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Bubbling springs at Thames Head
We begin our journey in a field which is three miles south-west of Cirencester, beside a road known as the Fosse Way to the Romans. Two miles to the north of us is the site of the iron age hill settlement known as Trewsbury Fort. If you expect to see a well maintained and bubbling spring with latin inscription, or a stone walled well, or the statue of Old Father Thames, then you will be disappointed.
The source is simply marked by an old ash tree, and a stone, engraved with the words, 'The conservation of the River Thames 1857-1974. This stone was placed here to mark the source of the River Thames.' Looking around at the grass, nettles and dried earth, the one thing that is absent is water except after continuous rainfall. The pumping of water up to the nearby Thames and Severn Canal was blamed for the lack of local spring water, but complaints were heard long before the canal was built.
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Source of the Thames |
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Ashton Keynes |
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Ashton Keynes
For the first few miles you must have faith that you are following the river although there is often little evidence of it. The stream slowly gathers strength, and by Ashton Keynes it is about six feet wide, and deep enough to paddle in.
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Cricklade
Jump in the water at Cricklade. It may only come up to your knees, but you are now truly in the river Thames. From here you can navigate downstream by canoe or rubber dingy, passing through the nine counties of Gloucestershire , Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Middlesex, Essex and Kent, before finally entering the North Sea.
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Hatchets Bridge, Cricklade |
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Introduction
Thames Head
