Map Reference SU 61279 89987
Distance 13.1 Miles
Total 104 Locks 6 Tunnels
Today’s trip was from Abingdon to Wallingford and it was a
demonstration of just how attractive the River Thames is as it passes through
Oxfordshire. When you have time to really appreciate it you realise how much
you are missing as you flash past in a car doing 50mph. Before leaving Abingdon
we cycled across to Sutton Courtenay having read that it contained the grave of
an author for whom I have a lot of admiration, Eric Blair otherwise known as
George Orwell.
The story of how he came to be buried here is in Sutton
Courtenay churchyard is quite interesting since Orwell himself was something of
a religious sceptic in life and had no connections at all with Sutton
Courtenay. It appears that as he was approaching death from TB at the age of 46
he expressed a desire to be buried in an English country churchyard. When he
died in 1950, a friend, David Astor who lived in the village approached the
vicar with a view to securing a plot for Orwell in the churchyard, and the
vicar agreed to do so. Also in the same churchyard is David Astor who arranged
for Orwell’s plot. He has an interesting history as he was the Editor of the Observer
newspaper and one of the founders of Amnesty International and yet he has the
plainest gravestone imaginable, just ‘David Astor 1912 – 2001’ is on it. The
third grave of interest in this particular churchyard is that of Henry Herbert
Asquith, the British Prime Minister at the time of the declaration of the First
World War, so all in all an interesting churchyard to visit.
After leaving Abingdon and reaching Wallingford we find that
it is the weekend of Wallingford Bunkfest, a festival of music, dance, beer and
steam!!!. Unfortunately what that also means is that all available mooring in
the town are taken and we find ourselves moored to a willow tree about half a
mile out of town, it feels more like a jungle mooring than a mooring on the
Thames!
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