Introduction
On New Year's Day 2010, Mum and Dad and I did one more stretch of the
Thames Path, this time from Reading to Pangbourne.
Reading
Reading is a large town but without much of interest (sorry Reading).
After a quick look at a war memorial with a giant lion statue on top of
it, we headed straight to the river and began the walk.
Tree by riverside office buildings. (I think these were trailed in the
50-year-old guidebook we were using as 'a mile of ugly factories', which
we would have been looking forward to if we hadn't already realised the
chances of their survival were nil.)
Reading Bridge.
Roof of large building in riverside park.
Flooded fields.
Tilehurst
The riverside path approached Tilehurst (a small town, part of Reading
sprawl).
Across the river. I cheated with this picture - a prize* to the first
person who guesses what I did to it... (* Not really.)
Sign, tree, railway embankment. Near here there's graffiti on the brick
wall of the embankment: 'Free Stonehenge 85'. It's been a while...
There is a short section in Tilehurst where you can't actually walk along
the riverbank. Pretty rare these days. Looking at it on Google Maps,
it seems like the railway runs right along the river edge; maybe the
towpath below was washed away or taken into railway land or something.
Anyway, we had to cross a railway bridge and walk through suburbia for
some distance before crossing the railway again and returning to the
river by a lock, where we sat to have lunch.
Across the lock, an area was in use for green-pole storage.
Wooden fence by lock.
Speed limit sign.
The lock actually had a small attached café, so bowing to popular demand,
we stopped there for a hot drink as well.
Corrugated plastic roof over café seating area.
Concrete and moss. GPS data says this was taken by the lockside, so I'm
guessing this is probably part of the lock.
To Pangbourne
The rest of the way followed the riverbank as usual.
Meadows a short distance past the lock, with mysterious dead-end pylon.
(The wires only run on one side. There's a similar pylon opposite;
presumably they took the cables under the river instead of over.)
Across the river. (Sign: 'EAA, strictly private, no mooring, no swimming,
private fishing.')
Pentagonal boathouse.
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is one side of the river; the other side is Whitchurch.
Whitchurch bridge. This is a privately-owned toll bridge (but you can
walk acrosss it for free).
Gravestone in Whitchurch, er, church. (I think the church spire was in
the last picture.) I love the lettering ('st' ligature
in 'Christi', random squiggles and twists everywhere else). The date is
16-something (part is out of frame).
A pair of rowers on the river at sunset. Black background is because the
river turns a corner; there's a hill with trees, I think.
Pedestrian arch under railway overbridge at Pangbourne. We didn't go
through here, but I liked the two-tone painting. (Well, painting
and not painting.)
And that was it - we got a train back from Pangbourne. But, being
gluttons for punishment, we came back the very next day! (To be
continued...)
