Walk 8 : Marlow Circular

Main walk 19.4km (12.1 miles), five hours 30 minutes walking time. For the whole excursion, including meals, allow nine hours.

Short walks: Marlow to Hurley and back: 8.8km (5.5 miles), three hours walking time

Marlow to Henley: 13km (8 miles), four hours walking time, or 14km (8.7 miles), four hours 30 minutes walking time

Henley to Marlow: 14km (8.7 miles), four hours 30 minutes walking time

OS Landranger Map No 175. OS Explorer Map 172 and 171

3 out of 10

If all you know of the Thames is the grey muddy stretch that runs through London, on this walk you are in for a pleasant surprise. The Thames above Marlow is a lazy, tranquil river, which runs between pleasant meadows and overhanging trees, occasionally overlooked by fine old manor houses. The area is also known as a habitat for red kites - look up to see them hovering overhead. This walk follows the Thames path for the first 8km (5 miles), passing the ancient village of Hurley, little changed since the days when it was a Benedictine Abbey. Lunch is in Aston or Hambleden, both quaint riverside villages. By contrast, the afternoon takes you up over the wooded hills that frame the Thames Valley, and then down into the well-preserved town of Marlow for tea. Note that much of the morning passes along the flood plain of the Thames and about once every winter these live up to their name and the route becomes impassable (a rise of less than 50 centimetres in the level of the river is enough for this): so if planning this walk after a period of heavy rains, check for any flood alerts before setting out.

From the Flower Pot Hotel in Aston (point [4] in the walk directions below), you can carry on into Henley, making a Marlow to Henley walk. There are two possible routes:

The first option uses part of the Henley Round via Hambledon walk directions elsewhere in this book to return to Henley. Come out of the front (south) entrance of the Flower Pot Hotel, and turn right (west) onto the road, which climbs gently uphill. In 40 metres, you pass some cottages to the left, and a car wide concrete track leading to double metal fieldgates right. Keep straight on along the road here and pick up the walk directions in the Henley via Hambledon chapter of this book at point [5]. This takes you over Remenham Hill and gives a total Marlow to Henley walk length of 13km (8 miles), or four hours walking time.

Alternatively, stay on the main route described here to point [5] of this walk, but then remain on the river path instead of crossing Hambleden Lock. 4km of very pleasant riverside walking bring you to Henley’s road bridge. This route gives a total walk Marlow to Henley walk length of 14km (8.7 miles), or four hours 30 minutes walking time. For details of tea options and how to get to the station in Henley, see the walk directions from the point marked [**] at the end of the Henley Round via Hambledon chapter in this book.

You can also do a Henley to Marlow walk, by combining the morning section of either the Henley Round via Hambleden walk in this book, or the Henley Round walk in the original Time Out Book of Country Walks, with the afternoon section of this walk. Follow the directions on either of the other two walks to lunch at Hambleden, and then follow the directions below from point [6]. In either case, this makes a walk of 14km (8.7 miles), four hours 30 minutes walking time

The buses which link Henley and Marlow (see From a Car below for full details) also stop on the A4155 just beyond Hambleden Lock, making it possible to end the walk at this point, 10km (6 miles) into the walk.

Finally, a pleasant short excursion is to walk from Marlow to Hurley and back, lunching in Ye Olde Bell Inn in Hurley, and having tea in Marlow. The river path is easy to follow in the reverse direction. This is a round trip of 8.8km (5.5 miles), or a leisurely three hours walking time

Most of the fine buildings in Marlow’s High Street and West Street are Georgian (18th century), but the town was already well established in the days of the Doomsday book (1085), when the town had "twenty three copy-holders, one serf and one mill", as well as "a fishery which yields 1000 eels". Its church was famously surrounded by marsh, prompting one churchwarden in 1777 to ask for money "for a cast iron brazier wherein to make a large charcoal fire and warm the church in cold damp weather". Famous residents include Mary Shelley, who lived in West Street for a year along with her poet husband Percy Bysshe Shelley while finishing her novel Frankinstein. TS Eliot also came to Marlow to escape the bombing in London at the end of the First World War, and the town was home to Jerome K Jerome, whose novel Three Men in a Boat so immortalised the pleasures of "messing about on the river".

After the dissolution of the Monasteries, Bisham Abbey (pronounced Biss’am) seen across the river on this walk, was given by from Henry V111 to his divorced wife, Anne of Cleeves, the only one of Henry’s wives to be smart enough to realise when Henry did not want her and so get a generous financial settlement (including several fine houses) out of him. She lived to happy old age, widely respected by her adopted countrymen.

Hurley was once a Benedictine Monastery, and you can still get a real feel for what it must have been like in those days if you wander around the village. The chapel of the monastery (now the Parish Church of St Mary The Virgin), its refectory and several other buildings are still extant. A leaflet is on sale just inside the church which gives a guided tour.

The islands near Hurley Lock are one of the few places where the Thames splits into channels. A ford across the river at this point was the origin of Hurley, which is mentioned as far back as the Saxon Chronicles. Since the islands and the weirs erected between them were barriers to navigation, the villagers not surprisingly made a good living helping boats through them

Hambleden is not to be confused with Hambledon in Hampshire where cricket was invented. WH Smith, founder of the newsagents (and also, incidentally, the supposed target of the satirical Gilbert and Sullivan song "Ruler of the Queens Navy" in HMS Pinafore), is buried in the churchyard (he became posthumously Lord Hambleden), and the company owned the village till 2003, when it put it up for sale. The parish church has several interesting memorials, including one to the family of Sir Cope D’Oyley, who died in 1633, on which the children are shown carrying skulls if they died before their parents. To the left of this tomb is an oak chest used by the Earl of Cardigan when he led the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854

Catch the nearest train to 9.00 from Paddington. To reach Marlow, you have to change at Maidenhead. Note that the train on this branch line reverses direction at Bourne End, the stop before Marlow, so if you notice the train suddenly going backwards, do not panic. Trains back from Marlow are hourly until late in the evening. If doing the Henley to Marlow walk with the Saturday Walkers Club, see the Henley via Hambleden chapter for suggested train times.

The obvious place to park is in Marlow: if you are not parking near the station, simply find the High Street to start the walk: follow this down to the park just before the church (on your left) and the river, and start the walk from this point in the text.

If you are on the shorter walk ending in Henley, there are hourly buses (the 328 or 329) back to Marlow until 10pm daily at night, a journey time of about 20 minutes. Tel 0870 608 2608 for times. The buses go from Bell Street. To reach the stop, starting from Henley Bridge, walk away from the river up Hart Street, until you get to a major crossroads just before the marketplace. Turn right here - this is Bell Street - and the bus is immediately on your left.

There are two options for lunch. The Flower Pot Hotel (tel 01491 574721) in the tranquil hamlet of Aston is reached after 9.2km (5.7 miles). It is a homely unpretentious place and and serves food to match from 12-2 pm daily (evenings 6 pm to 9pm Mon-Sat). Though it has four or five rooms, it is actually more of a pub than a hotel. The bar is decorated with stuffed fish, and there is a garden with hens and even guinea fowl pecking around it.

2.6km (1.6 miles) miles or 45 minutes walking time further on, and thus 11.8km (7.3 miles) into the walk, the Stag and Huntsman 01491 571 227 in Hambleden is a cosy and atmospheric old pub with a blazing fire in winter and a garden in summer. It serves food 12.00-2.00 daily, and from 7.00-9.30 pm Monday to Saturday

If you are just walking to Hurley and back, or as an early lunch option on the main walk, Ye Olde Bell Inn in Hurley 01628 825881 is a possible choice. This is in fact a hotel which serves food from 12-2 pm and has both a restaurant and bar meals. However, the restaurant has a "smart casual" dress code which seems to rule out many walkers. 120 metres further up the road on the left, the Rising Sun pub in Hurley may also serve meals.

Almost anywhere in the first five miles of the walk would be an ideal place for a picnic.Marlow High Street (passed early in the walk) is the obvious place to buy picnic items: if you forget, the Hurley Farm Shop (actually a normal convience store) in the village of Hurley can help you out. It is open 7.30am to 8pm daily.

Be sure to leave the pub in Aston by 1.45 pm or the one in Hambleden by 2.30 pm if you want to get to the best tea options in Marlow.

These are either Bonny’s Tea Room, about halfway down the High Street on the left, which serves good homemade cakes. It is open till 5pm daily. Or Burgers on the left at the bottom of the High Street, just before the church. Despite its name, this is an upmarket patisserie and tea room, open till 5.15 pm Monday to Friday and 5.00pm Saturday (closed Sunday)

However, if you arrive later in Marlow (very likely on a spring or summer day!), there are other choices.The local branch of Coffee Republic, on the right hand side of the High Street about halfway down, stays open till 6pm. A little further back up the High Road is Caffe Uno, more of a restaurant in the evenings, but advertising itself as a cafe too.

Marlow also has oodles of fine old pubs, some of which will almost certainly serve tea and coffee.

At time of writing, there is also talk of a tea shop opening in Hambleden, which could provide an early tea stop. It is due to open at the back of the village shop, which is on the left just before the church. Hambleden Church also serves teas in the churchyard on summer Sunday afternoons.

If you are returning to Marlow along the river from Hurley, the Temple Tea Gardens at Temple Lock are another possible tea stop: they are open roughly from March to September "depending on the weather".

Serious typo. [details]

This text was taken from the 2004 edition of the book, and may be a little out of date. Please check the updates for this walk.