Informal moorings above Day's lock

Hello,

This tread has cause a lurker to jump into action.........
I could not believe it when I read what has happened to one of my favorite section of the river. I have very fond memories of visiting family friends in Dorchester when I was about 10 and going fishing etc around the river. My boat is in Shepperton Marina and we always stop at the River Thame bridge or on the moorings above the lock when we have a trip upriver.

I was reading about the efforts that are being made to try and obtain 'Village Green' status for the area and got in touch with one of the groups who are leading the application. It appears that the group are looking for evidence from all people who have used the area in the past as this will in someway aid the application. I asked if they would be interested in hearing from boat owners who had moored on the meadows, their response is below. As they are also campaigning for boat moorings as part of the Village Green application I think that boaters should support this if they can.

Hello,

Thank you for your email. Yes, it's been awful to see our beautiful landscape fenced beyond our imagination.we have made two applications for village greens, one is Days Lock Meadow which is the field above and below the lock. The other is Dyke Hills, nearer the village.

Your members can download the forms from the Dorchester on Thames village website. Send them to, FODLWOS 1 Tenpenny Dorchester on ThamesOX10 7JJ.

Join the biggest village green applications OCC has ever received!!!! Locals have filled in nearly 480 so far.

As for mooring, we would like to include it as part of the village green recreational activity.whilat your members are right,someone did collect fees occasionally, this was not on the landowners instruction;!!In fact it was a fraud by the previous landmanager. So given no money was asked by or paid to the landowner,i think there is an arguable case.

Please urge your members to be aware of that, so they can cover it in the forms.

As for mooring, the landowner is denying river access in any of his land, although OCC are dealing with complaints about lack of room to portage canoes and rowing boats around the lock.

Finally there is a Facebook page Friends of Dorchester and Little Wittenham Open Spaces, if members want to keep in touch with updates.


Many thanks
FODLWOS

 
I wonder if the campaign will end up like the "Free the Quay" one at Mistley on the River Stour, Essex. Seems their application for public access has been won after about 4/5 years of protests and eventually court cases.
 
Visited upstream of Days Lock this weekend I can only describe the scene as post apocalyptic. All hedging and shrubs removed, willows either pollarded or ripped up, just a few trees left. The ground has been scrapped and cleared down to waterline. There is, as yet, no fencing except for the footpaths and a line of fence along bank from lock head to level with layby. We were somewhat shocked at how it looked, have pictures but don't seem to be able to post. No need for the 'no mooring' signs as it would be similar to mooring at a North Korean test sight.
 
have pictures but don't seem to be able to post. .
Click to expand...

Have always found it to easier to go onto a hosting site such as Photobucket or similar and cut and paste to there.
After a decade on this forum have given up attempting to upload pix directly, am by the way a computor illiterate, before somebody posts 10 pages of easy to follow up load instructions.:)
 
I usually stop by the Thame confluence bridge and have often moored above days lock on right hand bank.

what has happened sounds depressing really. I assume there is still foot acess to Dorchester (co-op) from the Thame bridge as it appears to be a public right of way. I think the little bit of piling by the bridge might be EA land but is only one mooring and a bit of a scramble up the bank.

I remember when a bloke called Bob Stannet used to live on a little wooden Johnson and Jago motor cruiser "almathia" on the Thame a few hundred yards in from the confluence. The land owner was very amenable and never charged mooring fees for the Thame or the Thames river banks. I think there were attempts by someone to collect unauthorised beer money from boaters but not very successful.
I assume its a new land owner with a more aggressive attitude.
 
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Yes you can still moor by the Thame and walk back to the lock but you now have fencing all the way to Dorchester. This has left a narrow path between river and fencing, you may also be able to follow the Thame but not sure.
 
here are the photos which were emailed to me.

the riverside view really does look awful now:

IMG_0133.jpg


IMG_0132.jpg


IMG_0136.jpg
 
I don't think peeps should get too upset about the pollarding, that has happened in that area for centuries' and is necessary for good land management, it will all grow back and look fine by next year. I've seen those very same trees cut back like that before and it soon comes back. Its is a shame other land owners on the Thames don't do this too as it is needed to maintain a wide enough channel in places.

However the fencing is terrible and really anti-social, so unnecessary when the owner could have got the locals and boaters on side instead of alienating them :(
Suspect he doesn't even live in this country so is probably completely unaware.
 
Absolutely correct about the trees.
Without regular re-pollarding and management, crack willows (or c**p willows as we call ‘em) will just disintegrate and then spread by means of the split and fallen sections rooting. This is fine and natural where it doesn’t impact access, navigation or land-use, but it’s a pain in the a**e on the banks of narrow sections of the Thames.
Contrast the superbly maintained trees on the islands and Berkshire bank half a mile or so below Goring Lock with the mess on the islands by Moulsford Bridge.
The Day’s Lock willows have obviously been regularly pollarded. It looks awful for the first season, but they re-grow like mad. We have to re-do ours every 5-7 years.
As Chris_d so rightly states, it is a real shame that more riparian owners don’t do this.
He’s right about the fencing too!
Download and complete the form (linked-to earlier in this thread) in support of the Villagers trying to get this land designated as a Common.
 
An old farmer that had over 4,000 acres including a load of river frontage, once said to me... "the only tree that looks better after a severe pruning (pollarding) is the Willow"
Problem with Willow is it's useless. You can't burn it on an open fire as it spits like crazy. I suppose you could make zillions of cricket bats though.
 
That's vandalism. I don't get there often but we have always looked forward to an annual visit. During the winter months I often find myself reminiscing about the trips I took in the summer and think about returning.
The river looks on the high side.
 
I don't object to pollarding as it is the best way to deal with willows unless you want to leave them to nature (which would be my preferred option on a nice wide bit of the River like this) but one thing which comes to mind is wind. Its a windy place round there and can be quite uncomfortable keeping the boat in a straight line. Reducing the tree cover like this will certainly make it worse.
 
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