culham. The Culham meander is accessible, even though only parts are designated as public footpath and there is also riverside public footpath along the ancient causeway past Sutton Pools.