Thames Walk July 2014 19

River Thames Walk

A great walk along the Thames - and a visit to the place where WW1 started.

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A classic walk and all on the flat for a change, on the hottest day this year it was still hard work. The title for this walk is “Where the war started”, we passed the house in a village called Sutton Courtenay the place where the PM Herbert Asquith signed the order declaring war on Germany. There is a large Blue Plaque on the wall of the house. He is buried in All Saints Churchyard which is just a small distance away from the house, and you can easily find his grave without a problem, also Eric Arthur Blair better knows as George Orwell was buried here in 1950. The Walk follows for a large part the river Thames with loads of pleasure craft passing by - as we walked along we found some locks. The main locks on the walk are Culham lock & Clifton locks and they still employ a lock keeper to help with all the passings of boats. The walk had some great little hamlets and villages such as Appleford - Long Wittenham - Clifton Hampden and culham and on route a few good pubs, I choose The Plough Inn in Long Wittenham that had brews from the Butcombe Brewery I could have sat in the beer garden all day. Wildlife was easy to spot along the route with Red Kites, Buzzards, Goldfinches and Herons to name a few and loads of fish in the Thames. I Found an old second world war Pill box along the route in-fact there where a few but I cannot find a lot of information about them. Make sure you have a good look at the magnificent bridge at Clifton Hampden - opened in 1867, it stretches across the Thames in 6 spans. Make a date for this walk you will not be disappointed
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The house where the prime Minister H. Asquith signed the order declaring war on Germany
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He is buried in All Saints Churchyard Sutton Courtenay