Thames Path Ramble 10: Thursday 28th May 2015 Clifton Hampden to Wallingford Bridge.

Thames Path Ramble 10: Thursday 28th May 2015 Clifton Hampden to Wallingford Bridge, which is about 8 miles.

Sue C, Jem, Dot, Ann, Margaret H, Jean, Peter, Sue H, John, Julie, Janet, Ian and I set off along this stretch of the Thames, and Maurice joined us at Day’s Lock.

At Clifton Hampden, the Thames Path crosses the road bridge, and we started out walking alongside another large loop in the river towards Day’s Lock.  Here the grass was high, very green and dotted with many flowers. The weather was sunny so, all in all, it was turning out to be a delightful day. We saw red kites, herons and ducklings.

Looking ahead, southwards, two hills topped by trees stood out. These are the Sinodun Hills - known usually as the Wittenham Clumps and less respectfully as Mother Dunch's Buttocks. (Mother Dunch was the wife of a less-than-popular local medieval squire).

 The area around Day's Lock is said to be the most historic place in Oxfordshire. The hilltop fort was built by iron-age man on Castle Hill and when the Romans invaded they built a camp nearby which became Dorchester-on-Thames.

  As Christianity became widely established, St Birinus created a Saxon Cathedral here and in 635AD he baptised the Saxon King Cyneglis in the river Thame (which flows through Dorchester and then into the Thames). An Augustinian monastery was built on the site in 1140 which, 400 years later, was saved from Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries after it was purchased for £140 and bequeathed to the village. The huge medieval abbey church of St Peter and St Paul remains open for worship and as a concert venue. Photogenic Dorchester is regularly used as a location for the television series, Midsomer Murders.

Day's Lock is the main gauging station for measuring the flow of water in the river.

We stopped at the lock to celebrate Dot’s birthday in style with chocolate cake and champagne.

 Continuing, we went under Little Wittenham footbridge (where the World Poohsticks Championships are held each year. The game is described in A.A. Milne's book, The House at Pooh Corner, written in 1928) along field edges for a mile or so, before going on a short road stretch that led us into Shillingford. We went through small alleyways and rejoined the river alongside the graceful stone arches of Shillingford Bridge.

  After having stopped to picnic on a grassy bank near to Shillingford, we continued and walked through the much busier spot at Benson. 

Here there are many boat moorings and hire boats (Hoseasons have a base here), a large outdoor cafe and many people were enjoying the sunshine during the school half-term.   

 We saw a stone in the ground which seemed to say London was 92 miles away (we calculate that we are over 40% of the way from source to Thames Barrier). The path diverted away from the river again, along a lane to go over Benson Weir and then arrived at Benson Lock.

  It was here that we persuaded another walker to take our group picture.

The last mile or so led us to Wallingford, said to be the best example of a surviving Saxon Fortified town in England. To our right, we could see the remains of Wallingford Castle, which at one time was used by King Henry VIII as a Royal Castle. As a Norman Castle it was built in 1071, but was destroyed by Fairfax in 1646 by the order of Oliver Cromwell during the Civil War. 

 Wallingford Bridge came into view, with its 17 beautiful arches. It is of medieval origin, built first around 1141 and then re-built in 1809 when the balustrades were added. By the bridge there is an outdoor swimming pool. We turned towards the town centre, having completed our walk for the day, enjoyed a break in Catherine’s Café and saw the Market Place with its 17th century Town Hall.

The ‘Queen of Crime', Dame Agatha Christie, lived on the outskirts of Wallingford for forty years and is buried in the neighbouring village of Cholsey.  There are more grisly links with crime through Midsomer Murders, the TV series as Wallingford, is the original ‘Causton' and home of DCI Barnaby.