"Thames Waters V 15 Miles downstream, near Cricklade"
from the series "
Sweet Thames Run Softly" by Quintin Lake. Prints available.
Fred Thacker's map, Ashton Keynes to Cricklade, 1920.
From here on I have written as if the entire way is navigable. It is not (or at the very least not easy, even for a canoe at times). After the Cricklade Town Bridge the Thames leaves Cricklade going into the North Meadow Nature Reserve.
North Meadow Nature Reserve
A few yards above Cricklade Town Bridge.
Near Cricklade lantern slide 1883-1906, W.C.Hughes, research by Dr Wilson, courtesy of Pat Furley
Cricklade Weir & Footbridge
This is the first weir going up the Thames not passable by means of a lock.
The Thames Path crosses over.
Site of West Mill
Right bank, where West Mill Lane meets the river, marked on Fred Thacker's map above.
1828: Westall -
The River is navigable to West Mill for barges of six or seven tons.
There is a weir just above the site of West Mill
1919: Old Ordnance Survey Map showing Canal and railway crossings.
Site of North Wiltshire Canal Aqueduct
1897: Latton Aqueduct, James Dredge -
Latton Aqueduct, James Dredge, 1897
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D230427a
North Wiltshire Canal Aqueduct.
1910: Thames Valley Villages by Charles George Harper
The navigation of these first few miles of the Thames was long ago considered to be so irretrievably a thing of the past, that it was permitted the constructors of the North Wilts Canal, in crossing the stream, one mile above Cricklade, to build a brick bridge or aqueduct so low-pitched across it that the crown of the arch scarcely appears above water, and effectually stops any attempt to get even a canoe through.
1920: Fred Thacker -
The aqueduct of the North Wilts Canal crosses the River, indignant Thames running beneath it through culverts. The canal you can cross, if tramping, at a lock a little northward.
Site of Railway Bridge
Midland and South Western Railway Bridge.
1897: James Dredge -
Midland and South Western Railway Bridge, James Dredge, 1897
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D230426a
1920: Fred Thacker -
There is no footway beneath the M. & S. W. J. railway bridge; you must cross over the embankment if you are afoot.
The railway now dismantled and used as a cycle track.
Site of Weir
And then the site of a
previous weir just above the railway crossing.
1871: Taunt - Weir the sill and sheeting still in fair order, .
1920: Fred Thacker -
About half a mile (below Hailstone Hill) [a weir] - I could find no surviving relics about 1910, except some stones in the bed which may mark the site. Old weir sills were often used as a foundation for stepping stones.
Hailstone Hill Footbridge?
1920: Fred Thacker -
[Footbridge of] substantial timber on stone pillars and carries a path across joining South Cerney and Cricklade.
Bournlake Weir?
1921: Fred Thacker - "Here is a solid bridge of two arches: one of stone and one of brick"
Leigh Bridge?
1920: Fred Thacker -
At Leigh are two bridges: one three arched of stone, one of timber.
Waterhay Bridge
"Thames Waters IV 5 Miles downstream, near Ashton Keynes"
from the series "
Sweet Thames Run Softly" by Quintin Lake. Prints available.
1871: Taunt -
In winter and very early spring it is possible to get up the river to [ Waterhay ] bridge.
1883: Waterhay Bridge, Henry Taunt -
Waterhay Bridge, Henry Taunt, 1883
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT4248
1895: Waterhay Bridge rebuilt
1897: Waterhay Bridge, James Dredge -
Waterhay Bridge, James Dredge, 1897
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D230425a
1911: W Parker had a lantern slide of Waterhay Bridge (D230405a) - but oh Mr Parker you are a cheat!
What you have there is Henry Taunt's picture of 1883 - and not the bridge as it was by 1911 - so
I'm not going to show your picture!
Fred Thacker - Thames Highway 1920 -
It is at WATERHAY BRIDGE, seven miles from the source, that the tradition of serious navigation begins.
When first you cross this bridge, and gaze down upon the brook that trickles beneath it
through forget-me-not and cress, it is difficult to believe that a traffc of small barges
once forced its way hither.
If however you regard the width of the channel and the height of the banks below the bridge,
capable of more feet of water than there usually are inches, you may be inclined to accept the tradition.
Taunt indeed said in 1871 that "in winter, and very early spring,
it is Possible to get up the River to this bridge": he very probably had done it.
Dredge dates the present structure in 1895 ; and says its predecessor was of masonry.
There is parking here.
Swill Brook
Ashton Keynes lantern slide 1883-1906, W.C.Hughes, research by Dr Wilson, courtesy of Pat Furley
Right Bank
The River splits. The Swill Brook is straight on but a branch
of the Thames flows into it after half a
mile. In the Right bank stream are some
tortuous meanders; and then three bridges.
High Road Bridge
Derry Road Bridge
Gosditch Road Footbridge
On the Left bank side the branch of the Thames splits away which joins the Swill Brook (see above).
Derry Fields Bridge
Footbridge
Footbridge
The Thames path crosses to the Right bank.
Spine Road Bridge
Neigh Bridge
Neigh Bridge, Somerford.
1327: Neigh Bridge built as the winter Crossing when the "summer ford" was not usable.
Neigh Bridge Country Park
Footbridge
Footbridge
Footbridge
Upper Mill Farm
Mill Weir?
1793: Ewen Mill -
Ewen Mill. June 1, 1793. J. Farington R.A. delt. J.C. Stadler sculpt.
(Published) by J. & J. Boydell, Shakespeare Gally. Pall Mall & (No. 90)
Cheapside (London)
Ewen Mill, Tombleson 1830
Ewan Mill from The Genius of the Thames by Thomas Love Peacock
Sweet is thy course, and clear, and still,
By Ewan's old neglected mill:
Green shores thy narrow stream confine,
Where blooms the modest eglantine,
And hawthorn-boughs o'ershadowing spread,
To canopy thy infant bed.
Now peaceful hamlets wandering through,
And fields in beauty ever new,
1859: The first Mill -
The first mill, 1859.
The Thames near Kemble, Ashley Bryant -
The Thames near Kemble, Ashley Bryant
"Thames Waters III 3 Miles downstream, near Ewen"
from the series "
Sweet Thames Run Softly" by Quintin Lake. Prints available.
Overhead transmission wires.
Bridge
Under the Ewen to Poole Keynes Road, just south of Ewen.
After a mile the river runs close to the Kemble to Ewen Road.
Bridge
Under the Kemble to Ewen Road.
"Thames Waters II 2 Miles downstream, near Kemble"
from the series "
Sweet Thames Run Softly" by Quintin Lake. Prints available.
The A429 is approached at the point where a dismantled railway used to cross it. The embankment remains.
All Saints, Kemble
Kemble from The Genius of the Thames by Thomas Love Peacock
Where Kemble's wood-embosomed spire
Adorns the solitary glade,
And ancient trees, in green attire,
Diffuse a deep and pleasant shade,
Thy bounteous urn, light-murmuring, flings
The treasures of its infant springs,
And fast, beneath its native hill,
Impels the silver-sparkling rill,
With flag-flowers fringed and whispering reeds,
Along the many-colored meads.