Shiplake

2015 - Google: This is the area covered by the walk, from the Memorial Hall, down New Road to Mill Road, across Lashbrook to the river, past Wargrave, along to the college and back. Although a Google map is useful for many things, primarily on a computer, in its static form it is really useful only to give street names.
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2015 - OS Explorer: This is the area covered by the walk - but now we can see key geographical aspects, much more clearly distinguished. Built up areas now show in comparison with open land. Another key addition, espacially for us, is rights of way. It can for example be seen how large Lower Shiplake is, compared to the original village – Shiplake Cross - and of course the coming of the railway played no little part in this. 

1932 - Apart from switching to black and white (!) only a few items of note can be seen that have changed when we go back to the first pre-war map.

• The Wargrave and Lashbrook ferries are marked.

• The Thames Path, although proposed in 1948, was not officially opened until 1996. The river bank is marked as "Towing Path", to indicate which side of the river was used.

• The railway is marked as the Great Western Railway.

• Shiplake College was at that time Shiplake Court.

• The housing in Lower Shiplake was centred round Station Road and Mill Road.

1914 - Before WWI, Lower Shiplake and Shiplake Cross were even smaller, though Wargrave was still quite a size.

• New Road had only 3 or 4 larger houses at the eastern end and Mill Road only a few smaller houses.

• The nurseries at Thames Valley Horticultures were a prominent business in Lower Shiplake.

• The Memorial Hall had yet to be built
  
  

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1900 - Key changes can now be seen.

• Lower Shiplake was called Lashbrook

• Shiplake Cross comprised the pub, a few houses and the school.

• Most noticeably - Wargrave Station had yet to be built, even though Wargrave was much bigger than its neighbour across the river.

• Shiplake Mill makes an appearance - today we have only Mill House and some ruins.

• The Shiplake Vicarage is no longer the "Old Vicarage".

1883 - A few more things are missing - surprisingly some things DID exist that far back..

• New Road, which we use on the walk, had not been built - after all there was nowhere in that direction to warrant a road. Either you went down Mill Lane to the mill or lock - or down Station Road .... to the station!

• The Shiplake Cross primary school was in existence. Children must have travelled great distances to school in those days.
  
  
  

• 1763 - Clearly we have little detail in the earlier maps. "Lys Brook" was the earlier name for "Lashbrook" and "Shiplack" for "Shiplake".