The lovely house opposite our mooring at Thames Court was all lit up last night, so it looked really nice with the moon too.
This morning we set off well before 9, having taken Macc for a walk and made use of the Elsan and rubbish facilities. There are plenty of nice houses to look at, but the first major landmark is Chertsey Bridge.
A volunteer lock keeper emptied Chertsey Lock for us, and then took us up. He apologised as we left for it all happening so slowly — saying they’re filling the locks more slowly to protect water resources further upstream. I’m not entirely sure how that helps. The next bridge is the M3, and is nowhere near as nice.
Penton Hook Lock was open ready for us. All these locks are huge — we go about halfway along and there’s still masses of space in front, behind, and alongside.
At Staines, there’s a rail bridge and a road bridge, and then a little further on is the M25 bridge which is rather elegant.
A boat had not long left Bell Weir Lock, and the lockie spotted us and reopened the gates. Again we were on our own in the huge lock, but there was a boat waiting to come down. Above the lockie spotted us, they’re doing lots of building work on the weir.
We wanted to moor somewhere in the Runnymede area, and there was plenty of space on the Environment Agency moorings. We carried on a little but realised that the subsequent moorings were all very close to the road, so turned around and went back.
We went for a walk round the Runnymede Pleasure Grounds. Part of the park has been taken over by the weir works, and there’s a big platform with a tug at either end (one forward, one backwards) which transports things to the weir.
Almost surrounded by the works compound is a statue of Queen Elizabeth II.
We had lunch at the park cafe, where the toasted sandwiches were reasonably priced. In the afternoon, I went for a walk over to the National Trust land. One Magna Carta monument we hadn’t seen before is called Writ in Water. It’s been there since 2018, but I think last time we were on the Thames we didn’t stop at Runnymede. From the outside it looks like a pill box, but inside there’s a reflecting pool in which you can read Clause 39 of the Magna Carta. It’s by the artist Mark Wallinger.
While I was there, I also went to the American Bar Association memorial to the Magna Carta, the JFK memorial, and an installation called The Jurors, a set of chairs also marking the Magna Carta.
There’s also a temporary installation there at the moment, but I couldn’t find an explanation for it.
The only one I didn’t visit was the Air Forces Memorial, which is right at the top of the hill — but we have been there a couple of times before. When I got back, I told Adrian he needed to see Writ in Water, so he went for a walk to find it and was also impressed.
7 miles, 3 locks.