Thames Uncovered Part 2

This stretch of the Thames through Berkshire and Buckinghamshire is seen as the upmarket part of the river. From the 1870s it also became the chief pleasure resort for Southern England. Hordes of working class excursionists came to the river and her banks. In the snootier papers of the time these tourists were dubbed as “Arry and Arriet”. However this was still regarded as the Golden age of the Thames and it took the outbreak of war in 1914 to bring it to a halt.

As you walk away from Pangbourne look upstream to see a view that is almost the same as that photographed on glass plates by Henry Taunt in 1885. His description of this part of the Thames sums the area up: "There are extremely pretty scenes all around Pangbourne, picturesque cottages and quaint bits are to be seen everywhere, beautiful walks are found in nearly every direction, up the valleys, through the woods, and over the hills, with great diversity of landscape; while the flora of the neighbourhood is more varied than in any other part of the Thames.”

Walking downstream past meadows the path passes Mapledurham Hall on the north bank. It was built in 1588 the year of the Spanish Armada in the shape of an E in honour of Elizabeth I. The house is shielded by trees, there is a mill and small 15th century church and it is altogether very picturesque. So much so that it was used as inspiration for E.H.Sheperd’s sketches of Toad Hall found in Kenneth Grahame’s famous book The Wind in the Willows.