Hurley Lock - Thames Path - Marlow - Bisham - Temple

24 Dec 2005

• Total distance : nearly 6 miles.
• Start point : Car park in Hurley village, SU 826839.
• Weather : Bright, hazy, no wind.
• Temperature at start 11C.
• Muddiness rating ** (*=dry, *****=awful)
• People passed : Lots of walkers and joggers on the Thames Path.
• Step counter : 11910.
• Camera : Olympus C-5060W. Images taken before deletions = 88.

It was sunny for the third consecutive Saturday and I was back in the same car park at Hurley. A different parking bay though - I like to spice things up a little. It being Christmas Eve I wasn’t expecting to see many others out enjoying the air, but I was wrong; I passed sixty or seventy people on the path to Marlow. A few were jogging, but most were thirty-somethings with smug “We’re completely ready for Christmas” expressions. I gave a few of them a full blast of my enigmatic, designed-for-the-occasion “Oh are you indeed, well I don’t care” half-smile. But I don’t think they got it. I walked on.

This is a historic stretch of water. On the far bank lies Bisham Abbey, where Elizabeth De Burgh, Queen of Scots and wife of Robert the Bruce was confined for two years in 1310. And unlikely though it seems, it is said that Shelley wrote “The Revolt of Islam” in a boat on the reach of Thames at Bisham in 1817, when he lived at Marlow. Readers will doubtless be familiar with this piece so I won’t reproduce all twelve cantos here (that’s about five thousand lines, for those unfavoured by a classical education). It’s a fair assumption that the Thames wasn’t his main inspiration, however:

“For in the air do I behold indeed / An Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight / etc …”

Well I didn't see either.

I’ve never seen Marlow look so attractive, so I took plenty of photographs as I approached the bridge. The relative lack of sightseers and river traffic helped, but the low clear light was the main reason. Winter light makes vertical objects - trees, bridges, buildings - prominent but you’ve got to careful with exposure, especially with digital cameras which often “clip” the highlights, eliminating detail from bright objects.

Look at the white buildings to the left of the spire in the Marlow picture for instance. In this case I’ve got away with it, as the highlight areas occupy only a tiny part of the canvas. But for larger highlights it’s essential to check the histogram on your camera. If it shows pixels spilling off the high end of the scale you’re very unlikely to find any detail there when you come to work on the image. The solution is to give less exposure than the camera proposes: you can do this easily, by moving the exposure compensation dial to –0.5 or –1. Strangely it’s the opposite problem that you get with negative film – there you absolutely have to give a long enough exposure to get detail in the shadow areas.

Now where was I? Oh yes, Marlow. I didn’t linger, but walked back though Bisham and past the pollarded willows at Marlow Sailing Club, which is actually hidden away in Temple. In contrast to the outward journey I passed no-one, and there were few cars after I’d left the main road so it was a pleasant stroll.

I arrived back at the car at 16.00, which was great because I don’t like to leave it too late before I start Christmas shopping.

Click here for map > HurleyMap

David Nash Ford’s history of Berkshire (Bisham) > http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/bisham.html

Choose another walk > TheWalks

-- RodBird - 29 Dec 2005