Whitchurch-on-Thames
Set a radius on the map of about 10 miles from home and explore as much of that area as you can, I decided one day that would be a lovely project
I had hoped to photograph the famous bridge on this walk, so going to dig into my archives for a photo of it. We’d had some heavy rain the day before and Pangbourne meadow was somewhat waterlogged, with the jetty underwater, where we launch our kayaks from in the summer months. The river was flowing incredibly fast, a stark contrast to it’s near static nature last summer.
The Grade II toll bridge across the Thames was built in 1972 and underwent a rebuild in 2013 but maintained it’s exact appearance. I’ve got a project in mind, bridges of England! Yes yet another project!
From 1792 to 2019 the bridge was owned and operated by The Company of Proprietors of Whitchurch Bridge. In 2019 the company was sold to the General Estates Company of Hythe, near Southampton whose website does not provide any information about the bridge.
The toll for a car in 2022 to use the bridge is 60p each way, or 42.5p for regular users who buy a bridge card.
Telephone boxes
Since most phone boxes nowadays are disconnected from the phone networks, many have become book sharing libraries or the home for defibrillators. Something we’ve come across in many places up and down the country. Tina often takes old books to one a couple of miles away in exchange for some new reads. I think it’s a love initiative.
Letter boxes
Will there be CR boxes for King Charles? How often are new postboxes installed these days? Near where we live there are a couple of the old GR boxes, for King George. Again I think they’d make lovely project material, along with flaky old doors and the phone boxes! I loved this one embedded in the church grounds wall.
St Mary’s Church
Dates back to the 11th century, although the main parts of the church are more modern than this. It’s located on the Thames path and accessed via a private road, which we guessed was ok to walk down, if at least just to have a look at the church.