New to us ...

It was our plan to stay at Clivedon for a few days but the overnight forecast (Thursday/Friday) was for thunder storms and mooring below a heavily wooded steep hill would not be a good idea.

So by 9:30 on Thursday morning we pulled the pins ...

... and continued upstream

The sun has not yet burned through the clouds and our last sighting of Clivedon House looks rather atmospheric.

This 'cottage' has always fascinated me, it looks so lovely peeking in windows from the footpath.  I thought it was one of the National Trust's holiday cottages but it's actually part of the Clivedon Hotel. Click HERE to see inside Spring Cottage, it's pretty special! But for a starting price per night of £2,055 it should be!  Oh, to be rich!

The Boathouse has stood here for over 150 years. 

Designed by George Devey ((1820-1886) who often worked closely with the Rothschild family), it was built in the late 1870's by the 1st Duke of Westminster.

Turning sharp left into Cookham Lock cut and glancing back at Clivedon Reach, we'll be back there again before too long.

Once through the lock we topped up with water and rid ourselves of the nasties while Down the Hatch hovered behind us waiting their turn for the services.

And here we are!  Cookham visitor moorings, we've never stopped here before.

With good views all around

Once we'd moored up we went for a walk into the village. The first building we came across was the  Holy Trinity Parish Church just a couple of hundred yards away from our mooring.  There has been a church here since the 11th century. 

It was here we found out that it was the 50th anniversary of Cookham's Festival Week so we decided to stay a bit longer than planned to do some sightseeing.

Looking back at Church Gate as we enter the village

Goodness, what's that all about?

It was on this square that we saw a signpost directing us to Sculpture Garden, perhaps that will be a good place to start ...

The garden is the grounds of the private Odney Club owned by the John Lewis Partnership and a member of the National Garden Scheme.  As you can see we stopped for some lunch here before exploring the grounds.

Just a quick glimpse of our view from the terrace - too many photographs taken for this blog post, so watch this space!