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Day's Lock This is where the World Poohsticks Championships are held every year. The event was started by one Lynn David, lock keeper here at Day's. Hundreds of people turn out to watch this event and teams from across the globe take part; it was inspired by A A Milne's tale about Winnie the Pooh. The race involves dropping marked sticks into the river and seeing how long it takes to get to the finish line. Day's Lock gets its name from the Day family, known to be Catholic yeomen living locally from the 1600s. This is the main gauging station for measuring the flow of water in the river. It has another claim to fame too - nearby is the small village of Burcot; in 1605 King James 1 instigated the Oxford-Burcot Commission which built the first locks on the Thames in the 1620s. During the 1500s there was a flash lock here. The Thames Navigation Commissioner built the first pound lock here in 1789. The area is rich in wildlife, situated as it is by the Little Wittenham Nature Reserve. A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the reserve is visited frequently by skylark, grey partridge and song thrush. There are also badgers and bats, shrews, muntjac and roe deer, along with stoat, weasel, brown hare, bank vole and field vole. A mile downstream is where the River Thame joins the Thames. At this point King Cynegils of Wessex was baptised in 635, bringing Christianity to southern England. The Thame is navigable only by small boats and canoes. |