passing down the family line. Access to the lock The lock can be reached from Lower Shiplake down Mill Road, and into Mill Lane, where there is a tarmac path to the lock along the edge of a field. And from the village of Shiplake, at Shiplake Church take the chalky path down to the riverbank, past Shiplake College's boathouse. The footpath at Shiplake then passes under the College (formerly Shiplake Court) and then the white Shiplake House.The lock is a few hundred metres along this part of the Thames Path. Reach above the lock The river skirts Shiplake on the Oxfordshire bank and eventually passes into Sonning. Phillimore Island is just above the lock, and on the hill on the Shiplake bank is Shiplake House and also Shiplake Court (now the premises of Shiplake College). The college boat house is on the river bank at this point. Further on there is a double bend with two large islands The Lynch, and Hallsmead Ait followed by Buck Ait. On the bank opposite the Ait is St Patrick's Stream. This stream is believed to have been a tributary stream of the River Loddon which became an outfall when the water level was raised by the building of Shiplake Lock. Apart from a small development here, the river banks are open fields to Sonning Bridge. Sonning lock is a short was upstream of the bridge, but there is a large backwater branching before the bridge on the Sonning Eye side which is crossed by Sonning Backwater Bridges. Thames Path The Thames Path stays on the Oxfordshire bank to Sonning, where it crosses the bridge to the other side and continues to Sonning Lock. Literature and the media Shiplake Lock was a favourite place for fishing for the young George Orwell and his Buddicom friends. See also Locks on the River Thames References Locks of Oxfordshire Locks on the River Thames Weirs on the River Thames