About The Thames

Hambleden Lock

Hambleden Lock fills with water extremely quickly, compared with other locks on the Thames . The lock (full) contains 670,000 litres, and fills/empties at an astounding rate of 3000 litres per second.

The course of the famous Henley Royal Regatta is one mile, 450 yards long from Temple Island (just above Hambleden Lock) to just below Henley Bridge.

The first Oxford and Cambridge University boat race was rowed in 1829 between Hambleden Lock and Henley Bridge. For your information, Oxford won in a time of 14 minutes 30 seconds.

Hambleden was the site of a mill in 1086 when the Domesday Book was being written. It is possible that a flash lock existed on the river here at the time. A pound lock, with heavy wooden manual beams, was built in 1773 by the Thames Navigation Commissioners. The hydraulic pound lock here today is a 1992/4 rebuild.

Caleb Gould, the Lock Keeper from 1777, lies buried in nearby Remenham churchyard. He died aged 91, and the epitaph on his grave stone reads:

This world's a jest,
and all things show it;
I thought so once,
but now I know it.

This lock is rich in wildlife, with red kites, buzzards, hobbies, sparrow hawks and the now common parakeets visiting the lock regularly. In the nearby fields, deer are a common sight.

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