Islands in the Stream

http://www.britain-magazine.comheritage60

Around 180 small islands, called ‘eyots’ or ‘aits’, are dotted along the River Thames, stretching from West London to Windsor. The name ‘eyot’ or ‘ait’ (pronounced ‘eight’) comes from the Old English word ‘iggath’, meaning a small island. The word crops up in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (“Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows….”), and the islands themselves have many of their own stories to tell.

Some of the islands are accessible by footbridge, others by road, while a few, including Garrick’s Ait and Pharaoh’s Island, situated above Shepperton Lock, can only be reached by boat. The latter was named when Admiral Lord Nelson won the Battle of the Nile, one of