Rod Eyot or Rod Ait is an island in the River Thames in England near Henley-on-Thames on the reach above Hambledon Lock. It is close to Mill Meadows and the River and Rowing Museum.
The island is populated with ten chalets, a brick cottage and formally tapered to a 200m widely spaced single-file line of trees, hence its name. The taper has been cut off and reduced; the soil on the main part of the island built up instead. [1] Rod Eyot is accessible only by boat. Mid-stream, river traffic passes one-way both sides, instructed by the Environment Agency to keep to the right ( starboard) bank. Rod Eyot homes have moorings and are privately owned. Foul waste and rubbish is taken away by boat to the appropriate stations at marinas.
Rod Eyot features in a pre-1900 painting owned by the monarch which portrays the river viewed from Wargrave Road when the island was the largest of a seasonally connected string of islands, lower-lying and uninhabited.
Henley Town centre's closest public/amenity building is The Angel on the Bridge, followed by its church and the Red Lion Hotel. The bridge is 600 m from Rod Eyot.
A thin unpopulated islet downstream was part of the island, [1] towards, Henley Bridge known locally as Bird Island.
Until 1907, when the Town Council sold the chalet plots, the island was among those known nationally for a few decades as Corporation Island. The brick cottage had previously been occupied by a farrier who shoed horses which towed the river barges.
51°31′57″N 0°53′36″W / 51.5325°N 0.8933°W