Thames Path - Goring to Abingdon (★★★★☆)

 After a shorter previous day (as I continue a five day walk along the Thames Path), today I am back to walking a longer distance - with the plan to walk from Goring to Abingdon. That will leave one final shorter day's walking tomorrow, on my fifth and final day along the Thames Path. On the previous day I had walked from Reading to Goring.

Goring itself is a pretty little village, and at Goring we are about mid way through a cut between the Chilterns and the Berkshire Downs (part of the North Wessex Downs) - and Goring marks the closest meet point of these two sets of hills at the 'Goring Gap'.

Heading out from the train station at Goring in the direction of the river, it is a pleasant walk through the older parts of town - and I pass one of the many churches in Goring on the way.

St Thomas of Canterbury Church

Back alongside the Thames

After this stroll through the village, I head over Goring & Streatley Bridge - which once again includes a double crossing, once onto the island in the river, and then again across to the far side.

From here I continue on up the road very briefly, but then turn right and head down towards St Mary's Church, as I pass through the outer edge of Streatley.

St  Mary's Chruch

After a fairly short, and fairly pleasant, wiggle around the buildings, I find myself back alongside the river, and generally heading northwards.

Heading along the river

Here everything settles down once again now that we are back along the tow path. By this point we are a long way from London, and it feels like we are now getting into the more rural stretch of the river.

And so there is a fairly pleasant mix of countryside as we head on, and as we pass between Moulsford and South Stoke, we get more signs of the rolling hills that the Thames has cut between.

The Berkshire Downs (part of the North Wessex Downs)

The stretch along the river coming into Moulsford

Upon reaching Moulsford, the path cuts up through a rather nicely finished hotel to head up to the road - which we must follow, as we are forced to navigate around the river side homes along this stretch of the Thames. This means a long enough stretch of road walking, but it is not too bad as the roads are not particularly busy and we do get a pavement along the way.

Eventually though, the path cuts back down towards the river, and then heads under the railway line, along a stretch that is heavily fenced, and not quite so lovely as the prior stretches.

But having made it through, the next section is very reminiscent of almost every river side walk in England. This doesn't give a particularly magical or unusual stretch of river side walking, but there is certainly nothing wrong with this section walking along the right.

And then, it is only really as we start to close in on Wallingford that we start to move from your usual river side walk to a walk that has a bit more about it.

And indeed, Wallingford is a key historic town in it's own right - and it was here that the final actions of the Norman Conquest of 1066 came to a conclusion.

Many people know of the battles of Stamford Bridge and of Hastings - but after the conclusion of the Battle of Hastings the war was far from over. Whilst William had defeated King Harold in October 1066, Edgar Atheling remained as a young prince who had a legitimate claim to the throne - being grandson to Edmond Ironside (the one who lost the throne to the Danish invader Cnut).

After the battle of Hastings, Edgar and the remaining commanders of the army took the English forces back to London - and while the battle had been lost the war was not quite yet won. Although Edgar was young, he was backed by many of the powerful English nobles, who weren't entirely sold on the idea of a Norman conqueror. 

But by November, William had received reinforcements - they captured Dover and moved to Canterbury - but whilst Kent fell to the invaders, the English government had decided that Edgar should be king.

In December, William managed to defeat Edgar at London Bridge, but again the victory was not final - and it was only when William moved his forces through Surrey and Berkshire to cross the Thames at Wallingford that the powerful Stigand (a very rich and somewhat controversial archbishop of Canterbury) surrendered to William - in a move that signaled the end of the rebellion. On Christmas Day William was crowned King.

The town of Wallingford crops up again throughout history - and indeed it was also the last remaining royalist stronghold during the English Civil War, but whilst it was an important town in medieval times, today it remains a fairly small market town.

St Leonard's Church

The river crossing at Wallingford

Unfortunately though, whilst the Thames Path should continue up along the river bank (you can see the inviting path in the distance in the above photo), it is time to cross over the bridge and do another diversion via the roads, due to yet another dodgy bridge.

The diversion isn't too bad as there are pavements on the busier roads and the rest are more minor roads, but easily forgettable. Hopefully by the time you walk the same section the bridge will be operational again.

Having returned to the river, they do at least seem to be making a lot of progress with the repairs, and whilst diversions have plagued this walk along the Thames, it does look as if each of the issues are getting well on their way to being resolved. 

Having made this return to the Thames at Benson, there is a bit a storm coming through so it is pretty windy in this exposed spot, but heading on up the Thames again, the slightly increased shelter as I head past Benson calms everything down somewhat.

And after a fairly low key exit from Benson, the scenery improves along this stretch, as I head on towards Shillingford and Shillingford Bridge.

On the way to Shillingford

Shillingford Bridge

Here the Thames Path cuts up through Shillingford along pleasant footpaths - and it is nice to see the older parts of Shillingford. But next up is a walk along a busy road - and whilst there is a pavement on the far side, it does take a bit of waiting in order to get across safely on both of the road crossings. There is a pedestrian crossing available back up the road for the first crossing (which I stubbornly ignore), but nothing to help on the second crossing back over.

But with both road crossings complete, I am able to drop down to the Thames again - and this section is now heading along the very flat meadows that surround Dorchester.

Dorchester is a very pretty and historic town, but with the river along this stretch clearly being prone to flooding, and with the area around the river being marshy, the Thames Path passes some distance away from Dorchester itself, which does not sit very close to the banks of the Thames. And so, any visit to that town will require taking on a side walk (probably best done just after the River Thame joins the River Thames).

Upon reaching the confluence point with the River Thame, the River Thames now gains a second name - as it is also called the River Isis from this point onwards upstream, and not too far on from this confluence, the river direction turns ninety degrees to head north 

The run past Dorchester continues on through open meadows, and there's a bit of a feel of the Kent Marshes to the landscape, although with a much less extreme landscape. With this feel continuing on, the river bends west we pass by Buroot on the far side of the bank, to spot some sort of civilisation once again.

Passing by Buroot

Signs of the water catchment

From here it is a short run heading west towards Clifton Hampden - where it is time to head over the bridge and continue my journey on the opposite side of the Thames.

Clifton Hampden Bridge

From here we soon find ourselves at Clifton Lock - where I decide to take a bit of a rest, and one of the great things about a walk along the Thames is that you always know that you can get a bench at any of the locks along the Thames. And indeed not just any bench, but also a bench overlooking the pretty gardens that surround each of the lock houses.

This gives some confidence to your plans of where to stop along the way for a bit of a break, as you can see in advance on the map when the next lock will be coming up.

But returning to my onward journey, here the path continues along the much narrower Clifton Cut, before passing by Appleford as the path heads under the railway line.

The cows at Clifton Cut

Then, having reached Culham, the final run into Abingdon begins - heading along Culham Cut, before changing direction and heading north towards Abingdon itself.

Here the path gets much busier with townsfolk out for a short walk, but before long we find ourselves arriving at Abingdon Bridge and heading into town.

The top end of Caldecott (which merges into Abingdon)

Some of the older parts of Abingdon

Today's walk hasn't quite had the drama or interest of some of the London end of the Thames (Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster, etc do set a high bar after all), but this day does help give that alternate feel of a more rural stretch of the Thames and for this it gains a lot of credit in it's favor.

At times this has meant walking through quite open and quiet countryside, but that does highlight the contrast between the busier stretches downstream, and there has been enough interest to make it an enjoyable day of walking.

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ★ / 5

Click for a writeup of the next day's walking - heading on up the Thames from Abingdon to Oxford.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 164, 174 and 175 OS Landranger maps - while there is also a Thames Path guidebook which includes OS mapping (links redirect to Amazon). The route is in general well way-marked.