Right bank between Thames Marina and Summerleaze Footbridge.
York Cut may be a misnomer - it is the Cut which is the outflow from the York Stream.
Unnavigable for most boats. For exploration by punt and canoe at the moment.
1770: Benjamin Davis surveyed a line from Basingstoke to Monkey Island.
The Basingstoke Canal was to be a 29 mile barge canal that was estimated to cost £51,000.
He chose Monkey Island as the point to join the Thames as it was where the proposed
Reading to Isleworth canal was to cross the Thames.
However the canal eventually linked to the River Wey.
1770-1: Survey for the intended Navigable Canal from Reading to Monkey Island.
Scheme surveyed by Brindley to bypass the 'unsatisfactory navigation' by a canal from the River Kennet
at Reading through Sonning and Twyford to near Bray.
This cut is also the downstream end of the waterways through Maidenhead
now being considered for restoration by the
Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group
This poem and five others commissioned for the MWRG
are on their website.
Catherine Edmunds, WAKE UP, YOU RIVER! -
Wild river waterway, unkempt, unwelcoming
waders steer clear of your streams gone awry
silted with litter where four arches rise above
dry Cliveden Reach and Maidenhead Ditch
strewn with chip wrappers and bottles of bleach.
Emergent reeds rustle through sedges and nettles
Green Lane’s locks hide, tight wrapped round in bindweed,
brambles, jack-by-the-hedge, dock leaves trod, flattened
sycamore, hawthorn and green willows weeping
winding their branches through torn Tescos bags.
Maidenhead Moor remembers the Thames
Windsor’s fine waterways, mill leats, navigation.
reeds cut for thatch not left long to moulder
timber gone, ghost barges wait at the wharf
with skeletal trolleys and nine traffic cones.
Bray Reach to Bourne End, waterways follow
across Cookham Moor to far Fleet Ditch Strand,
Widbrook diminished where once streams flowed rapidly
deep into Summerleaze lakes, sunkissed grasses
sinking to sludge beneath rainbow oil slicks.
Old flash lock weir pools, Laggan, Cordwallis,
deemed danger to children, so clogged up with filth.
‘Cored Gwal Llys’ mansion by weir pool…
ah, words lose their meanings where once withy windles
and wildfowl seek water and solace in vain.
Chapel Arches, dried out by root sucking
lombardy poplars past old Grace’s Timber Wharf
drowned in silt, filled in for building. Remember?
Brunel was once here. Left his mark building bridges
where weir pools held drama of flash locks and flooding
washing their cargo of boats to the next lock
and there they stay, waiting and fading in twilight
silted and sunken, forgotten and gone.
Wake up, you river!
Water, resurgent, resound through your ditches
silt sink no longer, be dredged, willows watching
waders and skippers, damselflies, nymphs,
swim things return and be welcomed back home.
Monkey Island Lane Bridge
Bridge?
Pipeline?
Bridge
On either side there are lakes.
Map: M4 Bridge
Map: B3028 Upper Bray Road Bridge
Map: Junction
I think the notional Basingstoke Canal went straight on (WNW) and the York Stream is to the right (NW) as you go upstream.
Bridge
Map: Hibbert Road Bridge
Map: Green Lane Bridge
The Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group are planning a new lock and weir
to control levels near here.
Above Green Lane Bridge the waterway divides. The York Stream is the western branch -
Stafferton Way Bridge, York Stream
Map: Railway Tunnels, York Stream
the channel/stream continues southwards under York Road and then passes under Brunel's historic GWR railway line in some 'style' - four 12ft diameter brick arches, but sadly now with hardly any water to be seen in even the centre two arches (the outer two have been adapted and are normally dry);
Map: York Road Bridge, York Stream
Above York Road Bridge and below Chapel Arches the Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group envisage a basin and moorings plus riverside facilities.
Chapel Arches, Bridge Street / High Street Bridge, York Stream
There is a photograph of an old print of a Maidenhead Bridge, made in 1883 by Henry Taunt. It was generally assumed to be of a predecessor of the Maidenhead Bridge over the main river. However it has now been identified as of Chapel Arches in Maidenhead town centre -
Chapel Arches Bridge, York Stream, Maidenhead
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT03671
Richard Poad, chairman of Maidenhead Heritage Centre says of this -
The view is of chapel arches from the NORTH in about 1820, with the chapel of St Mary Magdalene and St Andrew on the west side in the middle of the road by the Bear Hotel.
This print was wrongly labelled as if it were a predecessor
of the current Maidenhead Bridge over the main river. It is a mile away in Maidenhead
town centre, crossing the York Stream
(which the
Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group hope to restore). The chapel shown above the
road is a particularly distinguishing feature - hence the name Chapel Arches.
Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group -
the brick bridge of Chapel Arches (named after the chapel that used to be in the road above) stands at the Bridge Street/High Street junction. Chapel Arches comprises three massive brick arches (rebuilt in 1825) plus two or three smaller 18th century ones which are now blocked at both ends. The shops of the Collonade above are built on piles driven through the old Bath Road to the north of Chapel Arches and the space below was open to the public when dry until the 1960s. Today the arches appear quite shallow, but the structures go far deeper than is evident, the river bed having silted up and been filled in during adjacent building works over the years;
[ It is interesting to note that in the print the upstream side of the Chapel Arches bridge appears to be lined with bushes. That probably means that it was a flash weir and the bushes would have grown on the collected debris above it. ]
St Cloud Way Bridge (A4)
Above here the streams that split above Green Lane Bridge re-unite.
The eastern branch (currently dry flood relief channel?) - above Green Lane Bridge is -
Forleaze Road Bridge, Flood relief stream
Railway Tunnels, Flood relief stream
Moorbridge Road Bridge, Flood relief stream
Bridge Road Bridge (A4), Flood relief stream
Junction (currently eastern branch is dry)
The water for these waterways comes from above Cookham Lock, or possibly to some extent
from below Cookham Lock. The stream from the Cut first bypasses Bray Lock, then Boulters Lock,
and then possibly Cookham Lock.
Bray Lock has a fall of 4'9", Boulters Lock has a fall of 7'10" and Cookham Lock a fall of 4'3".
Together that makes 16'10" (4.15m).
I have punted St Patrick's Stream which bypasses the 5'10" of Shiplake Lock. It was so thick
with weed that there was little current and I had to force my way through.
But I think that
16'10" is too much for a stream to "absorb". When it was navigated in the past it must have been
by the use of flash locks (which is something we shall never see again - thank God!).
To take a barge upstream it was navigated until it ran aground, then a weir was built (blocked)
behind it (and a weir above it opened) until it could float on up to the next weir. Any stream
could in theory be navigated in this way. All you need is time and labour!
The restoration of the above waterways comprises PHASE 1 for the
Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group. The overhead clearances would at best permit narrow boats
- but not anything taller. There would, they hope, thus be a circular route around
Maidenhead Centre.
PHASE 2 would involve linking those waterways upstream. In practice that means the
Widbrook / White Brook from the Cliveden Reach, running across Cookham Moor, up to the
junction with Strand Water. The waterway would then turn south via an enlarged Maidenhead Ditch,
joining the York Stream at Town Moor
Upstream to Summerleaze Foot 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