Walking the Thames Path

A Taste of the Thames Path - Hurley to Cookham 

The Thames Path is a long distance walking trail which covers 184 miles following the River Thames from its source in Gloucestershire to the Thames Flood Barrier in Woolwich, SE London.  I have already walked some parts of the path in London but recently sampled the route between Hurley (near Henley-on-Thames) and Cookham.

The Thames Path

Hurley is a pretty village with brick and flint houses, a village green and a Saxon church, St Mary's, which was being decorated for a wedding as we passed by on our way to the river. It is a beautiful little church which was once part of a Benedictine priory.

St Mary's, Hurley

There is parking available just beside the village green and the river is just a short stroll away, down a lane to the left as you exit the carpark.

Bridge over the Thames at Hurley

First we climbed the bridge over the river to one of a number of islands that lie within the Thames, and then headed east to Hurley Lock. The lock keeper and his assistant were working the electric lock gates to allow boats to move up and down river, no windlass or effort needed here!

Hurley Lock

Hurley Regatta was in full swing as we walked by and the homemade raft race was just ending, with a number of contestants being dragged, wet through, from the river.

Watching the Regatta

End of the raft race

The first stretch to Marlow is roughly 4 miles of gentle countryside passing some intriguing houses and Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre on the opposite riverbank. We spotted cormorants, coots, swans and ducks in the river and watched a red kite (bird) circling above us.

One of many swans on the River Thames

It amused me (I'm easily amused) that there were two cormorants at either end of a Danger sign in the river when we passed and they were still in the same places on our return hours later!

Danger - cormorants!

Coots, all standing on one leg!

The path around Marlow gets a bit tricky as, currently, some renovation work is being done. Route signs are easy to follow and we picked up the river again after a slight detour through the town.






Between Marlow and Bourne End (3.5 miles) we came across a few picnic tables amongst the trees and decided it was a good spot to rest and eat our sandwiches. The path is quite flat and very easy going, the only climbing is crossing the river bridges, so it is suitable for most people to enjoy. 

Bridge over the Thames between Hurley and Marlow

After Bourne End marina we discovered a chatty young man in an ice-cream van so a '99' was necessary to fuel us for the remaining stretch to Cookham!

Essential ice-cream

On reaching Cookham we hunted out the Stanley Spencer Gallery and took a look at their current exhibition 'Patron Saints, Collecting Stanley Spencer' which examines the relationships between Spencer and his patrons.  Some of the works are on loan from private collections and are rarely seen in public. The exhibition runs until 4th November 2018.

Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham

Stanley Spencer was born in Cookham and spend the majority of his life in the area. The River Thames and its surrounding fields and villages feature often in his paintings. As I looked at the exhibition I found myself trying to recognise in the paintings places that we had just been walking by.

There is a local train that goes from Cookham to Marlow which we took after exploring Cookham. We wandered up the High Street in Marlow and had tea and banana cake (really delicious) at Tom Kerridge's pub, The Coach, on West Street. Suitably refreshed we managed the return walk along the Thames Path from Marlow to Hurley quite easily.