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The Thames Path Extension

January 2022 - April 2025
Walking the Thames Path Extension upstream from Crayford Ness to the Thames Barrier. Read more

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  • TravelerThe Thames Path Extension

    Crayford Ness to Erith

    January 4, 2022 in England ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    The Thames Path follows the River Thames from its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier at Charlton, South East London and is about 184 miles long; from here to Crayford Ness, 10 miles further and just beyond Erith, is considered an extension of the Thames Path - this trip is in reverse, from Crayford Ness to the Thames Barrier.

    Crayford Ness is a marshland area close to where the River Darent joins the Thames; the Dartford Creek Tidal Flood Barrier here prevents high rising tides and flooding of the local area. Just beyond this confluence is the Queen II Bridge over the Thames, the Dartford Crossing. As we walk along the footpath on the flood embankment, there is saltmarsh on the river side and the marshes on the other, with views of a wind turbine and the Erith Yacht Club ahead.

    We reach a small industrial estate where the Thames Path diverts from the river and along Manor Road for a mile or so to Erith.    Read more

  • TravelerThe Thames Path Extension

    Erith Pier to Belvedere Incinerator

    February 7, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    From Crayford Ness the route leaves the river and goes along Manor Road, from Slade Green to Erith, and turns into Appold Street before reaching the Victorian Erith Pier and Pleasure Gardens; the proposed resort was shortly lived, however, due to the opening of the Southern Offall Works at Crossness in 1865 (see next post).  The pier continued as an industrial ships deep water wharf until the 1950s when the modern, concrete, boomerang shaped pier was built (the longest in London).

    We see the old Erith Causeway, 170m long and of historic interest (but due to be replaced soon because of its state of decay) and can look out across the Thames to Coldwater Point Lighthouse, on the side, marking the tip of Rainham Marshes in Essex, now a RSPB reserve.  We walk along the path past old wharves and new wharves, with chutes and cranes for loading the ships that stop close to the several large industrial estates on our left; this is all a lot more interesting to see than it might seem!  There are also many industrial sites on the other side of the Thames here.

    We round a large bend in the river and pass the large modern quay where waste is collected from ships and barges for the futuristic looking Cory Riverside Resource Recovery facility (RRR), aka Belvedere Incinerator; this UK waste-to-energy incinerator site was opened in 2012 on the outskirts of Belvedere, the next town on after Erith.    Read more

  • TravelerThe Thames Path Extension

    Crossness Incinerator to Tripcock Ness

    February 7, 2022 in England ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Literally 200 yards from the Belvedere Incinerator built in 2012 is the Crossness Sludge Powered Generator, also futuristic with a curved chimney, which was built in 1998; they are separated by the Crossness Nature Reserve, and the building of the former so close to the latter was contentious at the time.  Dried sewage sludge is burned here to generate renewable energy.

    The Crossness Sludge Powered Generator is adjacent to the Crossness Sewage Treatment Works.  This was opened in 1865 together with the Crossness Pumping Station as a result of the "Great Stink"; this was an event in Central London in 1858 during which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames - the stench from the river had become so bad that business in Parliament was affected.  The Pumping Station, a Grade I listed building, is now decommissioned but still has occasional open days as a museum since it still houses the old Beam Engines that were used to pump London's sewage into a reservoir and then out to the Thames on the ebb tide!  On the opposite side of the Thames we have views of the works at Ford Dagenham; car production stopped here in 2002, but engine manufacture continues.

    The Thames Path now follows the riverbank with the outskirts of Thamesmead on our left; Thamesmead mainly consists of social housing built from the mid-1960s onwards on former marshland on the south bank of the River Thames on the old Royal Arsenal site that extended over Plumstead Marshes and Erith Marshes - part of the large estate was used as a location for the film "A Clockwork Orange".  We see some historic cannons on the path as we proceed.

    We soon reach what was a dangerous bend where the River Thames turns south-west towards Woolwich; there is a small red lighthouse here now and the promontory is known as Tripcock Ness.  We also see an old pill box and have a view of the Barking Creek Barrier, a tidal flood barrier constructed in the 1980s as part of the Thames flood defence system; Barking Creek joins the River Roding in Essex to the River Thames.    Read more

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