Downstream

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Downstream ...

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To all Thames swimmers, past, present and future . . . ...

Contents Introduction Trewsbury Mead–Lechlade– Grafton Lock ...

Cotswolds Swim Oxford Reading Shiplake and Wargrave Henley-on-Thames Marlow–Cookham– Maidenhead Windsor and Eton Hampton Co ...

Teddington Richmond Kew–Chiswick Putney The Port of London Authority Battersea–Lambeth Westminster Charing Cross–Blackfriar ...

Beach London Docklands Dock Swim Greenwich–Woolwich– Grays–Gravesend Southend Crowstone Swim Andy, Ness and the OSS S ...

Bibliography Acknowledgements ...

Introduction ‘For they were young and the Thames was old, And this is the tale that the River told’ Rudyar ...

1911 I’m standing at the edge of a marshy meadow in Gloucestershire, cold water seeping into my wellington b ...

CONSERVATORS OF THE RIVER THAMES 1857– 1974. THIS STONE WAS PLACED HERE TO MARK THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER ...

path, following heavy snow, a thaw and general downpours. Normally this spot is bone dry, but today I ...

pool and then a stream. This is where, in theory, it all begins, this trickle of water that forms the longe ...

portrayed as a place both majestic and dangerous, refreshing and polluted. It is father – or grandfather – Tha ...

porpoises, whales, otters and sharks. An important trade and transport route since prehistoric times, it has carried ...

those who have been drawn to its waters for enjoyment and to show off their skills, swims daring and reckless ...

remember laughing as we tried to swim against the current. I’d never considered its history as a place to ...

and city archives, interviewing modern-day swimmers, and looking for evidence, whether written, photographic or or ...

themselves for pleasure or for charity, who have performed spectacular dives from boats and bridges. What ...