Shepperton to Teddington

 

Starting now from Shepperton station and continuing along the 'alternative route', we crossed the river at the modern Walton Bridge to rejoin the towpath. This was a very pleasant Sunday morning with a number of dog-walkers, joggers and cyclists around us.

The towpath continues on the south bank towards Sunbury, more built-up now on the far side, but later giving way to waterworks. Our side had busy playing fields, disused reservoirs, a few houses, then giving way to Hurst Park as we passed Sunbury-on-Thames.

There is now more by way of architecture than nature to see and photograph. The picture of Hampton church across the river benefits from the trees not yet being in leaf.

We stopped for lunch at the The Prince of Wales just before crossing the bridge towards Hampton Court Palace. It being Sunday lunchtime, there were lots of people out eating (although, to be fair, many were still having breakfast, which made us feel a little superior) and the Prince of Wales is in a busy street of busy eating places. Although it was clear people had booked, they still were able to accommodate us and we had an good meal to revive us.

This is an important milestone on the route, because here the guidebooks change. We had finished Thames Path in the Country (a replacement copy for the one that had fallen in the Thames at Henley), and now Thames Path in London came out of the rucksack. The change of guide books means a change of map scale and style - we found after a bit that we were no longer keeping an eye out for streams, fields and footpaths of the 1:50,000 mapping, but now navigating more by street names. Because by now we are in more of an urban landscape, the new guide book sees less need to tell us where we may find refreshment stops.

We have visited Hampton Court Palace a few times before, so we walked past this time continuing towards Kingston. Just after crossing at Kinsgton bridge, the guide alerts us to look at the footings of the 12th century bridge and a 14th century cellar, both in the John Lewis basemeent. The cellar is more impressive, the other looking like any old wall.

 

And then on to Teddington, which is another milestone, the last lock; from now on the river is tidal. (It's curious that the guide books don't hand over here rather than at Hampton Court)  Its station is also within Oyster card territory, so now we won't need to buy a train ticket for each journey. From here onwards, there will be a path on both banks of the river, but our objective when we start again is to cover the river once, not both sides.

Staines to Shepperton

We resumed the walk last weekend. This first day was shorter because we only had a half day, having arrived in London that morning, so it was early afternoon by the time we got to Staines. We found the river a little fuller than on our more usual summertime walks.

The path from Staines mostly follows riverside properties - of all shapes and sizes - so was never truly rural. An information board at Dumsey Meadow, just below Chertsey Bridge, claims that it is the only unimproved meadow land on the Thames in Surrey, not exactly a huge record, but it was a small patch of nature with some distance from roads and buildings.   Here and elsewhere, branches that had just started budding had been blown down from trees and strewn along the ground - the very recent effects of storm Katie.

Wildlife here seems very used to human contact, allowing us to approach closer. 

Approaching Shepperton, the old towpath crossed the river at a point where we are supposed to take the ferry to the Weybridge side, one of few remaining operating ferries on the Thames. Because we were aiming to return via Shepperton station, our route took us on the alternative route of the path on the north bank.