THAMES PATH ROUTE DETAILS AND HISTORY

PATH DETAILS The Thames Path is unique, it's the only long distance route to follow a river for most of its length. And it's the river which gives the Path its character and fashions the countryside through which you will travel. At the start, the source of the River Thames in a field in the Cotswolds, you may well find no water at all. However, gradually as you travel the trickle becomes a stream and soon a river bordered by willows and alders. As far as Oxford, apart from a couple of small towns and a few villages, there is a real sense of remoteness and rural tranquillity as the Thames winds its way through flat water meadows grazed by cattle or sheep, or fields of crops. Beyond Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, you will still be in the heart of the countryside but the river continues to widen, the willows seem to grow larger, and settlements become more frequent. From Goring where the Path coincides for a short distance with another National Trail, The Ridgeway, the Chiltern Hills provide a wooded backdrop, the colours changing dramatically with the seasons. When you reach Henley, the Path starts to get busier with more people enjoying picnics on the bank or boats on the water. Usually however, once you're away from towns or villages around a bend or two of the river, you'll regain the rural peacefulness. As the Thames Path passes beneath Windsor Castle, you are reminded that you are following a Royal river, and the palaces of Hampton Court and Kew soon to follow confirm this. From the last non-tidal lock on the Thames at Teddington, you can choose to walk on either the north or south bank of the river through London. You'll pass leafy Richmond and Kew, remarkably green areas, before entering the heart of the City and on to the final section of the Thames Path amongst restored warehouses and working wharves in London's Docklands. PATH HISTORY The Thames Valley was originally settled by prehistoric people with the earliest occupations discovered so far dating from the New Stone Age, some 6 000 years ago. These are at Runnymede and Staines near the Thames, not far from present day London. The river has been a very important trading route for hundreds of years and it is really only during the latter half of the 20th century that it has mostly ceased to carry goods. Nowadays leisure boats rather than barges are the main users of the Thames. It was in medieval times that the river became increasingly important for trade, especially in those days for carrying wool from the lush Cotswold meadows to London. St Paul's Cathedral is built of Taynton stone quarried in the Cotswolds and carried to London by barges towed by men and horses from Radcot. By the 18th century London was the world's busiest port and Reading, for example, received 95% of its goods by barge towed along the River Thames. The towpath between Lechlade and Putney, along which much of the Thames Path now travels, was established towards the end of the 18th century by the Thames Commissioners at a time when the country's new canal system was being built which connected the Thames to other parts of Britain. It was a difficult task since many landowners refused permission for the towing path to enter their land or there were natural obstacles in its way. As a result in many places the towpath switched from one bank of the river to the other and ferries were used to transfer the towing horses across the river. When the commercial traffic died as a result of competition from the railways so did the navigation ferries. This created a major problem for the setting up of the Thames Path. Either bridges had to be built where the old ferries used to operate or alternative routes to the towpath had to be found.

ON LOCATION ------------------------ UK WALKS INDEX ------------------------ THAMES PATH NORTH DOWNS SOUTH DOWNS RICHMOND PARK WEST HIGHLANDS ------------------------ WORLD ROUTES

APPROX DISTANCES Thames Barrier 0 Westminster 12 Putney 18 Richmond 27 Kingston 31 West Molesey 36 Shepperton 41 Staines 47 Runnymede 50 Windsor 55 Maidenhead 61 Marlow 69 Henley 78 Reading 87 Wallingford 105 Abingdon 119 Oxford 129 Newbridge 143 Lechlade 159 Cricklade 170 The Source 184

GALLERIES 1: CENTRAL LONDON 2: SUBURBAN SURREY 3: THAMES VALLEY

THAMES PATH ROUTE: Official Stage-by-Stage Distances (Distances slightly less than official distances, fastest route)

GALLERY 1: LONDON (18 images)

GALLERY 2: SURREY (24 images)

GALLERY 3: WINDSOR - SOURCE (15 images)

Further images to be added for Gallery 3,  including: Cookham, Marlow, Henley, Reading, Wallingford, Abingdon, Oxford, Lechlade, Cricklade, Kemble and The Source. Current Image Total: 57. Last Update: 0930GMT, 10/03//2007