River Thames Walk - The Last Leg

For those of you who have been following our progress, this is, sadly the final episode.  In the manner of all good television shows though, we went out with a 'blinder'!  What looked to be a slightly drizzly day - Saturday 12th September - turned into a lovely sunny one and the wildlife came out en masse for the hardy who were prepared to make the long trek to Slade's Green.

No sooner had we reached the riverside at Woolwich than Trevor, who now has the Native American name of Seal Spotter, noticed a little fellow on top of one of the old bridge supports.  Poor chap had obviously gone up there on the high tide and got stuck till the next tide was due but he provided a perfect viewing moment or several for the group.  It took a while to drag ourselves away, because although there have been many reports of seals on the river, none of us had ever seen one.

Moving on from the beautiful old buildings of the Woolwich Arsenal and on to the Thamesmead Estate, distinctly different architecturally,  the path here also changes to gravelled rather than paved and becomes wilder.  We passed Tripcock Ness, mooring site of the prison hulks that Dickens' character Magwitch from Great Expectations escaped from.  It is also the scene of the worst ever peacetime disaster, when 600 of 900 passengers on the paddle steamer Princess Alice died after it was hit by a coal steamer.  Many of the passengers were suffocated rather than drowned after swallowing the polluted water from industrial waste and sewage.

Shortly after this, on the opposite bank is the Barking Relief Barrier at the mouth of the River Roding, another monument to engineering in the name of flood protection.  On the south bank we also encountered another protector of London, a small concrete machine gun bunker left over from World War II.  All the while along, thanks to Tim the bird man's expertise, we were able to identify the various birds that were on parade.  They were particularly numerous at Crossness, a Victorian pumping station that still has steam days for devotees of this Victorian art.  Typically decorative as a building, it's quite a contrast to the sewage treatment plant next door that deals with some of London's current waste, as you can tell by the fragrant air!

The views of the other side of the river are of London as an industrial city.  The Dagenham car plant and the Tate and Lyle factory dominate a long stretch of the river, followed suitably by a large green hill, which far from being rural is actually a vast landfill site covered over to disguise it's true nature.  It's a landmark for the townspeople of Erith, our only stop on the route.  Erith has a pier, used by fishermen these days, which makes an excellent spot for a picnic lunch in the sunshine.

After Erith, we had to move inland for a short while, past some light industrial sites until the yacht club comes into view.  Here we were able to turn back to the river and along a raised earth bank sea wall that took us into the Erith marshes.  Jim gave us a quick run down of some more military history at Crayford Ness, describing the anti aircraft sites and the remains of the bunkers that are still visible in a field behind the sea wall.  At Erith Saltings, the last remaining fragment of salt marsh in south London, Seal Spotter was on target again.  On the edge of the water a group of five black dots on closer inspection turned out to be a group of seals, possibly a mother and kids, playing happily at the waters edge!

As we turned off of the Thames into Dartford Creek, we passed another tidal barrier and headed along a country lane.  The fields provided us with some egrets to watch, gracefully flapping away as they spotted us spotting them.  Not to be outdone, the very last part of the walk took us back to the age of the Normans, with the ruined moated Manor House, Howbury Moat, once home to Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half brother to William the Conqueror.

Slade Green station should have been our way back to Woolwich, but the trains were not running, so we took the bus, passing much of the scenery we had viewed on our way from Woolwich.

If you missed any of the sections of the walk, it has already been the subject of discussion to repeat the walk, this time in reverse order, from Slade Green to Hampton Court.  Watch this space in 2016!