DISCOVER: JUBILEE SPECIAL
Royal Thames
From its spring in the Cotswolds, a wild river winds past dreaming spires and palaces to the city and the sea. Ben Lerwill marks Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by exploring the rich, regal heritage of a great river
The royal swans of the Thames have seen it all. These imposingly elegant – if occasionally headstrong – birds are said to have been introduced to Britain from Cyprus in the late 12th century, brought here by Richard the Lionheart after the Third Crusade. Their snowwhite feathers have now graced the waters of our most famous river for more than 800 years, swimming sinuously through wars, plagues and coronations, graduating in the process from dinnertable delicacy to protected species.
Today, as the legal property of Queen Elizabeth II – who has the right to claim ownership of all unmarked mute swans swimming in open water, though maybe has more pressing tasks – they remain a regal sight. And they find a suitably majestic waterway in the Thames, that noble artery that rises in a puddly field in the Cotswolds and flows for 215 miles to reach the coast, passing palaces, castles and cathedrals on its way. It runs through nine counties, drifts under 134 bridges and spends much of its time carving a scenic, serpentine course through the countryside. In his book Thames: Sacred River, historian Peter Ackroyd calls the vast waterway “a museum of Englishness itself”.
Blissfully oblivious to their status as crown property, two swans fly along the Thames in Oxfordshire. These large, graceful birds mate for life, and fly and swim faster than any other waterfowl 
The Thames Path trail follows the river from its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier in Charlton, London 
The bell-shaped purple flowers of snake’s head fritillaries pepper Cricklade North Meadow Nature Reserve, Wiltshire
“Burnished tales and princely residences still clasp to the Thames like jewels to a necklace”
Among it all, from the whisper of the upstream reeds to the clatter of central London, the river’s links with the monarchy have long been prominent. This year is the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking a decade since the huge, 670-boat royal pageant of 2012 and well over a millennium since Alfred the Great held the first English parliament in a riverside meadow in Shifford, Oxfordshire. Today, burnished tales and princely residences still clasp to the Thames like jewels to a necklace.
It is also, officially, one of our four royal rivers, the other three being the Trent, the Severn and the Yorkshire Ouse. The designation stems from an edict by 11th-century king Edward the Confessor which, in brief, made navigability on these waterways more of a priority than mills and fisheries. But while there may be four royal rivers, there is emphatically only one Thames.
ROYAL LINEAGE
On the river’s wider sections, many of England’s most iconic royal locations stand on its banks – and we’ll come to them – but even close to the source, connections to the crown can be teased out. Cricklade, the first town reached by the fledgling Thames, was fortified by Alfred the Great in around 890 to safeguard it from the Danes, and even briefly had its own mint. Visit today in spring, incidentally, and you will also find the UK’s largest bloom of rare snake’s head fritillaries on the flower-rich floodplains just outside town. The Thames, at heart, is still as wild as it is royal.
Continuing downstream, past pretty settlements such as Kempsford – where various monarchs, including a young Henry IV, are known to have knelt in the 12th-century church – and Lechlade, where Catherine of Aragon was once lady of the manor, the river winds its way through open pastures and dappled copses to arrive at Port Meadow, on the edge of Oxford. This enormous swathe of grazing land, famously never ploughed and now a magnet for waders and waterfowl, was gifted to the city by William the Conqueror. He lived before the time it was possible to enjoy a pint at tranquil riverside pubs The Trout Inn and The Perch, but you can.
The spires of Oxford itself come next.
This stretch of the Thames, also known as the River Isis and routinely frequented by scullers, runs close to the prestigious colleges where Edward VII and Edward VIII studied (though not, cynics would point out, with much distinction), as well as the Norman castle where, in 1142, King Stephen besieged his cousin and rival the Empress Matilda. The city takes its name from being the site of a one-time livestock ford across the river, when these higher reaches were far less navigable, though by the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666, a system of locks and weirs meant that barges laden with Cotswold stone were able to sail through Oxford to rebuild St Paul’s Cathedral.
PROVIDER AND DEFENDER
There are good reasons, of course, why so many prominent buildings and institutions are found so close to the Thames. A river this broad historically provides not just water itself but also, among other things, rich soil, trade opportunities, a food source, a frontier, a wildlife habitat, a means of travel and a strategic location. It helps explain why Wallingford Castle – the ruins of which the river soon reaches after looping through the ancient town of Abingdon and a bucolic sward of south Oxfordshire – became such a significant fortress.
Beech woodland shrouds Spring Cottage at the National Trust’s Cliveden Estate, Berkshire 
A gramophone playing punt drifts along the river at Henley-on-Thames during the Henley Royal Regatta 
Wallingford Castle fell into ruin in the 16th century; building materials were taken to support repairs to Windsor Castle
From its beginnings as an 11th-century motte-and-bailey, Wallingford Castle went on to become an opulent medieval royal residence. Fusspot Henry VIII reportedly thought it too draughty, but the castle hosted all manner of dignitaries until its final act in 1646, as one of England’s last royalist strongholds during the Civil War.
Today, willows and alder throng the water’s edge near its remains, nodding in the river breeze as canal boats putter past.
This is the Thames all over: swirling through different eras, furling across the map as though traced by a meandering quill, pulling natural and human history along in its current. It was 1839 when the first Royal Regatta was held at Henley – our next stop as we head downriver – and the Champagne-popping extravaganza remains a fixture in the upper-class social calendar. As of this year, it also includes the Prince Philip Challenge Trophy. On a related note, London’s Royal Thames Yacht Club – the oldest of its kind in the world – was established when George III’s brother sponsored a prize in 1775, and originally also held its races on the river.
But back to our journey downstream. It would require a hefty compendium to list every royal connection to the Thames, but there is no overlooking the presence of Windsor Castle, reached after the river passes beneath the glorious beech woodland of the Cliveden Estate. The castle might today be the Queen’s turretladen home of choice, but it dates right back to the days of William the Conqueror and was, at least in part, first built as a way of overseeing a vital stretch of the river.
The Thames winds between Eton and Eton College on the left bank and Windsor on the right. Windsor Bridge connects the towns, carrying pedestrians, cyclists and the Thames Path over its iron-and-granite frame 
Queen Elizabeth II is rowed down the Thames near Windsor in the newly built Gloriana to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 
Erected in 1957 at Runnymede, the Magna Carta Memorial celebrates the role the 13th-century document played in the formation of modern democracy
Even today, it looks at its most imposing from the water.
Continuing on towards the coming vastness of London, the Thames twists and turns past Eton College – alma mater to Princes William and Harry – before reaching the river meadows and woollytreed island of Runnymede, where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215.
The 2,000-year-old Ankerwycke Yew, one of England’s oldest trees, still stands close by, predating the royal charter of rights by more than a millennium.
And even beyond this point, as the river approaches the giddy grandeur of Hampton Court Palace, there’s still space for nature to shake off human shackles, notably through the species-rich grassland of
“For centuries, the lower Thames was a royal thoroughfare, a tidal high street for luxurious barges”
Dumsey Meadow, one of only a few unimproved riverside pastures this far upstream. Hampton Court, by contrast, with its Tudor-Baroque architecture and stunningly manicured gardens, is every inch a monument to monarchy.
ENTER THE CITY
From here onwards, it’s easy to conjure visions of royal barges and pennant-flying pageantry. For centuries, the Lower Thames was a royal thoroughfare, a tidal high street for luxurious barges, many with silken canopies and seats for musicians. Henry VIII owned two such vessels, the Lyon and the Greyhound, limousines of their day for cruising between palaces.
Neatly summing up the vagaries of British history, meanwhile, is the fact that Anne Boleyn made two fateful river journeys into central London, the first in a flotilla of magnificent barges for her 1533 coronation, the second in far less pomp for her 1536 execution.
Queen Elizabeth II’s official row-barge, the Gloriana, was the first royal barge built for more than 250 years when it was constructed for 2012’s Diamond Jubilee – a sign of how royal links with the Thames have simultaneously changed and stayed the same.
And on flows the river, now slipping past the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew – where George II once lived, at Kew Palace – the Tower of London, and the Royal Borough of Greenwich, as it flows inexorably through the capital towards the sea. Here among the urban thrum it feels somehow altered, but of course it’s the same Thames as it was far upstream, where swans dabble in the shallows, and where history takes shape among the sedges and rushes.
Ben Lerwill has spent much of his life living near the Thames, in London and Oxfordshire. He finds the river fascinating, and in 2017 wrote an award-winning feature for BBC Countryfile Magazine on walking from the source to Oxford.
SWAN UPPING
Traditions don’t come much more British than the annual practice of swan upping, which takes place each July on the Thames, usually over five days. Essentially a swan census, it involves a flotilla of traditional rowing skiffs moving upriver while gathering up swans and cygnets to be measured, examined and, in some cases, ringed for identification. Still led by the Queen’s official Swan Marker – complete with scarlet jacket and a swan’s feather in his cap – the custom dates back hundreds of years, but while its original aim was to secure prime food for the royal table, its aims today are centred on conservation and education. It takes place on the stretch of river between Sunbury-on-Thames and Abingdon.
NOW GO TO ROYAL THAMES
Where to stay, visit, eat and drink, by Ben Lerwill
STAY
The Mitre Hampton Court
A mere stone’s throw from Hampton Court Palace is this newly renovated boutique hotel. It dates back to the 1660s but has been given the full 21st-century treatment – expect fizz on arrival, riverside terraces and luxurious rooms; from £188 for a double. mitrehamptoncourt.com
The Swan at Streatley
Taking its name from the archetypal Thames waterbird, The Swan sits a few miles downstream from Wallingford Castle. It’s relaxed and stylish – splash out on a river-view room if you really want to make a night of it; from £120 for a small double. theswanatstreatley.com
Sir Christopher Wren Hotel
Standing next to the Eton Bridge in Windsor, this enjoyable four-star hotel is spread across a cluster of different buildings, meaning its rooms range from beamed Tudor-style affairs to modern riverside suites; from £170 for a double. sirchristopherwren.co.uk
MUSEUMS
River and Rowing Museum
Opened in 1998 by the Queen herself, this Henley museum focuses on both the sport of rowing and the history of the river, with a permanent Wind in the Willows gallery as well as a café and shop. rrm.co.uk
Thames Museum
Currently “in the early stages of conception”, this London attraction will be dedicated to the archaeology and history of the Thames, centred on artefacts found in the river. thamesmuseum.org
HERITAGE PROPERTIES WITH ROYAL LINKS
Hardwick House
This property (above left), set on a private Oxfordshire estate, dates to the early 16th century. Charles I was reportedly allowed to play bowls on the lawn while being kept prisoner nearby. Riverside camping available. hardwickestate.co.uk
Cliveden House
Now a luxury hotel (clivedenhouse.co.uk), this grand house (top right) was built in 1666 for the Duke of Buckingham. It played host to the first performance of Rule Britannia at a party in 1741. A decade later, the Prince of Wales died here after being hit by a cricket ball. The National Trust gardens and parkland are open to the public. nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden
Monkey Island Estate
Set on an island close to Bray, and now also a high-end hotel, the estate (above right) has welcomed various royals. A photo from 1905 shows Edward VIII having afternoon tea under the walnut trees. monkeyislandestate.co.uk
Richmond Park
Sitting above a bend in the Thames on London’s outskirts, this is the largest and most ‘rural’ of the Royal Parks. It was originally created as a deer park by Charles I in the 17th century. royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park
WALK/RIDE IT
The wonderful Thames Path National Trail is a 184-mile walk that traces the river from source to sea, sticking close to the banks for the vast majority of the route.
Being largely flat, and offering plenty in the way of wildlife, refreshments and accommodation, it’s a superb walk.
Cycle it: The Thames Path isn’t aimed at cyclists, but there are several stretches where you are allowed to pedal next to the river, including the section that passes through Oxford, and the path between Weybridge and Hampton Court.
THAMES EVENTS FOR 2022
• Henley Royal Regatta, 28 June–3 July
• Thames Traditional Boat Festival, Fawley Meadows, near Henley, 15–17 July
• Swan Upping, 18–22 July
• Egham Royal Show, 27–28 August
• Totally Thames, arts and culture festival, 1–30 September
• Thames Path Challenge, 100km event for walkers/runners, 10–11 September
DRINK AND EAT
Ye Olde Swan, Radcot
This pub-restaurant sits right next to Radcot Bridge, a former packhorse bridge said to be the oldest crossing of the Thames. The pub itself is a characterful one, with a large terrace. yeoldeswan.co.uk
The Trout Inn, Oxford
This 17th-century pub sits close to Oxford’s Port Meadow but feels a world away from the city. It has connections to various cultural and literary icons, from Lewis Carroll to Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse. thetroutoxford.co.uk
The Plough, Long Wittenham
Sitting on a bend in the river, The Plough has been a fixture in the Good Pub Guide since 2015. There’s a large garden for fine weather, and log fires for chilly days. theploughinnlw.co.uk
Sindhu, Marlow Bridge
Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar is the brains behind this sophisticated Indian restaurant, which forms part of the Compleat Angler Hotel in Marlow.
It blends traditional Indian techniques with quality British ingredients. sindhurestaurant.co.uk
The Folly, Oxford
A classy restaurant on the Thames, The Folly is open for everything from afternoon tea to six-course tasting menus. You can even book a river launch for a 30-minute pre-dinner cruise. no1-folly-bridge.co.uk
THAMES CRUISES
There are various options for river cruises in central London, with Thames River Sightseeing one of the most established. thamesriversightseeing.com
New for 2022 is the Terrible Thames tour from Horrible Histories, an entertaining 45-minute journey departing from Tower Bridge Quay. terriblethames.com
Thames Rivercruise is based in Caversham near Reading, and offers boat trips and charters along the Upper Thames. thamesrivercruise.co.uk