Penton Hook to Bell Weir, Environment Agency 'Out and About' Guide
Penton Hook to Chertsey, Environment Agency 'Out and About' Guide
Left Bank, tel: 01784 452657, length 266'8", width: 24'10"
1992: Skyscan's Aerial View of Penton Hook in The Secret Thames -
Skyscan's Aerial View of Penton Hook.
1774: Floods kept cutting through the narrow neck of land where the lock now is.
Raising a bank at Pentanhook to prevent the floods cutting through
1798:-
A barge has passed through the breach, which may be totally carried away by the next flood to the great injury of the navigation westward
1803: Tatham – the neck only fifty yards across.
1809: Rennie suggested a lock here.
1815: Penton Hook Lock opened. The basin of the lock gave great trouble to
the engineers; it was found almost impossible to prevent the water from flooding it.
There was at first no weir.
1846: Weir built.
1848:-
The lock keeper’s son, Stephen Taylor planted the vine and fruit trees, sunk the well and built the dairy, besides papering the parlour
[Sounds like a Victorian Music Hall cue for a song ...]
1852: A trespassers sign was erected -
The idle and disorderly of Staines and Laleham are frequenting the lock island on Sundays
1870: Penton Hook Lock, Henry Taunt -
Penton Hook Lock, Henry Taunt,1870
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT1478
1881: Leslie -
Penton Hook has a beauty of its own; the willows grow gracefully and rather thin, reminding one a little of the landscapes in early Italian pictures. There is nothing remarkable in the way of scenery below here until you reach Richmond, the situation of which is naturally so grand that I believe no amount of building could spoil it.
1889: Jerome K Jerome -
George got the line right after a while, and
towed us steadily on to Penton Hook.
There we discussed the important question of camping.
We had decided to sleep on board that night,
and we had either to lay up just about there, or go on
past Staines.
It seemed early to think about shutting up then, however, with the sun
still in the heavens, and we settled to push straight on for Runnymead, three
and a half miles further, a quiet wooded part of the river, and where there is
good shelter. …
We all wished, however, afterward that we had
stopped at Penton Hook. Three or four
miles up stream is a trifle, early in the morning, but
it is a weary pull at the end of a long day.
You take no interest in the scenery during these last few miles.
You do not chat and laugh. Every half-mile you cover seems like
two. You can hardly believe you are only
where you are, and you are convinced that the map must be wrong; and, when you
have trudged along for what seems to you at least ten miles, and still the lock
is not in sight, you begin to seriously fear that somebody must have sneaked
it, and run off with it.
1909: Penton Hook Lock rebuilt.
1920: Fred Thacker – I have never heard what particular station
Dickens intended by “Plashwater Weir Lock” in "Our Mutual Friend".
It seems to me, from internal evidence, that
it was possibly Penton Hook;
though Sunbury, from its proximity to Watersplash Farm, may also
be in the competition. …
1864: Charles Dickens, from "Our Mutual Friend" -
Plashwater Weir-Mill Lock looked tranquil and pretty
on an evening in the summer time. A soft
air stirred the leaves of the fresh green trees and passed like a smoother
shadow over the yielding grass. The
voice of the falling water, like the voices of the sea and wind, was an outer
memory to a contemplative listener …
'Lock, ho! Lock! … '
It was an amateur sculler, well up to his work though taking it easily.
The lock-keeper worked at his windlass handles and sluices, to let the sculler in. …
the latter stood in his boat, holding on by a boat-hook to
the woodwork at the lock side, waiting for the gates to open. …
The creaking lock-gates opened slowly, and the light
boat passed in as soon as there was room enough, and the creaking lock-gates
closed upon it, and it floated low down in the dock between the two sets of
gates, until the water should rise and the second gates should open and let it
out…
The water rose and rose as the sluice poured in,
dispersing the scum which had formed behind the lumbering gates, and sending
the boat up, so that the sculler gradually rose like an apparition against the
light …
But there was the toll to be taken, as the gates
were now complaining and opening.
He tossed it ashore, twisted in a piece of paper …
then rowed past a line of wooden objects by the weir which showed like huge
teetotums standing at rest in the water, and was almost hidden by the drooping
boughs on the left bank, as he rowed away, keeping out of the opposing current …
1920: Fred Thacker -
Penton Hook Lock is, except Teddington, and perhaps Boulter’s, the largest on the river. The first time I ever saw it was in flood time in the spring of 1910; coming unexpectedly upon handsome old Myhill in charge of it, whom I knew well at far off Hambledon. He was moved hither about 1907-8. I thought he looked more than ever saturnine; having added to his natural air of admiralty a still profounder aspect of austerity with which not the most truculent bargemen of them all would successfully have trifled. He seemed even cosier here than there, surrounded with white crooning doves and little lawns and orchard: Myhill; with whom royalty, they say, would once step ashore and converse.
1934: Penton Hook Lock, Francis Frith -
1934: Penton Hook Lock, Francis Frith
1955: Penton Hook Lock, Francis Frith -
1955: Penton Hook Lock, Francis Frith
Map: Site of Savory’s Weir
1/2 mile above Penton Hook Lock
1761: Rocque’s Map - “Savory’s Weir”
1770: Brindley’s map – “Fisher House”
1920: Fred Thacker – House called “The Fishing Temple”.
The spot was subsequently used as a coaling wharf;
and later still as a charging station
for the Immisch Launches, before they occupied Platt’s Ait.
Map: Truss’s Island Slipway, right bank
This is a small riverside park with a public slipway to the River Thames. There is a fishing facility for the disabled.
Slipway, Truss's Island
Rushbed Hill
NB "hill" is often used on the river to denote a shallower section upstream
Windsor’s Paygate
Carl Douglas Boathouse, right bank below Staines Railway Bridge
Racing Rowing Boats and fittings
Upstream to Staines Railway Bridge
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
//Rose Revived
Newbridge
//Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS