Thames Path Ramble 21: Saturday 7th May 2016 Hampton Court Palace to Richmond Bridge, which is about 7½ miles.

Thames Path Ramble 21: Saturday 7th  May  2016  Hampton Court Palace to Richmond Bridge, which is about 7½ miles.

Sue and Jem, Janet and Maurice, Margaret H., John, Jane, Dot, Julie, Gervais, Ann, Peter and Sue, Ian and I have walked this stretch.

We had a good start today, on this bright and sunny day, meeting up at the ‘5 at the Bridge Café’, then walking, for it seemed ages, around Hampton Court Palace and park. We passed a family of Eygptian geese with 10 goslings and stopped for a picnic lunch near Kingston Bridge, by a cruiser with a scarecrow owl whose head turned in the breeze.

Then after seeing Albany Boathouse, a base for much sailing and canoeing, it was on to complex of locks, weirs and islands at Teddington. The barge lock is by far the largest lock on the Thames and nearby is Eel Pie Island. From here the Thames is tidal and Thames Path walkers have the choice of either bank to walk on (we chose the South bank). Thames Television had several TV studios near here and in its heyday Morecombe and Wise and Benny Hill programmes were made her. Just this year the studios have been demolished and flats built.

Ham House is in the care of the National Trust and seemed a very popular destination on this sunny day.

The ferry service could possibly take you to Marble Hill House, another spectacular building on the opposite bank.

But, we were concerned about this tidal water. We were taken aback by the speed of the incoming water and were fortunate to just get past a soon-to-be-flooded area approaching Richmond. We looked back to see dogs, buggies, bikes and people attempting to get through ever deeper water.

The final bit of our walk into Richmond centre was mainly behind a purpose built flood defence wall but we did see later on that the promenade had been wet.

We completed our day by walking around what is left of Richmond Palace and the peaceful associated area.