Marlow to Hurley, Marlow to Cookham, Environment Agency 'Out and About' Guides
Maps
Left bank, tel:01628 482867, length: 151'6", width: 19'11"
1881: George Leslie – Marlow Lock “a dangerous one
to pass, being old, with many ragged piles and broken woodwork about its
sides”.
1890: Marlow Lock, Francis Frith -
1890: Marlow Lock, Francis Frith -
1890: Marlow Mills and Lock, Francis Frith
1896: Marlow Lock, Henry Taunt -
Marlow Lock, Henry Taunt, 1896
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT7754
1965: The last watermill was pulled down to make room for the
white town houses which now occupy the site
1999:-
Marlow Lock, 1999
John Eade, Lechlade-Windsor, 87 miles completed, 13 to go … Marlow Church
Marlow Weir. Right Bank above Lock DANGER!
Marlow Church. Left bank below bridge
Compleat Angler. Right bank hotel between bridge and weir
The name of the hotel is the title of the great fishing book "The Compleat Angler" (etext) published in 1653 by Isaak Walton (1593-1683). Included is The Angler's Song -
As inward love breeds outward talk
The hound some praise, and some the hawk
Some, better pleas'd with private sport
Use tennis, some a mistress court:
But these delights I neither wish
Nor envy, while I freely fish.
Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride;
Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide
Who uses games shall often prove
A loser, but who falls in love,
Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare:
My angle breeds me no such care.
Of recreation there is none
So free as fishing is alone;
All other pastimes do no less
Than mind and body both possess:
My hand alone my work can do,
So I can fish and study too.
I care not, I, to fish in seas,
Fresh rivers best my mind do please,
Whose sweet calm course I contemplate,
And seek in life to imitate:
In civil bounds I fain would keep,
And for my past offences weep.
And when the timorous Trout I wait
To take, and he devours my bait,
How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind:
And when none bite, I praise the wise
Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise.
But yet, though while I fish, I fast,
I make good fortune my repast;
And hereunto my friend invite,
In whom I more than that delight:
Who is more welcome to my dish
Than to my angle was my fish.
As well content no prize to take,
As use of taken prize to make:
For so our Lord was pleased, when
He fishers made fishers of men;
Where, which is in no other game,
A man may fish and praise his name.
The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon him here,
Blest fishers were, and fish the last
Food was that he on earth did taste:
I therefore strive to follow those
Whom he to follow him hath chose.
W. B.
The Compleat Angler ends with words that confirm, what as a non angler I have always suspected, that the business of angling is a mere by product of the essential activity, which ought simply to be meditation in peace -
.. so when I would beget content,
and increase confidence in the power, and wisdom, and providence of
Almighty God, I will walk the meadows, by some gliding stream, and
there contemplate the lilies that take no care, and those very many other
various little living creatures that are not only created, but fed, man
knows not how, by the goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore
trust in him. This is my purpose; and so, let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord: and let the blessing of St. Peter's Master be with mine.
... And upon all that are lovers of virtue; and dare trust in his
providence; and be quiet; and go a Angling.
"Study to be quiet."
1600s: A small inn with 6 rooms [now 64 en-suite]
1885: The Compleat Angler, Henry Taunt -
Compleat Angler, Henry Taunt, 1885
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT4857
1891: Boating Life on the Upper Thames by F Campbell Moller, M.D. -
At 2 o’clock we are docked, with a multitudinous convoy, at the Complete Angler Hotel,
Marlow — a beautiful village, with picturesque streets threading between old cottages, modern
stucco dwellings and cunningly tree-hidden riverside villas.
On our way to luncheon we pass through the wide, low hall hung with rare old colored
sporting prints, fishing pictures and outlined drawings of some big trout or pike caught in the
neighboring waters.
Groups of boating men are lounging on the tow chairs or window side seats overlooking the
willow-hung, quaint, cottage banked river, with a little steeple or two rising above the massed
foliages of distant trees on the opposite shore.
From the crowd of “swagger” men whose looks, intonations and obvious breeding stamp them
as native to the best sets in London, it is evident that white flannel coats and trousers — not
knickerbockers - are always in good form. The striped flannels are rather going out and
although solid grays or pale lavender serges are worn by some of the ultra-fashionables it is
doubtless but a passing fad.
The blazer, unless one is a member of some prominent boating,
college or tennis or cricket club, is generally left to Johnnie wherewith to emblazon himself.
Flannel shirts, even of white, though the most comfortable and sensible, are not much worn
by those “in the swim.” White linen shirts, with all the glory of stand-up collar and white
four-in-hand tie in silk or duck, are seen, a mass of dazzling white along the unbuttoned coats,
for the wearing of vests [waistcoats] is tabooed on the river.
When leaving the landing stage an hour hence, and dropping his pair of sculls into their
respective notches, the regular river habitué is revealed; coatless, his shirt sleeves rolled up to
elbow, his white trousers snugly held about the loins by a large folded bright-colored silk
handkerchief or sash passing through the waist loops, and the turned-up bottoms showing an
inch or two of black silk clad ankles above his pipe-clayed buckskin rowing shoes. A little
modest-colored cricket cap or flat-brimmed straw hat complete the picture of cool,
immaculate freshness both in dress and person, the boating man out for a day’s gentle
exercise and the various distracting sights of the river.
In a big recess forming the taproom, from whose widely-opened diamond-pane windows one
can see the constant passing of the crowded boats, we stop to have a handsome girl behind the
bar mix us something refreshing in the way of soda and Scotch whiskey.
The lunch room has its lattices flung open to the river breeze and the lawn of the Angler is bright with many-tinted
groups of boaters; the white, cool dresses and red parasols of the women, people strolling or
lounging on chairs or benches, smoking, flirting or heeding as they may the ever-beautiful,
though hackneyed, song from “Dorothy,” “Queen of My Heart,” as rendered by an itinerant
Italian band.
It is a wonderful kaleidoscope of moving color on the velvet greensward, backed
by the rippling blue of the sun-brightened Thames, with a constant stream of pleasure craft
outlined against the terraced farther shore and red-tiled roofs and angular gables seen
between the gaps of the encompassing tree tops.
The room is noisy with the clatter of dishes, popping of corks and hum of conversation. The tables are crowded, and my lady and chorus
girl may have to sit vis-à-vis. No one remarks, no one cares. Sunburnt-looking fellows are
slicing up beef and ham at the buffet and securing accompaniments — the force of waiters is
insufficient to attend to all at once — for the ladies of their respective parties who are mixing
the salad at their table places. Most of the men get up to help themselves. It is the custom of
the place. Three shillings pays for all one wants to eat of any and all the courses. This social
atmosphere of the boating hotel is a peculiarly English phase of life.
Aerial View of Marlow -
Aerial View of Marlow © Adrian Warren
Upstream to Marlow Slipway
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