Your letters

Still trying to sort sewage

The article “Regatta chairman attacks sewage leaks into the Thames” (Standard, July 7), is eye-catching as a local example of a national concern growing in crescendo about the state of our rivers.

Only through national policies can this serious problem be solved. But it is worth reflecting on what was achieved locally in Victorian times, to address a problem which must and can be solved.

In the 1870s, Henley faced a crisis no less grave as it began to grow from a medieval-scale market town towards the town we live in today.

The Thames Conservancy, whose jurisdiction dated from 1866, policed discharges into the river, and Henley’s Local Board knew it had to clean up its act or face serious fines.

The immediate reaction was a proliferation of cesspits, often alongside wells, from which the town’s drinking water came, with the ever-present danger of typhoid and other waterborne diseases.

But the legacy of discharges into the river goes back to medieval times and beyond. There was a plume of sewage mud stretching down the regatta course as far as Temple Island, described by a contemporary as “….black, viscid and slimy, stinking fearfully when disturbed and in most places extending into the river from 20-40 feet, and from five to seven feet thick”.

It was against this background that the town council adopted a really original system for disposing of the town’s sewage.

The contemporary way, as now, was to site treatment works at the lowest point on the banks of rivers. The town’s scheme, adopted in June 1884, by contrast pumped the sewage uphill, away from the river, using compressed air.

The pumping station and sewage farm were in Lambridge Wood. You can still trace its outline at the top end of Lambridge Wood Road. In January 1896, the treatment works was moved to a site a mile or so along the Assendon valley, still well away from the river.

A major consideration was the annual regatta from which the town hugely benefited. But it was also recognised that if the town was to prosper as a growing residential centre, it had to provide a definitive solution to the sewage problem. That included coping with the spike at regatta times.

The system adopted by the town council made a sharp distinction between storm water, which could go straight into the river, and foul water, including baths and the enormous amounts of water then used by breweries in the town, which was all passed through sewage treatment.

The system facilitated the growth of the town, and also adapted with it. It was paid for with loans at rock-bottom rates from public agencies, with the running and interest costs met out of local rates.

In 1939, the system was pumping 1.6 million gallons a week, the equivalent 35 gallons a day per head of the population. It coped with the large increase in the town’s population during and after the war, until replaced by the current gravity-based system with its sewage farm on the Marlow Road.

The purpose of recalling the past is not to suggest that we would ever want to return to it. In any case, the population is larger, and we live in a much more interconnected world with greater scientific knowledge than existed then.

But it surely helps that the concerns which we now recognise also guided the pioneers in seeking solutions. The sewage problem is not new, and proved capable of solution then despite dire forebodings.

There once was a riverside lido, a hugely popular swimming complex for Henley which existed on the Berkshire side, opposite Mill Meadows. Only with a cleaned-up river could even the spirit which inspired it exist again.

My article, “Sewering Henley on Thames, 1870-1914”, was published in the journal of the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical History, Oxoniensia in 2022. — Yours faithfully,

Michael Redley

Chairman, Henley
Archaeological and
Historical Group

Don’t close ticket office

Sir, — I am very concerned about the imminent closure of rail ticket offices both locally and throughout the country.

Personally, as a senior citizen, I always prefer to buy a ticket at the station for the following reasons: I know where the ticket office is situated and when it is open; I may have to queue but it will be a fair and orderly system; the staff are knowledgeable, can discuss my journey plans and get the best ticket for me; the staff can deal with complications and changes easily in an unstressed manner; financial transactions are secure; I have a physical ticket and seat booking to prove purchase and don’t have to rely on the vagaries of technical hitches with my smartphone.

I am most worried that this proposal will affect the elderly, the vulnerable, people with disabilities ( hidden or otherwise), those without internet at home or smartphones, those who prefer to pay in cash, those who cannot easily operate ticket machines and the myriad of other would-be rail users, tourists included, who, in this time of climate crisis, prefer to travel by train rather than by road.

It would appear that the number of people who use the ticket offices may be far greater than the 12 per cent that has been reported. Our revenue would surely be missed if we were no longer able to access this most vital service. The last date for the Transport Focus consultation is given as July 26.

This matter is an urgent one. — Yours faithfully,

Inese Clayson

South Street, Caversham

Where are colours?

Editor, — I enthusiastically support the campaign for hanging baskets in Henley but was disappointed last week in Hart Street to notice how lacking in colour they seem to be.

An exception, however, were the 15 hanging baskets on the wall of the Catherine Wheel; bright and vivid red. They rather put the others to shame. Could we have more colourful baskets next year please? — Yours faithfully,

Fr Andrew Foster

Parish priest, St Edmund Campion, Watlington

Conservative own goals

Sir, — Congratulations to Henley Conservatives on achieving three superb own goals.

Firstly, selecting Boris Johnson, whose ability to mislead and pontificate damaged the nation.

Second, John Howell whose comment “I have kept well out of it” could summarise his 15 years as our MP.

Third, Henley Conservative Association themselves and their sheer incompetence in organising candidate selection (Standard, July 7).

Comments about organising events in a brewery come to mind! — Yours faithfully,

Jimmy Gordon

Henley

Please don’t leave town

I was saddened to read the article on the raid at Mr Rajmohan’s shop in Station Road, Henley (Standard, July 7).

He and his wife and son run the shop with such good humour, and are always cheerful and patient.

The shop contains such a varied and well thought-out selection of stock and if you ask for something they don’t have, by the next visit it will be in stock. It will be such a loss to the local community particularly the residents of nearby Victoria Court if he decided to close and they would be much missed. — Yours faithfully,

Chrissie Godfrey

Victoria Court, Henley

PS: the boy with balloons in Reading Road, Henley, is not graffiti, it’s street art.

Promoting good health

Editor, — At the celebration of 75 years of the NHS at Englefield House last week, I was pleased to hear Andy Statham, director of strategy, Royal Berkshire Hospital. express the need “to get to patients before they fall into the river”.

By this he meant that the NHS would be putting more resources into promoting health and preventing
illness. — Yours faithfully,

Douglas Wright

Caversham

Let’s smile, everyone

Talking or not talking, being silent and ignoring each other?

The world of friendship is changing dramatically. I am in my late Eighties and I am sometimes a little hurt, sometimes a little angry, and sometimes a little lonely.

Why should this be? The world is changing into a dark silence which we have never experienced before.

One morning last week I was waiting for a dental appointment.

There was only one other person in the waiting room with me. We sat still for a few minutes with only me looking at the other person. I thought she would never look at me.

One or two minutes passed and I then said, “Hello.”

She was immediately responsive and we had a really interesting conversation.

On leaving and paying my bill, this lady was doing the same. When she left, she greeted me with a big smile and said a very cheery “Goodbye”.

I hope l did not embarrass her, but her smile said everything. She made me happy and I hope and know that she felt the same.

I do know there are many of us who, like me, would like a more friendly way of life. There is no hardship in saying a cheery “good morning” or even a “hello” with a big smile.

Shall we have a Henley Smiley Day? I vote for Thursdays (market day).

I will be going to the market myself and will look out for the big smiles! — Yours fathfully,

Sheila Ferris

Shiplake

PS: More letters on this subject would be welcome.

All get up and stay up

Sir, — In church, ministers always give clear instructions to their congregation, for example, “Please be seated. Please stand for this next hymn. Please join in.”

It’s effective. Everyone follows suit. No one disobeys.

If only the headline artists at the Henley Festival would do the same. It would avoid all the tension, anger and kerfuffle in the audience about when it’s “acceptable” to stand.

Mind you, in my humble opinion, if you had lawn tickets for Rag ‘n’ Bone man (having paid the eye-watering service charge) it was totally acceptable to stand for the entirety of the set.

This nonsense of standing up for the songs you know, and sitting down for the ones you don’t, should be outlawed. Just go all in.

I do have sympathy if you’re genuinely incapacitated. But just being wealthy and living in and around Henley isn’t an excuse not to stand. Stick to your ballet and opera. Sorry. — Yours faithfully,

Simon Barnett

Lower Assendon

PS: Sadly, I couldn’t be at the festival on Friday as I was seeing Iron Maiden. No sitting down there!

Frightening river swim

Dear Editor, — Recalling the old swimming baths in Wargrave Road, Henley, plus school days in the Fifties, I remember that we were told to enter the water while hanging on to a piece of rope. I also remember how scared I felt with the Thames water up to my neck.

At some point I rose from that place and remember very little after that — not a happy situation.

From that moment on I left the idea of swimming to others and felt safer travelling by boat, especially a steamer.

Later, I tried fishing and after that I found my real passion was cycling. — Yours faithfully,

Peter M Adams

Petersfield, Hants

Delightful bell playing

Sir, — I would just like to say what a delightful sight of children playing hand bell chimes at the 10am sung eucharist church service at Shiplake on Sunday. They looked utterly charming and sweet.

The Rev Sarah Nesbitt invited the children to sit on the pews nearer her — indeed, she involved some of them.

The Bible reading and sermon mentioned a yoke and she asked them what one was and they replied that it was in an egg. She also had some farming photographs and said it was wooden.

It was a wonderful treat and there is another treat this Sunday — a pet service at Shiplake Church at 4pm. You can bring a pet or a photo of one, or even just yourself. It will be taken by Rev Pam Gordon. — Yours faithfully,

K Carnett

Twyford

Love for the road

Editor — Kann no vun Verstoppen Verstappen?

Is gettink too mutch this Dutch

Nurburgrings he’s running around us

Maybe orange is the only fruit. — Yours faithfully,

James Kelso

Gorwell, Watlington