Page 7 - July 2013 Kettle published 2

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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
The Celebrity Count Starts To Rise
A few miles downstream is Sonning
celebrated by
Jerome K. Jerome in the book Three Men in a Boat
as
"the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river".
One of Britain’s first railway disasters happened in
the Sonning Cutting of the Great Western Railway in
1841 when a goods train ran into a landslip. Nine
people were killed when they were thrown from the
open passenger trucks. Many of the dead and injured
were stone masons working on the new Houses of
Parliament which might have helped lead to the
passing of a Railways Act which outlawed the open
trucks in favour of stoutly constructed carriages for
third class passengers.
An eclectic mix of current Sonning (it’s pronounced
Sunning) residents includes Uri Gellar, the local MP
the Right Honorable Theresa May and Led Zeppelin’s
Jimmy Page who lives in an Edwin Lutyens house
with a Gertrude Jekyll garden designed for the
founder of Country Life magazine. The Mill at
Sonning was once part of the Huntley & Palmer
empire. It’s working life was over by 1950 and since
1982 it has been the only dinner theatre in the UK.
It is privately owned and completely self sufficient,
no grants, no subsidies, no tax payers money at all!
Read more about it in
One To Do On Your Own.
The Last Bastion of the English Class System
Before we know it we have arrived at Henley, Queen
of the Thames and the start of one of the most
beautiful and dramatic stretches of the Upper Thames
through gently wooded and rolling countryside at the
foot of the Chiltern Hills. This is very possibly one of
Oxfordshire’s oldest settlements already ancient by
the time of the Saxons who called it Hen (old) Ley
(clearing in the woods). Since 1839 the Henley
Regatta has been held in the first week of July –
today it is five days of racing with all skill levels
represented from newcomers to the rowing world
right through to Olympians. And a lot of dressing up.
Prince Albert became Patron in 1851 and each year
since the reigning monarch has been Patron and it has
been able to call itself the Henley Royal Regatta.
Henley has been described as the last bastion of class
in the British summer Social Season and has always
been a must attend event for Debutantes and their
prospective beaus. This year maxi dresses and
oversized sunglasses were de rigeur for the ladies but
for the chaps it was, as ever was, the traditional stripy
rowing club blazer and flannels.
You can just turn up and watch from the river bank
for free but there are also two official enclosures.