Maps
1881: George Leslie -
Immediately above Pangbourne, the river is hemmed in by a steep chalk hill on the Berkshire side, and the fine oak trees of Combe Lodge on the Oxfordshire side, until a bend is reached where the oak trees end with a good old-fashioned boat-house beneath their shade. From here the waters expand into a grand open reach, with cliffs and beeches of Hart’s Wood at the end of it; the punting is not particularly good. By all means sail if you can, as then the beauty of the view can absorb your whole attention, and be enjoyed in perfect repose.
In Leslie's time (1880) there was an Osier Farm between Harts lock and Whitchurch -
An osier farm on the right is the first thing reached, with large barns for storing the dried osiers, stacks thatched with bark, and all the usual appliances for rod pealing, &c.
Cutting Osiers
This osier farming is still a lucrative river
business, and is carried on at many places up the Thames.
The withies are cut from the eyots and tied in
bundles; they are then carried in punts
and placed in a sort of water pound, all close together, with their thick ends
in the water; here they shoot out and
grow much longer.
At the time of rod
pealing the bank presents a very lively appearance, rows of boys and girls and
old women, all working away together, drawing the osiers through two pieces of
iron, which scrape the bark off quite clean, and it is astonishing to witness
the rapidity with which the beautiful white wands come out of their skin;
these white wands are what the wicker baskets
and chairs are made from.
Stripping Osiers
Wicker work is always in good and artistic
taste, as it is a handicraft that machinery has never been able to tackle.
I am very glad to see a growing demand for
the pretty garden chairs and drawing-room furniture made of wicker-work;
they are light,
elegant, and very strong. The late Mr.
E. W. Cooke, R.A., when young, learned the art of basket-making, and was quite
expert in this line, and I do not see why some of the enterprising young ladies
of the present day should not take up this craft. I like all wicker work;
even common hampers afford me
pleasure, their aromatic smell when new reminding me of the river.
The vitality of the willow tribe is very
remarkable; I have before now grown
withies from old hamper twigs, and you may often notice the little grey catkins
coming out in their appointed time on old willow sticks, when stowed away in
some dampish place; the old pollard
stumps too, as they fall to pieces, are ever ready to become the parent stocks
of a new tree. The smell of an osier
farm is to me most pleasant; it has
lately been discovered very wholesome also, for from the willow is made the
salicylic acid, so fine as a tonic, and a cure for rheumatism.
No doubt without this native “blue gum tree”
our marsh lands and riversides would be far more aguish and rheumatic than they
are. The fibrous roots of the Willow, seen at the edges
of the river, are of a pretty red colour;
I have sometimes taken people in by
calling them freshwater coral. There
are, I believe, thirty or thirty-five known sorts of willows in Great Britain,
but I know not enough of botany to trouble my readers with their names.
I have a great predilection for one variety,
which in beauty exceeds all others on the river; this is not the ordinary
useful osier used in basket-work, the leaves of which are long and narrow, but
a much more bushy sort, with leaves and foliage like
the myrtle. It possesses far greater
variety in its growth, and
its colour is more refined and delicate than other sorts.
The leaf-stems are golden coloured when
young, the leaves of a dull olive on the upper side and pale grey beneath;
at the end of each little shoot one or two
leaves are tipped with golden orange.
The whole shrub grows beautifully, and forms fine masses and
shapes; it takes far more light and
shade than its more useful brethren; it
does not blow about in such a weak way as the others, which gives such a cold
chill to the colour of a bank on a windy day.
I am very fond of all willows except one, and that is the weeping willow
so often placed on lawns by the river side, but which only reminds me of
tombstones, hair-brooches, and In Memoriam cards.
Here the magnificent scenery opens up in scale, a wide vista of hills to the one side and flat land to the other. The river feels bank full and the flat land appears to be below river level.
Goring Gap
Map: Child Beale Wildlife Trust
Right Bank
Map: Site of Hart’s Lock
“Hart’s” is the name of at least 8 river features up and down the Thames –
the result probably of naming things after people – and then the people move …)
1580-5: Bishop names it “Harts”
1720: Camden - “a fish lock”
1746: Griffiths – “passage free”
1791: Mylne – “free and open… Was a pen and Wear formerly; a
Tumbling Solid Wear; and two sets of Bucks and Gates”
1802: Mylne – “Hart’s Old Wear … the ruins of it very inconvenient”
1811: Commisioners’ Report –
“Hart’s Old Lock is gone to decay, and is without shutting tackle, but pens a
small head of water above and causes a shallow below”.
1873: Taunt's Map and Guide to the Thames -
Harts Wood with its pretty group of aits and its well know chalk pit, is like Streatley, a gem of
Thames scenery, and forms the beautiful connecting link between that place and lovely Pangbourne.
In the autumn particularly, when its beech woods are golden and red with fallen leaves,
this gem in its setting of hills is truly a charming place.
Clearly by 1873 there was no weir.
1880:
Hart’s Lock, Henry Taunt -
Hart’s Lock, Henry Taunt, 1880
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT2808
1881: George Leslie –
... the beautiful Hart’s Wood reach commences, resembling in many respects that of Cliveden. Here are similar eyots in the bend of the river, and on the right beech woods coming down to the water’s edge. There was formerly a lock and weir amongst these eyots, the narrow passage on the tow-path side being evidently the situation of the lock, and a few old stumps of piles still exist about the spot.
1882:
Ordnance Survey Map showing Site of Harts Lock.
1916: Fred Thacker saw barges
removing piles from the site of Harts Lock and photographed them –
Old Harts Lock Piles, 1916
1881: George Leslie -
Hart’s Wood possesses a Lover’s leap; it is to be found on the path from Whitchurch to Goring ... which here runs for a short distance on the edge of a steep cliff. I never heard who the lover was that leaped. The wooded hill ends much sooner than the celebrated Cliveden range, and great undulating ploughed lands succeed which fall away gradually as we approach Goring.
(Gatehampton Railway Bridge)
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
//Rose Revived
Newbridge
//Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS