Skip to content
Sunday, March 15, 2026

Mort's Riverwatch

An occasional look at the ebb and flow of the Thames

  • Home
  • About Mort Smith
  • Recent developments
  • Events
  • History
  • Nature
  • Rules and regs
  • Local people
  • Terra Nova

Month: September 2011

Terra Nova
Terra Nova

A boat, a reader and a coincidence

27/09/201103/12/2012Mort SmithComment(0)

Have you noticed that the world is full of strange coincidences? I’ve always been a firm believer in fate – what is to be, will be – but sometimes the twists and turns that fate takes are very odd indeed.

Events

Still time to get in a cruise or two…

25/09/201103/12/2012Mort SmithComment(0)

The nights may be drawing in and the leaves may be turning, but the year isn’t over just yet and there’s still plenty of fun to be had out on the water

History

Learning to swim in the River Thames

18/09/201102/12/2012Mort SmithComment(1)

From Tumblin Bay Weir to Desborough Cut, readers relive their memories of splashing around in the river for fun or with classes of youngsters from schools in the area

History

Bridge paintings in festive card surprise

08/09/201102/12/2012Mort SmithComment(0)

In the latest instalment of his regular feature, Mort Smith looks at the first two bridges that crossed the Thames at Walton, both of which had an unfortunate ending

History

Thornycroft memories

04/09/201102/12/2012Mort SmithComment(0)

It seems I was not alone in mourning the passing of part of the old Thornycroft launch works on Platts Eyot which was destroyed by a fire recently – it brought back memories for a couple of families who had happy associations with the company.

Archives

Get in touch

To contact Mort, email him at mortsmith32@gmail.com or call him on 01787 226974. He’s always pleased to hear from old friends who provided such a wealth of information and great stories for Riverwatch.

These columns appeared in the Surrey Herald.

Tags

Association of Dunkirk Little Ships Beaulieu boat jumble birds boats book review Canal and River Trust crab Desborough Island Desborough Sailing Club Doug Myers Dunkirk D’Oyly Carte Island Environment Agency fish fishing Floods historic boats Jenny Beagle lock keepers London International Boat Show paintings Project Kraken Queen Mary Sailing Club Richmond Venturer River Thames Boat Project river users groups rowing Royal Yachting Association safety sailing Second World War Shepperton Shepperton Marina Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society Surrey Police swimming Terra Nova Thames21 Thames islands Walton Bridge Walton Yacht Company Weather Weybridge Ladies Rowing Club Weybridge Sailing Club wildlife
Copyright © 2008-2025 Mort Smith. All rights reserved. | Editorial by MysteryThemes.
  • Home
  • About Mort Smith
  • Recent developments
  • Events
  • History
  • Nature
  • Rules and regs
  • Local people
  • Terra Nova

Notice: ob_end_flush(): Failed to send buffer of zlib output compression (0) in /home/public/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5481