Today, as the legal property of Queen Elizabeth II - who has the right to claim ownership of all unmarked mute swans swimming in open water, though maybe has more pressing tasks - they remain a regal sight. And they find a suitably majestic waterway in the Thames, that noble artery that rises in a puddly field in the Cotswolds and flows for 215 miles to reach the coast, passing palaces, castles and cathedrals on its way. It runs through nine counties, drifts under 134 bridges and spends much of its time carving a scenic, serpentine course through the countryside. In his book Thames: Sacred River, historian Peter Ackroyd calls the vast waterway "a museum of Englishness itself".
Among it all, from the whisper of the upstream reeds to the clatter of central London, the river's links with the monarchy have long been prominent. This year is the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, marking a decade since the huge, 670-boat royal pageant of 2012 and well over a millennium since Alfred the Great held the first English parliament in a riverside meadow in Shifford, Oxfordshire. Today, burnished tales and princely residences still clasp to the Thames like jewels to a necklace.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2022-Ausgabe von BBC Countryfile Magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2022-Ausgabe von BBC Countryfile Magazine.
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Edible Seaweeds - An ancient food harvested by humans for millennia, seaweeds bring an intense and rich flavour of the sea to a wide range of dishes, as well as essential mind-and-body-boosting nutrients
An ancient food harvested by humans for millennia, seaweeds bring an intense and rich flavour of the sea to a wide range of dishes, as well as essential mind-and-body-boosting nutrients
We Are an Island Nation - So Let's Protect Our Seas - Living in the UK makes us islanders and personally I'm proud of that definition - not in any political or jingoistic sense, but simply because I love the sea and in this country we are totally surrounded by it.
Living in the UK makes us islanders and personally I'm proud of that definition - not in any political or jingoistic sense, but simply because I love the sea and in this country we are totally surrounded by it. We live inside thousands of miles of coastline, in a nation whose borders were created by nature and made us what we are.
Discover Jurassic Coast - With its towering cliffs, sweeping beaches and pretty seaside towns, the shoreline of Dorset and east Devon is spectacular.
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Sea horses
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Cast in bone
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Sea stars
The playful performances of Britain's bottlenose dolphins attract avid fans - but they deserve personal space
Harris's wildly beautiful beach
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