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hg137
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Hello, Mrs Hg137 here.
Our walking project for 2025 is Shakespeare’s Way, a 146-mile long-distance path ‘twixt Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe Theatre in London, but the section we were walking today was from Marlow to Hedsor via Bourne End and Cookham.
Shakespeare’s Way led us through the suburbs of Marlow, reaching Higginson Park, which overlooks the Thames. It’s a large park, with lots to see and do; we had a coffee break, walked down to the river, inspected the brick in grass maze, and stood next to the statue of Steve Redgrave. He was worryingly tall. It turns out the statue is 1.5 times life-size!
As well as walking, we were also geocaching. There are a good few caches in and around the town, and we wanted to find them. Some were traditional, with logs to sign, and some were AdLab caches, designed to take us on a walking tour, maybe to visit some new places in Marlow. And that’s how it worked out. We visited two Victorian postboxes, the suspension bridge, Marlow lock, the old Wethered brewery (now flats), and, in the May Balfour garden, a large and very unusual sundial. Brewery and sundial were places we wouldn’t have found for ourselves – geocaching is good for that!
Wethered Brewery – as was
Our tour of Marlow took up most of the morning, so we had lunch in a park overlooking the Thames, and then we were on our way. Once past Marlow Lock, we were out in the countryside, walking through grassy fields. Here, near the river, the grass was nice and green, unlike the frizzled fields we’d walked through earlier in the summer.
After a couple of miles, we reached the Upper Thames Sailing Club on the outskirts of Bourne End. But there was something missing … when we last passed this way, in 2015, there was a large ship’s figurehead on display outside the boathouse. It was no longer there, so we asked what had happened to it. We were told it is now in poor condition and has been stored inside (shame). We suggested that the Repair Shop might be interested in it, but we don’t know if they did anything about it.
Figurehead as it was back in 2015
At Bourne End, the path crosses to the other bank of the Thames; the footbridge is fixed to the side of the railway bridge. A train came by while we were crossing, which was, umm, interesting. As far as Cookham, Shakespeare’s Way is now in Berkshire. We’d come from Buckinghamshire and would return there at Cookham Bridge.
We had just one more geocache to find, and its start point was a little way past the bridge. We needed to line up navigation marks, count things on the other side of the river, then use the numbers we counted to generate some coordinates. Well, we did all that, and found we needed to return to the railway bridge to find the cache. Back we went, grumbling mildly. Worse still, we couldn’t find the cache, though we searched around amidst the nettles and brambles underneath the bridge piers. Grumbling more loudly, we set off again, back down the river.
Mind the gap!
Somewhere between Bourne End and Cookham, we passed a (virtual) milestone: 100 miles of Shakespeare’s Way was now completed, 46 more miles to go. Hurray! We crossed back over the river at Cookham Bridge, dodged the traffic along Ferry Lane, leading to the bridge, then across a field towards Hedsor to reach the car. A lovely walk on a beautiful sunny, warm autumn day.
Here’s one especially striking geocache that we found:
Our walking project for 2025 is Shakespeare’s Way, a 146-mile long-distance path ‘twixt Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe Theatre in London, but the section we were walking today was from Marlow to Hedsor via Bourne End and Cookham.
Shakespeare’s Way led us through the suburbs of Marlow, reaching Higginson Park, which overlooks the Thames. It’s a large park, with lots to see and do; we had a coffee break, walked down to the river, inspected the brick in grass maze, and stood next to the statue of Steve Redgrave. He was worryingly tall. It turns out the statue is 1.5 times life-size!
As well as walking, we were also geocaching. There are a good few caches in and around the town, and we wanted to find them. Some were traditional, with logs to sign, and some were AdLab caches, designed to take us on a walking tour, maybe to visit some new places in Marlow. And that’s how it worked out. We visited two Victorian postboxes, the suspension bridge, Marlow lock, the old Wethered brewery (now flats), and, in the May Balfour garden, a large and very unusual sundial. Brewery and sundial were places we wouldn’t have found for ourselves – geocaching is good for that!
Wethered Brewery – as was
Our tour of Marlow took up most of the morning, so we had lunch in a park overlooking the Thames, and then we were on our way. Once past Marlow Lock, we were out in the countryside, walking through grassy fields. Here, near the river, the grass was nice and green, unlike the frizzled fields we’d walked through earlier in the summer.
After a couple of miles, we reached the Upper Thames Sailing Club on the outskirts of Bourne End. But there was something missing … when we last passed this way, in 2015, there was a large ship’s figurehead on display outside the boathouse. It was no longer there, so we asked what had happened to it. We were told it is now in poor condition and has been stored inside (shame). We suggested that the Repair Shop might be interested in it, but we don’t know if they did anything about it.
Figurehead as it was back in 2015
At Bourne End, the path crosses to the other bank of the Thames; the footbridge is fixed to the side of the railway bridge. A train came by while we were crossing, which was, umm, interesting. As far as Cookham, Shakespeare’s Way is now in Berkshire. We’d come from Buckinghamshire and would return there at Cookham Bridge.
We had just one more geocache to find, and its start point was a little way past the bridge. We needed to line up navigation marks, count things on the other side of the river, then use the numbers we counted to generate some coordinates. Well, we did all that, and found we needed to return to the railway bridge to find the cache. Back we went, grumbling mildly. Worse still, we couldn’t find the cache, though we searched around amidst the nettles and brambles underneath the bridge piers. Grumbling more loudly, we set off again, back down the river.
Mind the gap!
Somewhere between Bourne End and Cookham, we passed a (virtual) milestone: 100 miles of Shakespeare’s Way was now completed, 46 more miles to go. Hurray! We crossed back over the river at Cookham Bridge, dodged the traffic along Ferry Lane, leading to the bridge, then across a field towards Hedsor to reach the car. A lovely walk on a beautiful sunny, warm autumn day.
Here’s one especially striking geocache that we found:
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