Downstream

authority on the Thames,
operating under legislation
that goes back to Magna
Carta, and owns the forty-one
locks on the upper Thames,
where swimming is banned,
as it is in weirs. It is
responsible for registering
craft and generally managing
any river activity. But Russell
Robson, Waterways Team
Leader, stresses that there is a
free right to use the Thames:
‘we are not the owner of the