Hedsor Wharf William Havell 1812 (Nancy)

Hedsor Water re-entering the Thames at Cookham Lock(Nancy)

Hedsor Water is a stretch of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

near

Cookham Cookham is a historic River Thames, Thames-side village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the north-eastern edge of Berkshire, England, north-north-east of Maidenhead and opposite the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, Bourne ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

which runs to the north of

Sashes Island Sashes Island is an island in the River Thames in England at Cookham Lock near Cookham, Berkshire. It is now open farmland, but has Roman and Anglo-Saxon connections. The island is located between Hedsor Water and the present navigation cha ...

. Hedsor Water was once the main navigation of the Thames but was by-passed by the construction of

Cookham Lock Cookham Lock is a lock with weirs situated on the River Thames near Cookham, Berkshire, about a half-mile downstream of Cookham Bridge. The lock is set in a lock cut which is one of four streams here and it is surrounded by woods. On one si ...

in 1830. Navigation is only possible for the first from the downstream end, where a few temporary moorings are available, except for smaller boats. Cookham Lock opened in 1830, but no weir was built at this time. In 1832 Lord Boston of

Hedsor House Hedsor House is an Italianate-style mansion in the United Kingdom, located in Hedsor in Buckinghamshire. Perched overlooking the River Thames, a manor house at Hedsor can be dated back to 1166 when the estate was owned by the de Hedsor Family. ...

claimed compensation for loss of towpath rights along Hedsor Water which he was granted. In 1837 a weir was found necessary and built across Hedsor Water, leading to further litigation from Lord Boston for loss of trade to the wharf he owned there. Hedsor Wharf, on the upper reach of Hedsor Water had been an important trading post. The paper made at nearby Cookham Paper Mill was shipped from there and the stone used to build

Shardeloes Shardeloes is a large 18th-century country house located one mile west of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, England (). A previous manor house on the site was demolished and the present building constructed between 1758 and 1766 for William Drake, ...

was brought from

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

to Hedsor Wharf. This time the only compensation he received was the building of a

flash lock A flash lock is a type of lock for river or canal transport. Early locks were designed with a single gate, known as a flash lock or staunch lock. The earliest European references to what were clearly flash locks were in Roman times. Developme ...

in the weir. This was removed when the lock was rebuilt in 1869, as Lord Boston had built eel bucks in the stream in the meantime. In 2003 Hedsor Water was the subject of a High Court judgement against Josie Rowland, the widow of

Tiny Rowland Roland Walter "Tiny" Rowland (; 27 November 1917 – 25 July 1998) was a British businessman, corporate raider and the chief executive of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1993. He gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in p ...

and current owner of Hedsor Wharf Estate, who wanted to stop the Water being used as a public right of way. The

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

maintained that a "Public Right of Navigation" existed under the Thames Preservation Act 1885 and a court action agreed that the right could only be changed by legislation. The judge ordered that signs saying that the stretch of water was private should be removed.

References

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