Real water

This murky looking pool is the first sign of water in the river depression, it is about a mile from the source, it was in fact about half a mile before the last post marked signage but I had trouble with the computer settings. This pool was, I guess some 3feet deep but the water running from here was very clear and about 12 inches deep. Earlier in the year I had talked to a fisherman near here and he claimed that he expeected to get a catch.

Signage

This signpost and gate near Kemble is typical of what we looked for on the route. Wooden post with an inscribed wooden finger clearly marked Thames Path and sometimes giving a distance to thew next town. Take a look at the path, it probably was made by dumping and spreading ashes then some rolled earth.

Full length

Before loading numerous pictures I have set out at the side a picture of the full length of our walk with the source at the top, the barrier at the bottom. I will show a larger scale later, remember that in general terms the river runs from west to east therefore that first bump takes the river northwards, to Oxford, then south.

SOURCE OF THE THAMES

Here is the source of the river Thames, about 100 years ago it was a genuine well. My lovely lady companion from California gives you an idea of the scale. She is a well known person and did not want her face plastered all over the known world hence the cut off. The source is about 3 miles from the town of Cirencester and but 1 mile from a Roman Road. This picture was taken in early Agust 2008, now, February 2009 after heavy rain I expect the stones are under water and the whole field awash with water. This is considered to be the official source and there is a plaque so marking it, you will have seen a statue of Old Father Thames on an earlier blog. Inevitably at this stage in the birth of a river there are nearby tributaries which some consider should be called the Thames but this well has been considered by locals for 2000 years as THE THAMES. Discussion has ceased, for the time being. The Thames is not the longest river Britain, that honour goes to the Severn but because London is on the Thames it is considered the most important. At one time there was a canal linking The Thames to the Severn but that went out of use when the railways got going, similarly a lot of the commercial river traffic.

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This is a picture of the main line railway bridge at Maidenhead, Berkshire. If you look carefully you can see that it spans the River Thames in two arches and they look rather long; in fact at one time they were the longest span bridges in the world, they were built by Brunel about 1850 to carry the Great Western Railway, Brunel's intention was that a passenger could get on the train at Paddington (London) station, which he built, travel on a train built by Stephenson to Brunel's design, along tracks laid to Brunel's designs to Bristol staion which Brunel designed, get on a steam ship designed and built by Brunel and travel in luxury to New York, he died before he had the New York end sorted out.

Maidenhead is well downstream of Oxford but please bear with me, I am learning the hard way.

This is Ashton Keynes, the first village actually on The Thames which is the water you can see in the picture. A perfect picture post card English village, well worth a visit if you are in the Cotswold Hills area.

I have completed the photographic trip down The Thames and plan to put the result on my blog a few at a time, starting this evening.