A Spring Walk on the River Thames
Tales of the river bank
Yesterday afternoon was beautifully sunny, in the upper sixties (around 20C). We met with our friend Alan, to take our two dogs for a walk along the Thames. It’s a familiar walk, one we do most days. Although we usually go the mile or so to the bend in the river and then turn back, after a brief game of ball with Moth and Milo. Yesterday we continued the extra mile or so, past the nature reserve, along a towpath shaded by overhanging trees, to the sleepy village of Sonning.
On route we passed Sonning lock, with a plaque on a gateway to Blue Coat school’s rowing centre, commemorating the drowning of a master, Denys Amos, in January 1953; then up a stony pathway to a graveyard and St Andrews Church. Hidden in the base of its tower is a 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Rich. In Victorian times it was delightfully described as ‘the vilest paganism imaginable.’ The Church is Victorian Gothic style although the site is much older. Some of the stonework is over a thousand years old, the remnants of an Anglo-Saxon minister.
Immediately beyond the wall boundary is a quaint old pub, The Bull, owned by the church and rented to Fullers, where we stopped for refreshments before making our return journey. The Bull is a timber framed building dating from the 16th century and the time of Shakespeare. As an…
