The Thames from Hampton Court to Sunbury Lock

Rivermead Island and Swan’s Rest Island

Although this is called two different names, it’s really just one island.

 

Actually, it’s hardly even an island really.

 

It’s about 600 metres long and is reached by a footbridge or a ford from Thames Street in Sunbury.

Rivermead island - footbridge and fordText Box: The footbridge and ford

Once upon a time it was probably two islands, which might explain why the downstream part is called Swan’s Rest Island and the upstream part Rivermead Island. You can still see slight remains of a bank and ditch that may have separated them.

 

Rivermead Island - the possible ditch separating it from Swan's Rest Island

Text Box: The remains of a bank and ditch, taken from Rivermead Island

 

On Rivermead Island until around 1980 there used to be an open-air swimming pool. I assume it was built in the 1920s and 1930s when there was a programme to increase the number of people who could swim.

Rivermead Island - site of the former swimming poolText Box: This is where the swimming pool used to be

Less than a hundred years ago, most people never learned to swim. If you read the Surrey Comet from the 1920s it is amazing to see the number of people drowned in the Thames every week as a result of boating accidents. And if you look at the Metropolitan Police list of officers who died on duty in the 19th century, almost every year two or three policeman drowned after falling in rivers, canals or docks. So the public swimming baths built in the 1920s and 1930s helped save many lives.

 

Nowadays, Rivermead Island is used for fishing, dog-walking, picnics, sunbathing and teenage behaviour. It’s also the location of Sunbury Regatta in mid-August.