Ancient ferry rights up for auction

The right to carry passengers across the Thames between Old Isleworth and Richmond Old Deer Park (above) using a centuries-old ferry crossing will be sold at auction next month.

No operator has regularly plied the river for more than 20 years. However, the route could prove a popular link for walkers between Kew Gardens on the Surrey bank and Syon Park on the Middlesex side. No reserve price has been set for the rights.

The ferry connection from outside All Saints Church, Isleworth, is one of two that used to operate from the village and dates from at least the reign of Henry VIII. It is recorded in Moses Glover's maps of Isleworth and Syon from 1635, and was seen daily by Turner who lived at Ferry House in the village and painted many riverside scenes of the area.

Existing title deeds were drafted in Victorian times and authorise 'passage or ferry of the River Thames. . .as granted by a conveyance dated 6th January 1887 by. . .a commissioner of Her Majesty's Woods, Forests and Land Revenues.

The crossing lapsed during the Seond World War but was reinstated during summer weekends after 1945. It continued to be well used until 1970 when it was again terminated, and apart from a four-month period several years ago, it has not been in operation.

Included in the ownership document is the right to use steps at landing places on both sides of the river, and a small area of land on the Isleworth side.

The crossing has been put up for auction on 14 July by receivers acting for the failed UK property group Speyhawk, which acquired the rights a decade ago while building an office development at Old Isleworth. No boat is included in the sale.

Reinstating the ferry is one of the proposals for enhancing the riverside contained in the Thames Landscape Strategy reported in Independent London last week. The nearest bridge at Richmond Lock is about a mile away.

Duncan Moir, auctioneer with Allsop & Co, in Soho, said it was difficult to predict a

likely purchaser. 'There aren't many of these crossings on

the market. The scarcity makes them more appealing and

the fact that there's a

commercial element which might be possible to take advantage of in the future is so much the better.

(Photograph omitted)