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Richmond, blooms and ducks

Twelve choir walkers undertook a delightful outing in Richmond Park on Friday 3 May.  The walk, designed and led by walking group veteran Dick Jones, began at the Tide End Cottage pub by Teddington Lock, where the beer cognoscenti raved about the stunningly fresh, hoppy Exeter beer on offer.  

Then it was off across the lock, with two bridges leading into the suburban semis that mark the approaches to Richmond Park, London’s largest site of special scientific interest and a European special area of conservation. 

The Mandarin ducks of the Isabella Plantation - azaleas reflected behind 

We entered by the park’s Ham gate and followed the paths to the Isabella Plantation, a 40-acre woodland set within a Victorian plantation dating from the 1830s.  We soon encountered a blaze of azaleas, flowering bright red and pink, together with brilliant white camellias.  They formed a stunning background at several ponds where Mandarin ducks paddled across the crimson azalea reflections.   

Azaleas ablaze at Isabella Plantation

The name Isabella first appeared on local maps in the 1770s – possibly named for the wife or daughter of a staff-member at the park, but maybe deriving from the word isabel, which meant dingy or greyish yellow, the colour of the soil in this area of the park.

The Richmond wild life inspects the walkers

As we exited the plantation it began to rain, requiring us us to don our rainwear as groups of deer and fawns stared at us from beneath the shelter of trees.  We headed for the customary ice-cream shop at Pembroke Lodge and then turned north for the Richmond Gate.  

Michael smiling in the rain

Our main midway refreshment stop was at the Roebuck on Richmond Hill, where we entertained the locals with several songs before plunging downhill to the Thames.  Then it was eastwards along the tow-path to Hammerton’s ferry, on which we regaled the two non-choir passengers with an uncertain version of Jolly Roger as we steered for the north shore of the river.

 

The bold Twickenham buccaneers

Dick now led us past and through the great mansions that mark this area of the river, culminating with the extraordinary Italian Carrera marble statues of York House, where nymphs and shepherds disport themselves in various states of undress. 

It was raining again as we reached journey’s end at the riverside Barmy Arms.  Sadly there was a muddle over our dinner booking, and so the group dispersed, some staying at the B. Arms, others seeking sustenance elsewhere.  No matter: it had been an entertaining and idyllic walk, with full credit and thanks to Dick for his imaginative planning and leadership.

The Richmond twelve