Day 8: Staines - Datchet

A surprisingly warm and sunny day for late September for the next stage towards Windsor. Staines has been an unusual town compared to the other I’ve passed through so far in that it has pretty much turned it’s back on the river. There is very little going on along the Staines river frontage. A new winding path, decking and awnings have been put in place over recent years (probably a Millennium project). There is the obligatory piece of public art, one of which I quite liked. It was a sculpture, in a very shiny metal, of two origami swans. Indeed having looked on the web now I see that this area goes by the name of the Artwalk.

After this short walk the path crosses Staines Bridge, and continues along the river next to office buildings and industrial sites. Shortly two features, one old and one new, mark the last influences of London. The first is another City of London coalpost, this time a white painted iron post. This will be the last I pass on the Thames. Close by is what many would now regard as the edge of London – the M25. The extra wide motorway is carried over the river on two bridges, but the path continues under and runs past a groups of houses and the grounds of Bell Weir Lock. Soon the houses give way to open ground, a park area and the start of Runnymede Meadows. Once round this kink in the river we are onto the Meadows proper (albeit between road and river), on National Trust land. The Meadows themselves are famous as the camping grounds of King John and his army, when in 1215 John signed and sealed the Magna Carta on the island across the river. There are many notable buildings and monuments that have been erected here, all in the last 100 years. The first is high up on the wooded ridge to the west. This is the Commonwealth Air Forces Memorial built in 1952 in memory of the airmen from across the Commonwealth who lost their lives during the Second World War. The names of the missing airmen are carved into the walls around a cloister and the tower has views across seven counties.

A short walk further on and there is a good view from the path of the Magna Carta Memorial. This was built in 1957 to a design by Sir Edward Maufe. It was built by the American Bar Association and consists of a domed roof resting on classical columns. One of the pillars is carved from English granite and carries the inscription “TO COMMEMORATE MAGNA CARTA, SYMBOL OF FREEDOM UNDER THE LAW”.

Nearby, but not visible from the path is another monument in memory of John F Kennedy. In December 1963 the British Government gave an acre of land, where the monument now sits, to the United States in memory of their assassinated President. Given all the relevance of Runnymede and its importance in the formation of modern democracy, this just seems like another stretch of the Thames.

Up ahead are two gatehouses leading at the edge of Runnymede Meadows. They were designed by Edward Lutyens on commission from the Lady Fairhaven in memory or her husband Urban Hanlow Broughton, Lord Fairhaven, the then landowner of Runnymede. One now houses a National Trust tearoom making a great stop of point for a break.

The path then comes very close to the main road and a roundabout. The sign ahead says Old Windsor and marks our passing from Surrey into Berkshire. Having passed a Harvester it’s back to a stretch of river with very large houses with very large gardens running down to the river, all of them looking very desirable! One house even has a pet owl called Dobby. On the edge of Old Windsor a side path leads round to the delightful Old Windsor Parish Church.

Back along the riverside and we arrive at Old Windsor Lock. Here the path deviates away from the main river channel and follows a special cut. Indeed even the boats are directed up the cut, quite a narrow straight channel up towards Albert Bridge. At the end of the cut, the path enters the most rural area yet with no buildings visible on either bank. But around the corner is Albert Bridge where we cross the river. The reason for this is that we are now alongside Windsor Great Park and the area ahead is closed for security reasons. It runs close to Frogmore House, and later Windsor Castle itself. But for now the path leads along a short river path before heading away from the river, down the side of a field and back to the road to the edge of Datchet. This whole stretch of the walk is dominated by the Heathrow flight path with a plane passing very close overhead every few minutes.

Once into Datchet I come to a stop when the road meets the river once more. This is the point of the old Datchet Bridge, now no longer there. I’ll explain more when I get to tell you about Albert Bridge, but for now it a short stroll up High Street and Datchet Station.

Bridges No.29 - Richmond Railway Bridge

Richmond Railway Bridge today carries trains on the South West Trains network out towards Reading and Windsor. It is on a stretch of track between Richmond and St Margaret's stations. The line from Richmond to Waterloo, via Clapham Junction opened in 1846, but the ambition has always been to run passenger services from Waterloo, direct to Royal Windsor. A year after the Richmond line opened, and Act was passed permitting the extension of the line to Windsor via Staines. The Windsor, Staines and South-Western Railway Company had the honour to go ahead and build the line.

To get to Staines and Windsor the bridge had to cross the river, and a new railway bridge was designed for this purpose by Joseph Locke. The bridge was constructed from cast iron and consisted of three 100 foot spans formed of six iron ribs bolted together. On the Richmond side of the river, a brick viaduct were built to carry the line across the sloping ground of the Old Deer Park.

The line opened in 1848 and Locke's bridge continued in service for 60 years. In 1891 a cast iron railway bridge at Norbury Junction, near Croydon, collapsed. The design was similar to Richmond Bridge and concerns arose regarding the safety of the bridge. By 1906 the railway company instructed the Horseley Bridge Company to replace Locke's bridge. The new bridge was designed by J.W. Jacomb-Hood, the chief engineer at the London & South Western Railway.

The bridge was complete in 1908 and is still in use today. Like other railway bridge, it is effectively more than one bridge, with each line being supported on a separate crossing. The only significant work on the bridge was in 1984 when the main girders and decking were replaced.

Bridges No.28 - Twickenham Bridge

Twickenham Bridge has already had a mention here in the entry for Chiswick Bridge. Both were part of road improvements in the 1930s when the Great Chertsey Road was constructed. Twickenham Bridge was designed by Maxwell Ayrton, but follows the design of Sir Herbert Baker's Chiswick Bridge. It has constructed from reinforced concrete with bronze ballustrades and lamps. Unlike Chiswick, Twickenham Bridge is has not been finished with Portland stone. However, Twickenham has an extra feature not found on Chiswick - namely hinged sections at to allow for the bridge absorb vibrations and movements. The bridge opened in July 1933 on the same day as both Chiswick and Hampton Court Bridges. There was some local resistance the the construction of the bridge in the 1920s and 30s, as it did have to pass through park of Richmond Old Deer Park.

Day 7: Shepperton - Staines

A shorter leg to walk today, but the weather is nowhere near as good as it on previous legs. Its overcast, but reasonably warm. However, as has been the case through most of September, it was muggy. I drove to Staines and caught the bus to Shepperton, which was a lot more alive on a Saturday than a few weeks ago on a Sunday.

At the end of Ferry Lane, where I’d previously caught the ferry to, I finally returned to the Thames Path. Much of the walk to Staines involves a walk very close to the river bank. However, there’s also a road right alongside, and this begins here at Shepperton Lock. A very English setting around the lock was taking place this morning with a fete of sorts in aid of the RNLI. As I passed a couple were setting up the stall for the Surrey branch of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, ironically having great difficulty knotting their banner to their tent. This, though, was to be the most exciting bit of this walk.

Sadly, there was little of consequence to see along this stretch of the river. That’s not to say it isn’t picturesque, but there are long stretch’s alongside roads and then even longer stretches alongside people’s houses. After a few sharp turns in the river upstream of Shepperton the small road from the ferry finally leaves the river and we are onto a dirt track. This must be the first ‘natural’ footpath I’ve been on so far in the walk and shows that London is now being left behind. There are some large houses and gardens here, including one with a boat house with direct access to the river. Normally the footpath would divert around it, but in this case it goes up and over the roof.

The path soon starts to weave around a little as it passes a small collection of house boats. The residents here clearly do not welcome the cyclists who tear along other stretches of the Thames Path, as there are lots of home made no cycling signs attached to almost every tree.

As Chertsey nears the path enters Dumsey Meadows. My book tells me this river meadow is the last before London, so yet another sign of the rural feel of the walk. However, Dumsey Meadows are quite compact, and very soon I’m passing under Chertsey Bridge and back to another path between road and river. And I am alongside this road all the way to the village of Laleham with the only significant features being Chertsey Lock and the M3!

At Laleham the road leaves the river allowing the riverside houses of the village to overlook the Thames. Around the next corner is Penton Hook, a very tight meander in the river whose neck was flooded on so many occasions in the 19th century that barges used it as a short-cut. So popular did it become that a full channel was cut across the neck and a weir and lock system built. Penton Hook Lock was also the further upstream lock built by the Corporation of London, and like at other locks this is clear with the City’s crest present of the gable end of the lockkeeper’s cottage.

We are now on the edge of Staines, and the river path now just passes the many varied houses. Across the river I spy a post with a red cross on it. Could this be another City of London coal post? I’ll need to check, but I get a snap of it on maximum zoom.

Approaching Staines the shopping centre and BUPA offices dominate the skyline. But it was a real surprise to see St Peter’s Church right alongside the river. A wedding was just getting underway as I passed.

Bridges No.27 - Richmond Lock

Next up is a rather curious structure that looks like a bridge, and doubles as a bridge but has another identity - a tidal barrier.

The river, even at Richmond is still tidal in nature although we are now very close to Teddington where all marine influence ends. Until 1832 the Old London Bridge (the one with all the houses built on it) had almost acted as a full barrier across the Thames and had reduced the tidal effects further upstream. When it was demolished there were unexpected consequences further upstream. Some bridges suffered from increased erosion at the base of their piers and ultimately had to be replaced with the faster moving tides. At the same time dredging activity increased in the lower reaches of the river. At Richmond the size of the river shrunk significantly to the extent that on some occassion it was little more than a stream running through mudbanks. The river can still get quite narrow - just look at my picture of Barnes Bridge at low tide to see.

In 1890 premission was given for the construction of a half-lock and weir just downstream of Richmond. A barge lock was built against the Surrey bank joined by a weir and three sluice gates. To operate the sluices a superstructure was required and it was decided that this should take the form of a footbridge. For two hours during high tide the sluices are raised into the footbridge structure and boats can pass through as if this were a normal bridge. For the rest of the tidal cycle the sluices are moved down and closed. Boats must then use the lock system. This results in maintaining water levels between Richmond and Teddington locks.

Bridges No.26 - Kew Bridge

Kew Bridge has a lot of history tied up in it reflecting the changing nature of business, the nobility and royalty in this part of West London. Kew has also been a popular crossing point through history. There have been three bridges here and prior to all of them a horse-drawn ferry. It was the Tunstall family, led by Robert Tunstall, who owned and operated the ferry service, that petitioned Parliament for permission to build a bridge at Kew. Work began on the first bridge in 1758 by John Barnard who had previously worked on Westminster Bridge. It was inaugurated on 1 June 1759 by George, the Prince of Wales. It was George's father Frederick who took a lease at Kew House in 1731 and rebuilt it. This is now Kew Place, and the Royal Botantic Gardens grew up around it.

Like other private bridges of the time, Kew Bridge charged a toll. The opening of the bridge, and its connections with the Prince of Wales resulted in much excitement. 3,000 people used the bridge on its first day open to the general public. Even so, new London bridges still attract the crowds as we saw with the Millennium Bridge. Barnard's bridge consisted of two stone arches next to each bank connected together by 7 timber arches. But because the bulk of the bridge was wooden it suffered from both barge stikes and river scour and prooved costly to keep in good repair. It only stood for 30 years.

In 1782 the son of Tunstall, also called Robert, received consent to replace the bridge and work commenced in June 1783. James Paine designed the new bridge following his previous work upstream at Richmond. The new bridge was constructed entirely out of stone (Portland and Purbeck) and opened on 22 September 1789. Once again George had the honour of opening it, but now in his capacity as King George III.

In 1819 the bridge was sold at auction to a Mr Robinson for £23,000 and then in 1873 it was purchased by the Metropolitan Board of Works for £57,000. Tolls were then lifted, but an arched entrance was erected on the Brentford side of the bridge. By the 1890s, however, the bridge was struggling to handle the increasing weight of traffic. It was also prooving too narrow for more modern vehicles and was too steep on the northern side. The engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry recommended that a new bridge should be built.

A new bridge was then commissioned jointly by Middlesex and Surrey County Councils (Kew was then outside the offical London boundary - the then London County Council area being much smaller than today's Greater London area). John Wolfe Barry was retained to design the bridge alongside another engineer Cuthbert A Brereton. Easton Gibbs & Son were the building contractors. It is built from granite sourced from the far ends of the country - Cornwall and Aberdeenshire. The bridge is decorated with the crests of the two counties of Surrey and Middlesex.

The third and present day bridge was opened in May 1903 and as was becoming tradition at Kew, royalty opened it. This time King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra did the honours by laying the final coping stone. Following the opening the bridge was renamed as the King Edward VII Bridge, but this prooved unpopular (and probably too much of a mouthful to say) and the name quickly reverted back to Kew Bridge.

Bridges No.25 - Kew Railway Bridge

Kew Railway Bridge is the most westerly crossing point for the Underground. It links Gunnersbury and Kew Gardens stations on the District Line, and is also used by Silverlink Metro services on the North London line.

In 1864 the London & South-Western Railway Company extended their line from South Acton Junction to Richmond and a bridge crossing was required. W R Galbraith designed the bridge and it was built by Brassey & Ogilvie and opened in 1869.

When the bridge was built it was not liked by locals in the hamlet of Strand on the Green on the north bank. However, compared to London's other railway bridge, this is very elegent. The lattice girders lighten the bulk of the structure and provide a neat design link with the nearby Kew Gardens.

Bridges No.24 - Chiswick Bridge

In the 1930s major improvements were made to what is now the A316 or the Great Chertsey Road. As part of a grand scheme two new bridge were constructed here at Chiswick and further upstream at Twickenham. Chiswick had the honour of opening first in July 1933. It is also one of the first road bridges we've come to so far that wasn't preceeded by an older pre-20th century bridge. Also this is still the original.

It was designed by Sir Herbert Baker with engineering advice from Alfred Dryland and is very similar in design to Twickenham Bridge. Both bridges were constructed with ferro-concrete, but Chiswick has an outer skin of Portland stone giving a special glow when the sun shines upon it. I also think it makes Chiswick Bridge look that little bit grander.

Bridges No.23 - Barnes Bridge

Like Hammersmith Bridge, Barnes Railway Bridge has become something of a landmark thanks to the Boat Race. But in context Barnes Bridge looks a little out of place next to the elegant riverside cottages of Barnes.

In 1847 the Windsor, Staines and South-Western Railway were given permission to build a line from Barnes to Feltham. Joseph Locke and Thomas Brassey were commissioned to design a bridge to cross the Thames to connect Barnes with Chiswick. The three-arch cast iron bridge was the result.

The bridge opened for use in 1849 and quickly became popular, not only for passenger trains, but also freight trains avoiding the busier line through Richmond. It also is a handy by-pass line in the present day, particularly on those frequent weekends when Network Rail are carrying out engineering work on the main Richmond - Feltham line.

Between 1891 and 1895 the bridge was strengthen with the addition of a new adjacent bridge. A footbridge on the downstream side was also added at this time. Later in 1916 Barnes Bridge station opened on a site immediately to the south of the bridge.

Bridges No.22 - Hammersmith Bridge

The current bridge at Hammersmith is the second at this point, and interestingly the same type of bridge has been used on both occassion: a suspension bridge. Like other London bridges, Hammersmith Bridge came about following the passing of an Act of Parliament. This occured in 1824 and work quickly began the following year. The first bridge was designed by William Tierney Clarke and was the first suspension bridge built across the Thames in London. He also designed Marlow Bridge ,which I'll be passing later in my walk, and is probably one of the finest bridges on the middle reaches of the Thames. Hammersmith Bridge opened in 1827 and consisted of two brick piers above which stood two towers providing arched entrances onto the bridge. Eight chains were string from the towers for the timber roadway to hang from.

Echoing the fate of Albert Bridge, the increasing weight of traffic on Hammersmith Bridge was causing problems. By 1870 the prospect of 11-12,000 people standing on the bridge to watch the Boat Race was considered a little risky. In 1884 a temporary bridge was built while work on a replacement got underway.

Sir Joseph Bazalgette again came to the rescue with a design that retained the suspension bridge style which must surely have been a now well recognised landmark on this part of the river. The new bridge opened in 1887. The towers on Bazalgette's bridge are made from wrought iron with cross beams to form the illusion of arches.

The bridge has in recent years had to be strengthened and following an IRA terrorist bomb attack in 2000 has been subject to a 7.5 tonne weight restriction. The bridge had also been targeted in 1996 but that bomb had failed to detonate. The 2000 bombing however was strong enough to rip through some of the bridge's girders as the photo opposite shows.