A great walk along the Thames - and a visit to the place where WW1 started.
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 The house where the prime Minister H. Asquith signed the order declaring war on Germany
He is buried in All Saints Churchyard Sutton Courtenay
