Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
Walk 9 : Shiplake to Henley
River Thames, Rotherfield Greys & Greys Court
| Length | 17.25km (10.7 miles), 5 hours 15 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow 8 hours 45 minutes. |
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| OS Landranger Map | No.175. Shiplake, map reference SU 776 797, is in Oxfordshire, 9km north-west of Reading. |
| Toughness | 4 out of 10. |
| Features | This walk is a bit like the scenery in a cowboy film: as soon as you are more than a few feet up, you have magnificent views over the unspoilt Thames valley. From Shiplake Lock the route follows the Thames, then up to the church beside Shiplake College, and through bluebell woods beside Crowsley Park (the grandiose site for the BBC's listening masts), to the church and pub in Rotherfield Greys. The cherry trees and cricket green in the hamlet of Greys Green lead on into the National Trust estate of Greys Court, and from there into the beechwoods of Lambridge, and past Friar Park, with its splendidly over-opulent Gothic gatehouse, to a teahouse in Henley beside the church and river bridge. |
| Shortening the Walk | After lunch at the Maltsters Arms pub in Rotherfield Greys, you could take a direct footpath to Henley (see the asterisk [*] in the book's walk directions), and so avoid the extra 4 km involved in visiting Greys Court; or you could call a taxi from the pub. Earlier in the walk, on Shiplake Row, there are hourly buses from near the White Hart pub into Henley or Reading. |
| History |
Shiplake was as close as the Vikings could get their ships to their main encampment in Reading - hence, possibly, the name 'Ship lack'. There were vineyards on the riverside slopes during Tudor and Stuart times. Shiplake College was built in the 1890s by a stockbroker; it was used by the BBC in World War II; and became a school in 1959. Shiplake Church dates from the eleventh century and contains stained glass from the Abbey of St Omer in France. The poet Tennyson was married here in 1850 - he wrote: 'The Peace of God came into my life before the altar when I wedded her.' Four times a week Shiplake College uses the church for its assemblies. St Nicholas Church in Rotherfield Greys contains the ornate tomb of Robert Knollys, Elizabeth I's treasurer who took charge of Mary Queen of Scots during her imprisonment; and of Robert's wife Katherine, a first cousin to Elizabeth I; and the effigies of their 16 children. The church curate reported in 1738 that, so poor were his parishioners, of the 'Absenters from ye Church there are a great many yet come but seldom [for] want of clothes'. Whilst the church's Revd J Ingram wrote of his experiment in 1823 to create jobs by cultivating opium: 'From its purity it was found of superior efficacy to that bought from Turkey or the East Indies, and I obtained a high price for it from the Society of Apothecaries Hall.' Greys Court (tel 01491 628 529), owned by the National Trust, is a sixteenth-century house of brick, flint and stone, erected in the ruins of a vast mansion that was castellated by the first Lord Grey in 1347 - with a licence from Edward III, in recognition of loyal service at the Battle of Crecy. The house is today the home of Lady Brunner, a granddaughter of the actor Sir Henry Irving. The estate has a maze, two possibly Tudor towers, ruins and a large donkey wheel and horse wheel that were used for pumping up water. (The ground floor of the house is open from April to the end of September on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 2pm to 6pm; the gardens are open at these times and on Tuesdays, Saturdays and bank holiday Mondays; admission is £4). Henley, with its 300 listed buildings, is said to be the oldest settlement in Oxfordshire. |
| Lunch | The suggested lunchtime pub is the Maltsters Arms tel 01491 628 400) in Rotherfield Greys, serving food daily from midday to 2pm. However, this pub is 10.3km from the start of the walk, so, if you think that you will not get there in time, the suggested alternative is 4km earlier on: the thatched pub in Binfield Heath called the Bottle & Glass Inn (tel 01491 575 755), where food is served from midday to 1.45pm daily. |
| Saturday Walkers Club | The Saturday Walkers Club do this walk each March. |
| Major Updates | Some paths have been re-numbered. [details] |
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| Warning | This text was taken from an older edition of the book, and is a little out of date. Please check the updates for this walk. |
Walking Instructions
For a map and detailed walking instruction, please see Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
