Newsletter September, 2025

Grosvenor Railway Bridge, Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms from Chelsea Bridge

…and breathe

September is now behind us and we enter the twilight zone of October where we still have walkers but the numbers are much down. It allows us the opportunity to take a little rest and to get ahead on our winter projects which includes some new routes. Here’s a list of what we’re thinking of for next year:

The Chilterns – although we have a lovely 3 day walk described as a Chiltern Ramble, we’ve been disappointed with uptake. So we’re going to look at leveraging the best parts of the Chiltern Way. The full walk is 180 miles long and is best described as a rectangular, rather than a circular walk. It may be that we can offer this in 2 parts over the next year or so.

The Great West Way is any continuous walk from Bristol to London where we will leverage mostly the Kennet and Avon Canal as well as the Thames Path. We may opt to “straighten” some sections of the Thames Path to make it more direct.

And then we plan to offer St Frideswide Way and the St James’ Way as a continuous pilgrimage walk from Oxford to Southampton via Reading.

Aside from these we’re planning on a slightly different approach to our winter webinars. Over the last few years we’ve held webinars almost every week through the winter covering different walks. We’re frequently asked whether we record these – which we’ve never done – as people often have conflicts. So this year we’re thinking of recording the webinars and making them available on YouTube. However, so that we don’t lose the opportunity to chat with our walkers, we’re also thinking of having some kind of “open hour” where folks can call in during a certain time and ask questions. All will hopefully be revealed by the next newsletter.

In the meantime there’s still a month to squeeze a walk in. October can be unpredictable. But it’s a good time to walk the lower reaches of the Thames Path as there’s minimal flood risk AND there are plenty of places to shelter if it rains.

Kintbury Lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal

Thames Path Route News

We’re still waiting for the National Trails office to provide us with some signs so we can replace the missing ones on the Shiplake to Henley diversion. Last month we reported that the start of the diversion had itself been diverted. We’re happy to report that that is now finished.

Work was due to start this week on dismantling the broken middle section of Temple Bridge which remains closed for walkers. Engineers will then assess the extent of the required repairs. Their report, however, is not due until Spring 2026! It is possible to follow an alternative route along the left bank of the Thames all the way from Hambleden Lock to Marlow thus completely avoiding the diversion. The lock-keeper at Temple Lock has a display of this route but this will only be seen by upstream walkers (intended for those who missed the diversion signs at Marlow) as those walking downstream cannot reach Temple Lock!

There was some fanfare about the opening of a continuous route from Battersea to Vauxhall which we reported on last month. We took some time to check this out and found that it’s not quite correct. Previously there were three diversions: Battersea, Nine Elms and Vauxhall. Two of these (Nine Elms and Vauxhall) have ended. However, there is still a diversion immediately downstream of Battersea.

Whilst checking the Path at Battersea we also took in recent developments at Chelsea Creek, slightly upstream and on the lesser-used left bank. For a while the bridge across the creek had been out of action whilst the power station at Lots Road was being redeveloped. Walkers were diverted up to the head of the creek and then down Lots Road. That development has now finished and you can now cross the creek at the proper place. However, once on the other side of the creek you cannot continue your journey alongside the river. You must pass through the development and onto Lots Road which will soon take you back to the river. Not perfect but nevertheless a great improvement.

As always, all of these are listed our route alerts page on the website. as well as our flood alerts page which is currently blank!

Long-standing diversions:

Sandford: A bridge over a tributary is deemed unsafe and has been temporarily closed whilst investigations are made. In the meantime, the Path has been diverted along Route 5 cycle path which runs alongside the railway. The Path is rejoined just past Sandford Lock.

Abingdon: As you approach Abingdon in a downstream direction, the Path switches from the right bank to the left bank via a walkway across the weir. Due to corrosion, this walkway has been closed and the Path re-routed via Abingdon town centre.

The diversion to avoid the closed boardwalk at Marsh Lock Henley now starts at Shiplake and takes you briefly into the Chilterns. The diversion adds an extra 1.0 miles to the walk although feedback that we’ve received is that it feels much longer! But, bear in mind that the distance from Shiplake to Henley is already 2.4 miles. So the diversion is therefore 3.4 miles in total.

The diversion at Temple Bridge is still in place following its closure. The diversion makes use of the lane running from Temple to Bisham and then a road with a pavement into Marlow

And damage to a bridge over a tributary has caused a diversion from just past the Runnymede Hotel to shortly before Staines. The diversion uses the A308 (pavements) returning the walker to the riverbank just before the bridge at Staines. The diversion replaces about 0.6 miles of the route with minimal added distance. The diversion is set to be in place until 2026. The signage for this diversion is not that obvious.

Between Richmond and Kew a section of the embankment has collapsed into the river. There is no way around meaning that section of the Path is temporarily closed. We advise you to follow the left bank through Isleworth and Brentford. However, development work is ongoing at the Grand Union Canal in Brentford with the Path being blocked. This can be avoided by skipping the walk along the canal and following Brentford High Street instead.

The newish bridge at Chelsea Creek

Other Thames Path News

London’s Docklands Museum is hosting a display entitled Secrets of the Thames -” fascinating objects and stories from London’s past in the UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to mudlarking”. The entry price is £16 although there are a number of free galleries in the museum.

In the middle of September the Thames Path was closed at quite short notice for two days between the Victoria and Albert bridges just downstream of Windsor. The reason? The State Visit of Donald Trump. We’re guessing that the reason for the closure was that this section of the route is directly across the river from the gardens of Windsor Castle and, possibly, the much-talked-about coach ride was passing on the other side. We advised walkers to take our recommended detour through the Great Park although even that was a challenge as the first part of the Long Walk, the path running from the castle to the park, was fenced off. Needless to say, bag deliveries in Windsor were a little challenging that day.

The grounds of Windsor Castle as seen from across the river in Datchet

Camino Ingles/St James’ Way

The St James’ Way is not a National Trail and doesn’t receive any government funding for upkeep of the path. Responsibility is therefore devolved to local councils, most of whom are short of funds. So it has fallen to our Camino team to organise working parties to help maintain the path. Their last outing was on September 7 to clear the path alongside Itchen Valley Country Park and Southampton Airport. The photos below show a marvellous transformation.

Kennet and Avon Canal Walk

We mentioned in our last newsletter that we had quite a few walkers in the Kennet and Avon Canal this month. Sure enough, they all turned up and they all finished. Our plan to manage the 15 mile distance from Hungerford to Pewsey by having walkers stop at the Pelican Inn, Froxfield, 2.5 miles further on from Hungerford, worked well. The Pelican Inn, which is under new management and not yet serving breakfasts. However, our walkers were very grateful of the breakfast hamper we provided.

One set of walkers discovered an unusual sight: a dry lock! It seems that a pleasure craft had inadvertently left the gates open and the canal has bled dry. Volunteers from the canal trust were soon on site to restore water.

Whilst doing our baggage transfers we stumbled across a horse drawn barge at Kintbury which offers day trips and more, all powered by either Monty (in photo) or Drummer.

Ridgeway News

Some good news. The Fat Fox in Watlington has re-opened, within a couple of weeks of the previous tenants leaving. And rooms are still being offered. Meanwhile the Perch and Pike at South Stoke remains closed BUT there’s a message on the website saying “We’re closed for now, but only while we get everything ready for you.” So it sounds like that’s about to re-open also.

Sadly the proprietors of Hill Barn have hung up whatever bed and breakfast owners hang up when they retire! Hill Barn was probably the remotest accommodation on The Ridgeway being right on the trail near Sparsholt. We shall miss driving past Harry Whittington’s racing stable, Harry being their son and the stables being opposite the house.

It wasn’t just the Thames Path that was impacted by Donald Trump’s visit. A section of The Ridgeway passes through Chequers, the country house of the Prime Minister. And, of course, that was also used during the visit resulting in a temporary closure of The Ridgeway.

This section of The Ridgeway was temporarily closed for two days in September

That’s all folks. See you on the trail!

Walking.Holiday