Firework Ait is an islet in the River Thames in England on the reach above Romney Lock known as the Windsor and Eton reach, Berkshire. It is the smallest island on the Thames with an official map-published name.

Firework Ait is located in Berkshire
Firework Ait
Map showing the location of Firework Ait within Berkshire.
The ait is the small piece of land on the right hand side of this photograph from non-motorised Windsor Bridge

Status

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The island is the smallest on the Thames with an official map-published name and is in the middle of a widely separated series of three close to the Windsor (right) bank. It is approximately 100 metres above Windsor Bridge.[1] The facing riverside road in restrictive sections as to motorized traffic provides a promenade and cycle way between the heart of the town centre, a leisure centre and adjoining Alexandra Gardens, a park.

History

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An account from the 1840s of life at Eton hypothesises that Percy Bysshe Shelley when at Eton in 1805 would have taken his skiff across to the "eyot which then served for fireworks".[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ 1000 square feet approximately. This patch of fewer than six trees is too small to be shown on most maps of the broad Windsor and Eton area.
  2. ^ Coleridge, Arthur Duke (1896). Eton in the Forties by An Old Colleger. London: Richard Bentley. p. 107.
Next island upstream River Thames Next island downstream
Barry Avenue (or unnamed) island and Deadwater Ait Firework Ait Cutlers Ait

51°29′07″N 0°36′37″W / 51.4852°N 0.6104°W / 51.4852; -0.6104