As we explore the area around Little Coxwell, we were drawn to walk a bit more of the Thames Path. We started in Tadpole, strategically leaving the car in the parking lot of a nice pub for the finish. The loop walk is 7 miles, and the mid-point is a lock that serves mostly personal barges and small boats but occasionally small coal barges or maintenance barges for the locks. This we know since there was a lock-keeper there, and we chatted with him until a vessel appeared and then watched him do his job. It’s kind of fascinating to watch the process. Great walk, by the way!
The process is pretty simple but kind of cool at the same time. The gates to the lock remain closed until a vessel arrives. In our case, the vessel arrived from the upstream side, so the lock-keeper opened the panels on the bottom of the lock gates to get the water at the same level of the barge that was waiting. Then, he opened the gates, the barge entered, closed the gates and then let the water out on the downstream gate to lower the boat and then opened the gate to let the barge proceed.
The hike itself is lovely. The path is easy and well marked, with no stiles to climb over and no farmer’s fields to walk through. Chris spots a fox, a swan glides by, the weather is perfect. It’s a nice day!
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