Reach Above The Lock
Shortly upstream of the lock, the river is crossed by the M3 Chertsey Bridge carrying the M3 motorway high overhead. The Middlesex bank has gravel pits out of sight and then park land until it reaches Laleham, where there are riverside houses. From an inlet at Laleham, 200 million imperial gallons (910,000 m3) of water are pumped into the Queen Mary Reservoir each day.
The Surrey bank is wild and open with a very small reservoir and pumping station beyond it. There is then a stretch of housing interspersed with boatyards, until short of Penton Hook. Before Penton Hook Lock, the backwater curves round Penton Hook Island to some marinas. This is the start point of the Abbey River backwater which rejoins the Thames below Chertsey Lock. Burway Rowing Club is based at Thameside at Laleham on the reach and Burway Junior Regatta and Burway Head races take place from the area beneath the M3 Motorway Bridge.
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Famous quotes containing the words reach and/or lock:
“Across the lonely beach we flit,
One little sandpiper and I;
And fast I gather, bit by bit,
The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry.
The wild waves reach their hands for it,
The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,
As up and down the beach we flit—
One little sandpiper and I.”
—Celia Thaxter (”Laighton”)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)