I've always been fascinated by the River Thames.
It runs right through the place I was born, London.
Where my family have lived for 300 years.
Now, I'm going to get to know it even more intimately,
to find out what makes this one of the greatest rivers in the world.
I'm walking the Thames path, discovering how we tame the river.
One, two, three. Ugh.
I did it!
And that's it. Only another eight to go.
And I'm meeting the people whose lives revolve around the Thames.
We can actually trace ourselves as fishermen
and ferrymen from 1257. Oh, you're kidding?
This is what the Royal Waterman used to do in Henry Vlll's time,
row their king. Are you about ready for me, yeah? Yeah.
Oh, God, I'm going into the side again. That's my toast.
Oh.
You've caught me about a third of the way through
my Thames path journey.
Abingdon is just up ahead.
Now, I'm going to be looking at the midsection of the Thames
which, for the last hundred years or so,
has been most famous for boating and messing about in the river.
From here, I'll follow the river as it winds its way
through the beautiful Thames Valley, stopping off at Henley-on-Thames
and then on towards the palace at Hampton Court,
a distance of around 100 miles.
I'm just approaching Abingdon Lock,
and you see how still and flat
and essentially deep the Thames appears to be,
well, what I hadn't fully reafised
was that locks like this don't just help the boats go to-and-fro,
but they also manage the level of the water
all the way along the whole length of the Thames.
Before there were locks and weirs to partially dam the river,
the Thames hundreds of years ago would have been far too shallow
for all but the smallest of boats.
Today, managing water levels falls to the Environment Agency.
This morning,
I've got an appointment with lock keeper Richard Hawkins...
Hello, chap, nice to see you.
...to learn the ropes.
Round there. You've got it, mate. Lovely job.
Row your boats,
and if you want to grab a back rope off this gentleman here.
I'm grabbing your back rope.
Thank you very much.
Does that go round there?
Yeah, we'lljust take half a turn around there
and pass it back to him.
So how does this work? Do I turn this handle?
No, unfortunately not, it's a bit too warm for that.
We are going to cheat and use the buttons instead. Oh!
It's controlled electronically. Yeah, so just push that one in. Now?
Yeah, go for it, hold them in nice and tight. Here we go.
Closing the gates! Keep your thumb on him, sorry. Oh, all right.
Not closing the gates, closing the gates now.
Now we're closing the gates.
Consummate professionals, see?
And we'lljust go all the way until you see them close bang together,
and that will make them mitre together nicely.
Once the gates are closed at each end of the chamber,
or pound as it's known,
it can be filled or emptied to match the water level
in the direction the boat wants to travel.
OK, Frank, open them up, mate.
OK, my love.
There you go.
And you've got locks like this all the way down the Thames?
Yeah, yeah. There's 45 locks on the Thames,
plus one extra one on the tidal Thames,
and essentially what they do is,
if you imagine before all the locks were built,
the river ran its own course.
It was like, almost like a slippery slope,
and putting locks in just turns into a nice gentle staircase.
So we've sort of gentrified it in a way,
and made it slightly less dangerous.
Come and see us again. Bye-bye now. See you later.
How many boats do you get going through here on a busy clay?
If we said, you know, August would be our busiest, busiest month.
We get about 3,000 boats in August alone.
So on a weekday, about 100.
Weekends, 150, maybe a little bit more. So it's nonstop really,
and we wouldn't be just putting one boat in the lock like that,
we'd be packing four or five in,
all different shapes and sizes,
and that's part of the sort of diplomacy of being lock keeper,
really, is keeping all the different river users happy.
So we try our best.
Before modern pound locks like this one were introduced,
travelling up and down the river was far more risky,
and involved the use of flash locks.
There was one here at Abingdon in the 17th century,
which was simply a series of wooden boards that held the water back,
but which could be removed quickly,
allowing boats to ride the resulting flash, or cascade of water.
This Victorian weir, which is still in use today,
uses large panels to hold water back and gives us at least some idea
of what it must have been like for those early
and very brave river voyageurs.
So these are like the old boards, only these are made of metal.
Exactly the same principle, yeah.
What we're doing is, we've got a removel sections,
at the moment it's raised,
so if you can imagine that this was an old-style flash lock,
the opening would be slightly bigger,
cos you might be struggle to fit a boat through here,
but it's the very same idea.
They'd be board up on the opposite, side ready to come down,
I'd lift this up...
And then this would happen.
They would go down through there.
So when these boards were lifted,
you'd get all of this wild water, wouldn't you?
Exactly, yeah, as you can see. It's a lot of turbulence,
a lot of noise, so quite disconcerting.
And would the boats come down on this?
Yeah, they would, they would come on through on what we call...
This is the flash of water they come down through.
It would've been chaos, wouldn't it? It would, it would.
Goring flash weir in the 16th century, a passenger boat sunk
and it was nearly 60 people killed.
To demonstrate the power of the river,
Richard has winched open one of the heavy iron boards,
but damning the river again is a lot cruder,
a lot more fun, and involves a large mallet.
One, two, three.
Ugh.
I did it! just like that, nicely done! Listen, listen, listen.
Its silence, isn't it? It's eerily silent, isn't it?
That is so effective.
I bet you're glad you have me here. Yeah.
HE LAUGHS
Controlling the water level at weirs
is part of the job description for lock keepers like Richard,
and now I've dammed the river,
water needs to be released elsewhere to stop it flooding.
Go make some tea during this bit.
A little bit more, keep going.
Perfect. Lovely stuff.
And that's it.
Only another eight to go.
And with that, I make my excuses and a hasty retreat.
Just past the lock, the town of Abingdon
is certainly worth a detour off the river.
Its claims to be the oldest continuously occupied town in Britain.
In the back streets, you can find the remains of an abbey
that was built by Benedictine monks 1,300 years ago.
Once upon a time, this was the sixth most powerful abbey
in the whole country. A massive enterprise.
Now, all that's left is this rather elegant looking building here.
It looks like someone's fairly posh house, doesn't it?
The building was most probably used to accommodate visiting dignitaries.
The most vivid evidence
of how glorious this place would once have been is this.
It's called the Long Gallery now, and was built around about 1450.
Although, initially, it wouldn't have been one long room,
it would've been divided into three.
Look, underneath this beam, you can see the slots
where one of the partition walls would've been,
and there's loads of slots all the way along here,
because this would have been a corridor
along which people could ambulate and look out at that amazing view.
Probably the best indicator
of how fantastic the place would have originally looked is that.
Nobody seems to know quite how old that wall painting is,
but it does look medieval, doesn't it?
And imagine this whole room was covered in paintings,
which originally would've looked like that. Pretty stunning.
On a day like today,
Abingdon is such a beautiful, quiet, tranquil, place,
but 300 years ago, it would have been very different around here.
The wharfs were all along here,
this was a place about buying, selling, commerce, industry,
the boats would've been coming in and out all the time.
The noise would've been incredible.
The stink would have been awful from the manufacturer of candles,
from the leather tanning, from the brewing. Talking of which,
there were about 50 pubs around here at that time.
So in order to reflect on what the people of Abingdon
used to do, I'm going to going for quick one.
I'll see you back on the river.
Coming UP---
...how the Victorians fell in love with the Thames...
Whoa, yeah. You really feel the wind kicking, don't you?
Yeah, that's it.
...and keeping the river clean.
So that is raw sewage.
Things get a bit messy.
It's a bit salty.
My Thames path walk
has brought me to the almost picture-perfect village
of Clifton Hampden in the heart of Oxfordshire.
It's long been renowned for its chocolate box charm,
but almost demands that you linger for a while on the river.
It's great just sitting on the bank
watching the fish jump up to catch the flies.
This is the exact opposite of how this place would've been
when the Thames was the main commercial route out of London.
There were 2,500 of those working the Thames in those clays,
a steady stream of them coming up towards Lechlade,
then turning onto the canal towards Bristol.
Then, boof. Almost overnight the railways came,
and the river ceased to be the most viable way of transporting goods.
And what filled that gap?
Leisure boating. The Victorians loved it.
By the 19th century, for middle-class Victorians,
going upriver became the thing to do.
They put on their finest clothes, dresses and hats for the ladies,
blazers and flannels for the men, and take to the water.
The more adventurous would think nothing of rowing two or three clays
upstream for a little break,
particularly if they had one of those.
A skiff. I might just give it a go myself.
I'd arranged to get on the river with Tom Balm in his antique skiff.
Hi, Tom. Hello. Hi, Tony.
He's something of a classic Thames enthusiast,
and rents out skiffs like this to people who want to sample the life
of a Victorian boater.
How long have there been skiffs around for?
I would say the 15th century, 16th century,
there's been skiffs around. What were they used for then?
They would have been commercial craft
for the purposes of ferrying their customers,
due to the lack of bridges that were being built back then.
You wouldn't have been able to have done much on them,
they wouldn't have been goods vessels, would they?
They wouldn't have been heavy goods, no. People passenging.
Yeah. Yeah.
It was the versatility of the skiff that led to its popularity
during the leisure boom of the 1880s.
Thousands were built as rental boats.
They came in one or two oar versions.
And there was an option of adding a sail,
so you could make good headway on an escape from London.
So are you going to put the sail up? Yeah.
Let's hope we get the wind. We've got the sculls here, too.
Get us back. Reasonable progress. Whoa!
\ Well saved. I
Get it pulled up right the way to the top.
Reminds me of a little Thames barge.
And we are making gentle progress there, I believe.
Pull on that rope. Yep. Good pull.
You can feel the power in your hands,
the power of the wind.
Whoa, yeah, you really feel the wind kicking, can't you?
Yeah, that's it.
A nice bit of pace.
I love that solitary buzzard up there.
Yeah, you can really imagine, can't you,
being Victorian, taking three clays off.
Leaving work on Friday afternoon,
getting back after lunch on the Monday, possibly.
It became popular to camp on trips upriver.
There was even a version of a skiff
that came complete with its own tent,
and which Tom is keen to demonstrate
as a viable option for accommodation this evening.
So four iron hoops, with a complete tent.
People really would sleep overnight in one?
Yeah, absolutely. Yep, entire families would sleep on here.
That's ridiculous. Yeah. Yep.
You don't really need anything else, you've got your boat.
OK. That's it.
And then it's just draped over the top.
You could say that in a way,
this was the VW camper van of its day.
Some savvy skiff rental companies even offered a collection service,
so when you'd had enough, you could simply dump the boat,
and make your way back to London by train.
Hey!
Oh, actually, that took a remarkably short time, didn't it?
I beg your pardon? I said...!
THEY LAUGH
...it took a remarkably short time, actually, didn't it?
They are quick. Yeah.
Where did they sleep? They were a pleasure.
They would have slept underneath the canvas.
And then we have here our beds.
So that's how they would've slept? That's how they would've slept. Yep.
Just there like that. Absolutely.
That looks really comfortable, Tom.
Let me demonstrate what else they might have done,
because sometimes they would park the skiff like that,
and picked up their bag and gone to the pub for the night.
Cheers mate. Very good. Thanks so much.
Night-night.
The Thames has long been an important water source,
supplying Oxford, Swindon, and 80% of tap water in London.
Every day, 5 million tonnes of water move along the Thames
as it approaches London.
Of course, it's treated before we drink it,
and treated after we drink it...
...which is where I'm taking a short detour off the river at Reading,
to find out what goes on at Thames Water's most advanced sewage plant.
Now, I know this kind of detour
might seem a bit weird for a Thames walker, but when I heard that
before water from the upper Thames reaches London
it's been recycled eight times,
I had to find out the dirty facts for myself.
Less than 200 years ago, the answer for dealing with sewage
for many riverside towns was simply to deposit it in the river,
with disastrous consequences.
In London, by the 1850s,
as these satirical depictions of the day show,
the Thames was a filthy place.
Indeed, so full of raw sewage, it was quite literally poison,
and outbreaks of cholera and typhoid weren't uncommon.
These clays, modern processing plants like this one
that services Reading, can recycle raw sewage
and return clean water to the environment in less than 24 hours.
Cheers, mate.
The reason I'm getting all suited-and-booted up is cos Barry here
is going to chuck me in at the deep-end in a minute.
I certainly am. Do you want to come this way, Tony,
and I'll show you where it all comes in. Yeah, yeah.
This is the start of the process.
So that is raw sewage. That is raw sewage.
An astounding 175 million litres pass through here every day.
It doesn't actually stink as bad as you think it would, does it?
It doesn't. Water, it very rarely smells.
But there are still some dirty jobs that need manual handling,
which is where I come in,
removing foreign objects from the inlet screens.
And you can see that's all your rags and plastics and...
That's just stuff that's come through the sewer,
but you can't process any other way?
There's no way that that will dissolve,
we want to get as much rag and fat and paper and grit out of it
as humanly possible.
I can see a few wet wipes there.
I believe this is yours. Oh, God...
It's part of your training, just hook it off.
TONY GROANS
There we go. Lovely stuff.
They eat a lot of sweetcorn in Reading, don't they?
They certainly do. We like to be healthy. Yeah.
Picking through the private deposits of 220,000 Reading residents
isn't exactly the best job in the world...
Just turn the handle and turn it on.
...but it needs doing twice a week across eight screens.
It's a bit salty.
The next stage is automated.
The sewage is separated into number ones and number twos.
Liquids are filtered in the settlement ponds,
where bacteria naturally neutralise impurities.
The solids are dealt with by other means.
Right, if you want to know what happens to the poo,
in here, it's mixed up with a thickener...
...and then it's taken along here...
...where it's ploughed, and a lot of the water is taken out of it,
so that by the time it gets to here...
...it's really quite dry.
I'm really glad I shared that with you.
And the resulting sludge is then pasteurized
inside giant digesters,
where the methane it produces is used to generate
45% of the plant's electricity needs.
The final residue is recycled for use in agriculture.
And the water? Well, after just 18 hours,
those former household flushes are released into the river Kennett,
a nearby tributary of the Thames. That looks pretty clean, doesn't it?
It does, shall we go and take a sample? See how clean it is?
At this stage, it's not safe to drink.
It will be treated again before it comes through your tap,
but it's definitely clear.
So there you are, then, that will go into the river Kennett,
and on into the Thames
where it'll continue to be treated naturally by the sun
and microbes and water plants.
Until, eventually, one day it will be used to clean the car
or someone will drink it,
and it will find its way back here again.
And as for the human waste,
well, that has been turned into sludge cake,
which the farmer will use.
Coming UP---
...in the rowing town of Henley...
Race pace!
...I find out what it takes to be part of an elite team...
I think I overruddered there.
...and I Captain a boat that's much more my style.
This is lovely, isn't it?
I've already got the elbow out the window, one-handed driving.
I've only been driving it for 30 seconds.
I'm walking the Thames from source to sea, following the Thames path,
Europe's longest river sidewalk.
I'm now about halfway along the river's 200 mile length
in the town of Henley-on-Thames.
This Oxfordshire town has long been important
as a trading hub on the route to London by River.
Records show a bridge here nearly 800 years ago...
...but in 1857, the arrival of the train line transformed
this place virtually overnight into a leisure resort.
In the late-19th century, if you were a Londoner,
you could get the train all the way upriver to here
to potter around on the river, and it became really popular.
In fact, one summer's day in 1888,
nearly 7,000 people arrived here from Paddington.
It was like Benidorm-on-sea...
...but a bit posher.
And central to the town's popularity
as the place to be seen in Victorian times
was the annual Henley Regatta.
It got incredibly popular and, so, many boats lined the river,
you could virtually walk from one side to the other.
Local newspapers complained the Thames was being invaded
by roughnecks and working-class savages.
Today, it's still a major sporting and social event,
held in the first week of July.
They're setting up for the Regatta now.
Takes about eight weeks to put in all the pontoons and grandstands
and corporate hospitality tents.
And the thing has become so popular
that it can cost up to two grand for the full five-day experience.
Central to the Regatta is the head-to-head rowing races,
and there's no team more successful than the Leander Rowing Club.
Their clubhouse is right next to the bridge.
Inside, you are left in no doubt you are in the home of greatness.
They are Britain's most historic and most successful sports team,
with 124 Olympic medals to prove it.
Come and look at all of these.
Leander Olympic gold medal winners.
Redgrave, Redgrave, Redgrave,
Pinsent, Pinsent, Pinsent,
Cracknell.
Here's one.
WGRM Laurie. That's Hugh's dad.
I can't see mine anywhere.
So what's the key to producing champions?
Hard work and dedication, obviously.
But could it be the breakfasts? After all, it's 9am
and this lot have already been out training on the river.
Now, they are on their second breakfast of the day.
God, look at this diet.
First breakfast, cereal, banana, milk, juice, toast, spread, honey.
Then a litre of sports drink.
Second breakfast.
Three slices of toast, two poached eggs, portion of mushrooms,
200g of baked beans, blah, blah, blah, afternoon snack, blimey.
Fish, meat, potatoes, bleugh, I can't get through it.
6,230 calories. God, that would make you fat.
Well, when in Rome...
Why did you only get that? What?
Why did you only get that? Because that's my toast.
Oh.
That would explain it.
Do you want butter?
So what's the point in taking all this on board?
It's just the volume of training that we do.
Yeah. So, it's obviously an endurance sport,
and you are burning such a large number of calories anyway.
Yeah. Thank you.
That's more like it. Yeah, yeah.
So, I mean, we've got another session in about an hour-and-a-half,
so I don't want to have... I wouldn't eat that, necessarily,
because I would probably see it again.
Do you do jobs outside of this training, presumably? Yeah.
So what do you do? So I nanny for a family. Yeah.
And then I also coach as well, rowing coaching,
and do a little bit of swimming teaching,
so I essentially have three jobs.
Alongside this as well.
I'm going out on a training session with chief coach, Mark Banks.
Cheers, mate.
If anyone can give me an insight into what it's like
to be part of a top team, he can.
The success of what Steve Redgrave and Catherine Grainger,
and all those other superstars,
who you see getting Olympic gold medals, they make it look easy.
Bu': it isn't.
He's been coaching for 30 consecutive years
at Olympic and World Championship level.
As they are rowing, what are you looking at?
Their blade is in the water for three quarters of a second,
and we're looking,
A, that the blades are going in at the same time,
that the legs are propelling the boat,
the legs are pushing before we start using the upper body,
and then, of course, we're looking to see
that they've got a really good rhythm which is sustainable,
and it's really quite simple.
It's doing the common uncommonly well.
As they skim across the river, it looks so easy, so elegant,
the cox keeping the boat as staright as an arrow.
Having witnessed how it's done...
...it's now my time to shine as part of an elite team,
and for once in my life, my size is a major asset.
Are you about ready for me, now? Yeah.
Cheers. Looking forward to it.
I've managed to blag my way into the boat as cox.
Who's taller, you or me? I think just about me, just...
No, anyway, whoever. But I'm the right size.
You're the right size for it, yeah, definitely.
Sam Royston, their usual cox, gives me some tips on how to steer.
This is the fin, this is how to keep the boat straight.
Oh, that's not the rudder?
No, the rudder is just this little thing back here.
This tiny thing here? This tiny little metal thing, yeah.
I'd always thought the rudder was the whole of the white thing.
No, no. So you are controlling something that's about that big?
Yeah. And you are wiggling a little bit of string
that's about that tiny?
And that's about 30 foot long, or something like that.
Well, that doesn't sound too bad, bring it on. Up to head, go!
Split, let's go!
With a good briefing, I'm ready.
You have to take me seriously, you know.
Pushing off. Three, two, one... Off we go.
I mean, how hard can it be to steer a £50,000
very fragile carbon fibre boat?
And...
...what do I say? Rag off, go.
Rag Off, go!
Race pace!
Well, they say fake it till you make it.
Entry.
In my case, that's not very long.
When you get in that situation, you just stop rowing.
I think I over-ruddered there.
OK, take two.
Backstops.
Going off. Row!
Before that... Easy there!
Easy!
Not that I'm making excuses, but under full power,
it's incredible difficult to keep it straight.
Oh, God, I'm going into the side again.
One thing I hadn't realised is the rudder doesn't give you the effect
that you think it's going to give you straight away.
It's a few beats, and so you try and compensate even more,
and then when it does kick in, you find yourself way over,
over that side
OK...
Go!
...one final go.
Yeah, I think I've got it.
OK, that's good.
And, then, just for the briefest of moments,
I get a taste of what it's like to fly across the water.
Just like that, well done!
In a race, these guys would be covering at least a mile,
I only managed to keep it straight for about 200 yards.
Well, they say it's not winning that counts, it's taking part.
All good there, then.
Thank you very much.
I'll tell you what, that heavy breakfast didn't do me any favours.
From Henley, I set off along a very boaty bit of the river,
heading for the next village at Hurley.
Hiya.
Hi.
Everybody waves at each other. It's a communal place, isn't it?
It's somewhere where we can share our traditions
and our history, even our etiquette.
Hurley is the home of the oldest family of boat builders in Britain,
who specialise in making these handcrafted wooden boats.
Richard Freebody and his three sisters have history on the Thames
that goes back to the 13th century.
Richard, never mind that this is going to become a boat,
it's just such a gorgeous piece of carpentry.
Oh, thanks, Tony. Yeah, no, it's good fun.
It's a very elegant shape, isn't it? It really is, yeah.
Like a racing car. Very stylish, yeah. Yeah.
It is quite exquisite. What's the wood?
So this is Canadian Cedar,
and this is mahogany, so quite a contrasting...
How long would this take you, just, just this one boat?
About two years, in all honesty. Yeah.
Do you never make boats made out of fibreglass or plastic?
Never ever, Tony.
No, that's a terrible word to even mention around here, but...
And it's a family business, right?
Yeah, very much so. So over 300 years, so... 300 years?
Yeah, that we can actually trace ourselves as fishermen
and ferrymen from 1257. Oh, you're kidding.
Undoubtably built our own boats to, you know, carry out the work.
But where are the documents from
that allowed you to go that far back?
Literally old documentation relating to the Thames.
So we are officially the earliest family boat builders in England.
Which is a lovely, lovely accolade to have.
Richard and his sisters are the 11th generation of boat builders.
Soon there may even be a 12th.
Can we have a look at who's here?
Hiya, Kirstie. Hello.
So these are your your son and your daughters?
Yeah, this is George, and Jessica, and Daisy.
Hands up any of you who might like to build boats
when they're a bit older? Ah! Well, that's good.
Would you like to build a boat when you're a big boy?
What do you think, George?
Yeah! Three hands up, three hands, that's fantastic.
That would be lovely, wouldn't it? Another generation of boat builders.
It'd be amazing.
Its lovely. It's a way of life, really, rather than a business.
Today, nine skilled craftsmen work alongside Richard
building and restoring traditional boats.
So, Tony, I don't know whether you could give me a hand, could you?
"Give me a hand" is television speak for "muck things up".
Well, let's give it a go, let's give it a go.
We're going to just try and replicate this bead
here on the bottom edge.
And all that is done by hand? Everything done by hand, yeah. Wow!
Yeah, absolutely. And it's very primitive.
This is a screw that's been cut-off and sharpened up.
Oh, you are joking, look at that.
You said you were integrating technology into your boat building.
Only when necessary.
And basically it's a case of pushing this up to the edge,
and just working the scratch along,
and gradually pushing slightly harder and harder,
and getting it deeper and deeper.
Why don't you give that a go? OK.
I'm so nervous about messing it up.
Oh, I can do it. That's it, just gradually...just inch it forward.
I think we will make a boat builder out of you yet.
Are you sure?
How long do you reckon it would take you to get this to that state?
It would take me probably about an hour
to get that to that stage there.
Really? Is that all? Yeah, yeah, it's...
It looks like a huge amount of work.
Each boat receives at least 20 coats of a special varnish,
the details of which remain a closely guarded family secret.
Of course, you never know when a potential buyer
may drop in looking for something rather special for the weekend.
So, Tony, come and have a look at the showroom.
Oh, look at this!
That is so gorgeous.
So this is, this is basically the finished version
of what you've been helping to build.
This 30 foot Freebody Slipper Launch is the top-of-the-range...
It's so quiet. Yeah, they are lovely.
...with an almost silent electric engine.
Would you like to have a go?
Oh, mate, I would... Go on. Let's do it.
Bleugh.
Oh, this is beautiful.
This isn't a sales pitch, Tony, but that suits you.
Thank you.
Well, that's a well-rehearsed line, but at £180,000 for a basic model,
I best enjoy this while I can.
It's lovely, isn't it?
It's so luxurious.
I've already got the elbow out the window, one-handed driving.
I've only been driving it for 30 seconds.
Do you know, I think Richard might be right.
Gosh, she turns easily.
Oh, my little darling. Yeah.
It does suit me.
This is the modern version of Edwardian life on the Thames.
Gently cruising along, getting towards the end of the day,
lovely warm temperature.
I could get used to this.
Coming UP---
I travel back in time at Hampton Court...
Henry installed this clock, which not only told you the time,
it also gave you the time of the tides,
a sort of Tudor supercomputer.
...and catch a lift on the Queen's Royal barge.
The shiny stuff all over it can't really be gold.
It is, it's 22 carat gold leaf, all hand applied.
I'm walking the Thames from source to sea,
and for the last 70 miles, I've been following the middle Thames,
the bit of the river that's gentle
and best known for boating and leisure.
Soon, as I approach London,
the river will become tidal and much more industrial.
But before then, there's one last stop I want to make.
Over there you can just see the chimney pots
of Hampton Court Palace, where Henry VIII lived with his six wives
and surrounded himself with lavish art and threw lavish dinner parties
for ambassadors and bishops and various cronies.
Hampton Court was one of Henry's favourite palaces.
It was opulent, impressive, and suited his character.
He was loud, brash, and charismatic.
And being on the river,
Hampton Court gave him easy access to London.
Because the river becomes tidal just downstream from here,
in the year 1540, Henry installed this clock,
which not only told you the time,
it's also gave you the time of the tides,
a sort of Tudor supercomputer.
Having a clock that told the tides was essential to Henry,
because before there were locks on the Thames,
riding high water was the only way to make the trip to and from London.
Today, there's an annual pageant going on at Hampton Court.
A similar spectacle to the ones Henry liked to create
when he travelled on the river.
I've been invited to join them on this gilded barge,
which is known as the Gloriana, and is a very important boat.
The Gloriana is our present Queen's Royal barge,
and I've managed to blag a lift on it.
It was built for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations,
and led a flotilla of 1,000 boats down the Thames.
This boat was launched in 2012,
but it's a replica of the kind of barge
that was working the Thames.
From the 16th century, the river became a place for Royal pomp.
Gilded barges were draped with banners,
boats carried musicians.
This was the river of theatre.
The current keeper of the Queen's barge is Malcolm Knight.
This event has got a veneer of the ancient,
but it's actually quite modern, isn't it?
It is. It's totally modern.
But obviously, you know, we've made it to look
like a traditional Tudor event.
It's what the Royal Waterman used to do in Henry Vlll's time.
They used to row their king, so now we are going to row to the tower
to celebrate the importance of Her Majesty's Royal Highway,
the river Thames.
Back in Tudor times, would all of the Royals
have had their own barge? Yes, they did.
That's how they got around,
because the roads in London were sick, mud and everything else.
In those clays, the boat was the car of London.
That's right, it was the way to get around.
The shiny stuff all over it can't really be gold? It is.
It's 22 carat gold leaf, all hand appfied
by a team from Hare & Humphreys.
It's a special formulation that they've put together
over the years, which weathers very well.
So, fortunately, we don't have to polish them, the gold,
we just have to polish the brass.
Just like in the old-fashioned high status barges,
the insides are much more muted
compared with all the gold on the outside.
This is where the Queen sat when she was taking her tea, here.
And up here, all of these paintings on the roof are hand-painted.
And they are birds going from the estuary
right up to the start of the river.
Swan, plover... Lovely, aren't they?
After an hour, we reach Teddington lock,
the official end of the non-tidal River.
You are going ashore. I am indeed, yes.
Welcome to terra firma. Thank you very much.
It's been a pleasure to meet you. And you.
Thank you very much, enjoy the rest of your time on the river. See you.
Well, that's the end of my jaunt on the Gloriana,
and indeed it's the end of my walk along the middle Thames.
This is the final lock, Teddington, and after that, London.
But that's for next time.
Next time...
God.
...I follow the Thames through the heart of London...
I have actually found something. Hey-yo!
...discovering how the river made the city...
This is what we call liquid history.
...into a trading powerhouse and an icon to the world.
The bridge is coming down.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media