Thames Uncovered Part 1

It has, as they say, been a journey. I was commissioned some ten years ago to photograph The Thames; to produce a coffee table book of the river in celebration of a company’s 50 years of involvement with the Thames and its work on the then new footbridge at Caversham.

Soon I was happily ambling along the Thames photographing anything and everything that took my fancy using a new Leica camera that I had been asked to field test - a bonus! I was feeling very happy about the world. Discovering the upper and lower reaches of the river were a revelation as I came to realise that the Thames is so much more than just a stretch of river between Hammersmith Bridge and the Thames Barrier.

This first section covers the area from the Source to Lechlade. At Trewsbury Mead, a meadow some 3 miles South-West of Cirencester, there stands a stone obelisk inscribed: ‘The Conservatives of the River Thames 1857 to 1974. This stone was placed here to mark the source of the River Thames.’ However, this simple object not only marks the official source of the Thames but also the start of the Thames Path - 184 miles of walking from the the river’s source, or head, to where it meets the North Sea.