This is a two way paddle starting in Reading, then using St Patrick’s Stream and the River Loddon which takes you back to the main river and an up stream paddle back to Reading. The journey is about ten miles and suitable for kayaks and canoes and anyone used to slow moving water. The Geoprojects map of the R.Thames and O/S Map 175 covers the whole trip.
Start at the free car park at the end of the A3290, the entrance is on the left just past the last roundabout for Reading town centre (beware of height barrier). Next to the car park is Marsports canoe and kayak shop and the Wokingham Canoe Club. The A3290 leaves the M4 at junction 10.
Paddle down stream, this section is called Dreadnought Reach, for just under two miles until you reach Sonning Lock. You can portage, but many lock keepers will allow canoes and kayaks to lock through with launches (the Thames name for any boat fitted with an engine) but take care, the rules stipulate that launches must turn off their engines in locks. So some of the larger launches i.e. 60 foot sea going gin palaces, are only kept in place by their attached ropes and the strength of their crew members, they do tend to move about as the lock fills or empties, stay well clear! From Sonning after passing the old three arched road bridge and Great House Hotel, a further 1.5 miles will take you to the entrance to St Patrick’s Stream, this is marked by a small bridge on your right and a notice declaring “it’s not suitable for launches”.
As you head under the bridge you will feel an increase in the water flow, St Patrick’s Stream bypasses a lock and therefore drops about 5 feet over about two miles. Just past the bridge is an under water gate to control the flow, which is well below the surface at normal water levels, we usually pass over it on the left side. Follow the winding stream, passing a small channel on your left which also returns to the Thames via a weir. After going under a low accommodation bridge and past some expensive houses you reach the junction with the River Loddon. Turn left onto the Loddon passing more expensive houses with long gardens, you eventually reach the River Thames just below Shiplake Lock.
There is a newly built canoe portage from the weir stream across a strip of land by the lock house back to the upper level, which we only found this after we had carried our boats around the lock! You can of course share the lock with the launches! Now paddle back upstream on the main river – this is a wide sweeping reach with several large islands which can be explored. The second one, I believe, is the one mentioned in Jerome K Jerome’s ‘Three Men in a Boat’, a book that all paddlers of the Thames should read. Carry on upstream passing St Patrick’s Stream which is now on your left, back to Sonning Lock, Dreadnought Reach and to the starting point at Reading.
We usually paddle St Patrick’s Stream in the closed fishing season, mid March to mid June, this also gives the highest water level and this back stream is very popular for fishing matches at weekends in the fishing season. Our group last paddled the above on 26.03.06.