National Grade: Moderate  Distance: 10.3miles / 16.6km  Leader: Richard Laszcz  Date: August 5th 2026 

A slightly cooler day was forecast for this Wednesday walk and indeed some welcome cloud cover had materialised as 16 of us gathered in Boulters Lock car park for Richard’s walk. As Richard started the introduction a mini burst of rain started to fall but immediately stopped and dried up. We welcomed Wendy to our group and set off alongside the Thames where the river was wide and still full of water with everything around green and healthy looking. We shortly stopped to have a quick look at Richard Dimbleby’s riverside home and his statue seated on the veranda overlooking the river. Walking along it was clear from the houses that this was a very affluent part of Maidenhead. We soon stopped again to see a particularly grand gothic-style house that had been used by Gerry and Arthur Anderson in the production of a number of episodes of the iconic Thunderbirds and Torchy the Battery Boy. This was Islet Park House and has now been converted to private luxury residential apartments. A group of small children being led on an outing along the river enthusiastically greeted us and started to give us all high-fives! After a while we turned away from the river and arrived into Cookham. We stopped to use the toilet facilities next to the Stanley Spencer Gallery before moving into the village churchyard for our morning break. However the fact that this particular morning was a church coffee and cake morning had not escaped our notice and we persuaded Richard that we should do our community bit and avail ourselves of this facility. So most of us, at least, sat at the tables and placed our orders. We hoped that we wouldn’t overwhelm them and indeed service was quite quick and did not disappoint. Our unexpectedly long “banana break” had extended Richard’s timetable quite a lot but the mood was relaxed and we all enjoyed this little pleasure. With the wind picking up we continued gently uphill to arrive at Winter Hill that gave us spectacular views across the Thames Valley and some unexpectedly plump and sweet blackberries along the way.

It wasn’t long before we had come down off the hill and found ourselves back by the river and looking at the impressive riverside dwellings on the opposite bank. We shortly arrived back into Cookham and settled for our lunch on the moor outside The Crown pub. Many of us bought drinks at the pub so our conscience was clear given some uncertainty over who could use the picnic benches. Our route back to Boulters Lock after lunch was across fields of harvested crops. We passed the sculpture of a bear and table balancing on a post on one leg. We have noticed these before and they are part of the Cookham Festival in the grounds of The Odney Club. Our walk soon arrived back into Boulters Lock where we could return a very short distance back to the car park or cross the road onto Boulters Lock Island. This took us over a bridge over the very deep lock where a boat was waiting to emerge. The gardens had a cafe and toilets and ice creams were enjoyed by some. The hotel had a historic telephone box outside and even a vintage phone. We said our goodbyes and thanked Richard and Debbie for a very pleasant walk in give or take perfect walking conditions. We left Richard to have his well deserved ice cream in peace!

Report by Simon Thornhill