The Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry is a pedestrian and cycle ferry service across the River Thames in Surrey, England. The service has operated almost continuously for over 500 years.
The Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry is a pedestrian and cycle ferry service across the River Thames in Surrey, England. The service has operated almost continuously for over 500 years.
The ferry runs from Shepperton on the north bank of the river to Weybridge on the south bank. It provides a crossing for the Thames Path, and is the only ferry on route of the path itself. Three public houses are within 300 metres of the ferry, two on the south bank and two of which focus on their restaurants, one of which is a listed building and was the home of the Dutch Ambassador. [1] [2]
The ferry operates from 0800 on weekdays, 0900 on Saturdays, and 1000 on Sundays. Service finishes at 1700 to 1730 in winter and 1800 in summer. Operation is on request and intending passengers should ring the bell provided on each side of the river. Tickets can be bought in the Ferry Coffee Shop or on the ferry itself. When the ferry is not in service, the nearest alternative is to cross the river downstream at Walton Bridge, a round-trip distance of some 3 miles (4.8 km) on foot, further by car. [1]
The ferry has operated on different vessels for over 500 years discounting a 26-year-break before 1986. Exceptional expense and a very low housing density in the immediate area prohibited a proposed replacement by a long, unsupported by piers, footbridge. The river was made fully lock-controlled along these reaches. Before 1815 Shepperton at its Lower Halliford neighbourhood was one of the first fording places of the Thames. [3] [4]
In fiction, the Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry is the scene of the first confrontation between the British military, six twelve-pound artillery pieces, and the Martians, five fighting-machines, that the protagonist witnesses in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds . A Martian is destroyed by a direct hit from an artillery shell, and its comrades use their heat rays to wreak vengeance on the fleeing crowds waiting to cross the ferry. [5]
Marsh Lock is a lock and weir situated on the River Thames in England, about 1 mile upstream of Henley Bridge in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The lock is close to the Berkshire bank, but accessed from the Oxfordshire side via two long walkways, the downstream one being near Mill Meadows. The first pound lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773.
Historic ferries operated on rivers around Atlanta, Georgia area, and became namesakes for numerous current-day roads in north Georgia. Most of the ferries date to the early years of European-American settlement in the 1820s and 1830s, when parts of the region were still occupied by cherokee and other Native American communities.
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 side is Sashes Island and on the other is Mill Island connected to Formosa Island, the largest on the non-tidal Thames.
The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from one of its sources near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about 185 miles (298 km) long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996.
Kingston Railway Bridge in Kingston upon Thames, London, crosses the River Thames on the reach above Teddington Lock. It carries the Kingston Loop Line train service from London Waterloo station, where the majority of services begin and end and which line includes a maintenance depot. The loop diverges from main lines at New Malden and Richmond. East and west of the bridge along the line are Kingston and Hampton Wick stations. The loop returns to the south bank of its terminus via Richmond Railway Bridge. The loop feeds a branch line, a further incentive for the 1863 construction of the bridge, Shepperton Branch Line.
D'Oyly Carte Island is a small private island in the River Thames, England, administratively and historically part of Weybridge, near its other inhabited islands and near part of Old Shepperton, on the reach above Sunbury Lock, 200 metres downstream from Shepperton Lock. Before 1890 the island was known as Folly Eyot. The impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte bought the island in about 1890 and built the 13-bedroom Eyot House on the property, completed in 1898. His widow sold the island, and it was last sold in 2021.
Hinksey Stream is a branch of the River Thames to the west of the city of Oxford, England. It starts as Seacourt Stream, which leaves the Thames at a bifurcation north of the village of Wytham, and rejoins the river south of the city near Kennington.
Shepperton Lock is a lock on the River Thames, in England by the left bank at Shepperton, Surrey. It is across the river from Weybridge which is nearby linked by a passenger ferry.
The Gravesend–Tilbury Ferry was a passenger ferry across the River Thames east of London. It was the last public crossing point before the Thames reached the sea.
Benson Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England, close to Benson, Oxfordshire but on the opposite bank of the river. The first pound lock here was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1788 and it was replaced by the present masonry lock in 1870. The distance between Benson Lock and Cleeve Lock downstream is 6.5 miles (10.4 km) - the longest distance between locks on the River Thames.
Desborough Island is a 112-acre (0.45 km2) manmade island in the River Thames on the reach above Sunbury Lock in Surrey, England. It was formed in the 1930s by the digging of a channel – the Desborough Cut – by the Thames Conservancy as a meander cutoff of narrow width on the right bank. The island and cut are named after Lord Desborough, a chairman of the Thames Conservancy.
Sunbury Lock is a lock complex of the River Thames in England near Walton-on-Thames in north-west Surrey, the third lowest of forty four on the non-tidal reaches. The complex adjoins the right, southern bank about 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) downstream of the Weir Hotel.
Walton Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames in England, carrying the A244 between Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton, crossing the Thames on the reach between Sunbury Lock and Shepperton Lock.
Bell Weir Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England by the right bank, Runnymede which is a water meadow associated with Egham of importance for the constitutional Magna Carta. It is upstream of the terrace of a hotel and the a bridge designed by Edwin Lutyens who designed an ornamental park gate house along the reach. The bridge has been widened and carries the M25 and A30 road across the river in a single span. The lock was first built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1817; it has one weir which is upstream. The lock is the eighth lowest of forty-five on the river and is named after the founder of the forerunner of the adjoining hotel who took charge of the lock and weir on its construction.
Hampton Ferry is a seasonal foot ferry across the Thames in England. It is about 1 mile (1.6 km) upstream, west, of Hampton Court Bridge. The bridge links a busy zone of activity on both banks including Hampton Court Palace. The ferry links a large riverside park to the oldest parts of the town of Hampton, London, including its church, inn and various listed buildings such as Garrick House which is private apartments and Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare beside a narrow strip of sloped bank. This is known as Saint Albans Riverside, as it was owned by one of the Dukes of Saint Albans, seated at Hanworth House and Park, about two miles away. On the north side, this part of former Middlesex became outer-most London in 1965 by an Act of 1963. The towpath on the south side is for about 400 metres each way in public grassland with picnic places and beyond, for about 1 mile (1.6 km) shaded by trees, east and west.
Hammerton's Ferry is a pedestrian and cycle ferry service across the River Thames in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, England. The ferry links the river's northern bank near Marble Hill House in Twickenham with its southern bank near Ham House in Ham. It is one of only four remaining ferry routes in London not to be replaced by a bridge or tunnel.
Hamhaugh Island is an island, historically known simply as Stadbury, in the River Thames in England south of Shepperton Lock, in Shepperton, Surrey.
Lock Island is an island in the River Thames in England connected to Shepperton Lock, near Shepperton. Facing the attached by lock-gate bridge mainland is a hedge-lined lawn hosting a café, below and above zones of free short-stay moorings. The Thames River Police have a station on the island. Shepperton Canoe Club and Weybridge Mariners' Boat Club face part of the Weybridge side. The island is connected to Hamhaugh Island by a walkway across the main weir, in turn having a closed-access weir to Hamm Court, Addlestone.
The Desborough Cut is an artificial channel in the River Thames above Sunbury Lock near Walton on Thames in England. It was completed in 1935, to improve flow and ease navigation on the river.