Search Results : berkshire berks

Aug 122023
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Purple loosestrife on the Kennet & Avon Canal Meadowsweet on the Kennet & Avon Canal Greenham Common fuel store, now wildlife ponds 1 Greenham Common fuel store, now wildlife ponds 2 Greenham Common - where USAF nuclear bombers once taxied lock on the Kennet & Avon Canal contented cattle near Thatcham Reedbeds 1 contented cattle near Thatcham Reedbeds 2 On Greenham Common, centaury as pink as a starlet's lips

A harsh scolding call sounded from dense foliage as we followed a path through the watery jungle of Thatcham reedbeds. The crisscross striping of reed stems, of leaves and the shadows of leaves, made it impossible to spot the little sedge warbler in its subtle camouflage of brown and grey.

They have been digging gravel out of the Kennet valley for a long time now, and what’s left is a string of ‘lakes’ (flooded gravel pits) and extensive reedbeds where reed buntings and warblers nest each year. The feathery reed heads swung in today’s stiff west wind, and there was a constant dreamy susurration from millions of willow leaves.

We crossed a bridge over untroubled water, a clear stream above a gravel bed, then the turbid olive channel of the Kennet & Avon Canal at Bull’s Lock. Beyond the canal a crunchy lane ran south past a meadow of contented cattle, chin deep in grass, and came to Bury Bank Lane on the boundary of Greenham Common.

Greenham Common used to be a USAF airbase, and Cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were housed here from 1983 onwards. The Peace Women’s movement established camps around the perimeter in protest, scaled the fences, danced on the missile silos and otherwise kept their cause in the headlines until long after the nuclear weapons were shipped out in 1991.

Walking the gravelly paths and climbing the former control tower for a high-level view across the common today, the contrast between then and now is astonishing. The great runways for the bombers lie beneath heathland full of flowers – lady’s bedstraw, centaury, viper’s bugloss in vivid shades of yellow, pink and blue. The empty missile silos under their grassy domes resemble the tombs of long-gone warriors. And the massive leaky fuel tanks have been transformed into green-skinned lakelets.

We turned off the common into a tree-hung green lane which ran north to cross the dimpling River Kennet. Back on the Kennet & Avon Canal, we strolled homeward among sickly-smelling meadowsweet and tall spikes of purple loosestrife, signifiers of high summer.

How hard is it? 6 miles; easy; gravel tracks and lanes.

Start: Nature Discovery Centre, Lower Way, Thatcham RG19 3FU (OS ref: SU 506670)

Getting there: Rail to Thatcham, then ½ mile walk along canal.
Bus stop on Lower Way
Road: signposted off A4 in Thatcham.

Walk (OS Explorer 158): Follow path on right of lake. At foot of lake, right (506667, ‘Reedbed Trail;/RT). In 250m, where track bends left, keep ahead on path (503667, RT), following RT signs. In ½ mile at canal, right across long bridge (500666) past Bull’s Lock; in 150m, left across canal. Left on road; under railway (499666); follow ‘footpath’ fingerposts. In 400m through gate by Lower Farm Cottages (500663), on for ½ mile to cross Bury Bank Road (502654 – take care!). Up path opposite to gate onto Greenham Common. Right; in 300m, pass large grey shed, then gate (501651); fork right on path to Control Tower (500650). From tower take main path south, through gate; left along wide gravel track for ¾ mile. 100m past banded waymark post, fork left (511647). Through trees, past lakes. At waymark post with double band, left (518650, gate) across road. Gravel track opposite; at T-junction, left (521654) to cross River Kennet (521655), then canal (522661). Left on towpath to Widmead Lock (509662). 50m beyond, right (banded post, gate, RT). In ⅓ mile cross railway (506666); ahead to car park.

Lunch: Cafés at Discovery Centre and Control Tower

Accommodation: Regency Park Hotel, Bowling Green Road, Thatcham RG18 3RP (01635-871555, regencyparkhotel.com)

Info: bbowt.org.uk; www.greenham-common.org.uk; greenhamtower.org.uk.

 Posted by at 04:28
Oct 292022
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
field path to Chaddleworth 1 field path to Chaddleworth 2 field path to Chaddleworth 3 field path to St Thomas's Church field path to St Thomas's Church 2 old man's beard in the edge at Elton Farm sloes ready for picking near Elton Farm mighty yew at St Andrew's Church, Chaddleworth singing lark on the altar cloth at St Andrew's Church, Chaddleworth Hmmm - a field and a hedge St Thomas's Church, East Shefford St Thomas's Church, East Shefford 2 The Annunciation, St Thomas's Church, East Shefford

A cold morning of cloud rolling low above the wintry landscape of the Berkshire Downs. Glints of blue hinted at a less gloomy afternoon as we set off from Great Shefford along the shallow valley of the River Lambourne.

At East Shefford Farm the Dutch barn was stuffed with hay for the winter. A pair of red kites hunting the valley planed with easy grace across the ploughed fields. We climbed gently on an old farm lane between fields of pale flinty soil under the reedy twittering of skylarks. When we looked round at the crest, the houses of Great Shefford had vanished, sucked down into a fold of ground by perspective.

Along a golf course hedge, through a stand of cherry trees that had carpeted the ground with their red and gold spearblade leaves, and down to Chaddleworth across paddocks where horses in padded winter coats blew jets of steam from their nostrils.

A mass dial was incised in the door jamb of St Andrew’s Church, the doorway decorated with Norman dogtooth carving. Under the tower arch some sly stone-carver had inserted a fat pagan face with a knowing grin. Superb needlework on the pulpit cloth showed a skylark rising as ecstatically as those over the fields outside, the song represented as gold flames flickering out of its wide open beak.

In medieval times a widow who was ‘unchaste’, in other words remarried, generally forfeited the rights that went with her deceased husband’s land. However, at Chaddleworth she could reclaim them on performance of a forfeit – namely, riding into the manorial court seated backwards on a black ram while chanting a ‘ribald rhyme’. I would have loved to hear that little ditty, but no-one in Chaddleworth seemed to know it.

In the parkland around Chaddleworth House we passed shaggy cattle with enormous horns, munching peacefully and scratching their necks on low-hanging branches. Out on the downs again the wind roared, seething in the beech trees and sending gold leaf showers whirling across the winter wheat.

Back in the Lambourne valley we turned along a disused railway line thick with sloes and bearded lichens to find the diminutive Church of St Thomas beside the river opposite East Shefford Farm. Decorative tiles floored the building, the walls were painted with faded texts, and a medieval Nativity fresco was surmounted protectively by a spiky sun and a crescent moon with a calm expression of absolute serenity.

How hard is it? 8½ miles; easy; field paths

Start: Great Shefford PH, Great Shefford, Hungerford RG17 7DW (OS ref SU 384752)

Getting there: Bus 4 (Newbury)
Road – Great Shefford signposted at M4, Jct 14

Walk (OS Explorer 158): Follow A338 (“Wantage”). In 350m, right (386753, “Lambourn Valley Way”/LVW). In 500m, left past barns (390749), up track. In ½ mile, right (395757, Finger Post/FP, yellow arrows) across field, then golf course to cross road (407764). On along hedge; in 900m, half-left across fields (412772) to road (411778) and Chaddleworth church. Back to road; left; in 100m, left (412778, gate, FP) across parkland. Cross road (415777) by village hall. On across field; dogleg right/left across road (414774, FP, “Waylands”). In 500m at three-finger post (412771), half-left across field to road (413767). Right to road (412762); right; left past golf clubhouse (411761). On beside golf course, then Elton Lane south for 1½ miles. Right at Elton Farm (398741); left (397743) on railway path (LVW) to Great Shefford.

Lunch: Great Shefford PH (01488-648462, thegreatshefford.com)

Accommodation: Queen’s Arms, East Garston RG17 7ET (01488-648757, queensarmseastgarston.co.uk)

Info: Hungerford TIC (01488-682419)

 Posted by at 01:15
Mar 052022
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Ancient track along the downland ridge near Inkpen Hill 1 path up the grazing slopes of Ham Hill Ancient track along the downland ridge near Inkpen Hill 2 grazing slopes of Ham Hill 1 path up the grazing slopes of Ham Hill 2 Ham village green grazing slopes of Ham Hill 3 path down the rolling chalk slopes below Inkpen Hill Mount Prosperous, sometime home of agricultural reformer Jethro Tull 22 red kites wheeling over the fields near Ham View north from the slopes of Inkpen Hill Green lane to Inkpen

Early mist was sifting away from the Wiltshire downs as we laced our boots on Ham village green. Snowdrops showered the banks of the lanes with white, and wild garlic and celandines were peeping out.

The sun swept up the last of the mist, diffusing a clear light over the hills. A heavy distant thumping, like giants of the upper air pushing their wardrobes around, came from Salisbury Plain where big guns were firing.

Larks sang over the big prairie fields of winter wheat as we started up the steep path to the top of the downs. A raven went tumbling in a barrel roll to impress its mate below. Up on the height of Inkpen Hill a thirty-mile view showed the sheep-nibbled downs and rolling arable fields of the Wiltshire/Berkshire border, patterned this way and that by the plough.

A sunken lane ran east just below the ridge, an ancient trackway sheltered by the lie of the land. Ploughed fields rose to the crest. A pair of partridges went skimming low across the dark furrows, their short wings downcurved for maximum gliding power.

Ahead we caught a glimpse of the ominous T-bar of Combe Gibbet, especially built in 1676 so that the hanged bodies of murderers George Broomham and Dorothy Newman could be displayed as an awful warning to the world at large.

We slanted steeply back down the slope towards a round spinney of dark green conifers set in the pale chalky ploughlands 400 feet below. A prospect that might have been placed specifically for the palette of Eric Ravilious.

Down in the green lane through the fields we found a squirrel skull by the path, as thin and white as paper, its two outsize incisors bright orange. Hips and haws in the hedges were still plump, and we puzzled how they could have evaded the hungry birds of winter.

From Inkpen village Bitham Lane ran west, a flinty holloway in a tunnel of trees. Just before turning off it for Ham, a glimpse to the north showed the handsome country house of Mount Prosperous set in parkland where white horses grazed under a cedar.

Here in the early 1700s Jethro Tull came to live and farm, and it was in these fields that he experimented with a brainchild of his, the horse-drawn seed drill. Tull and his inventions soon ushered in the great agricultural movement that saw muscle power replaced by machinery on the farms, a first seismic shock of the Industrial Revolution that would soon shake the whole world.

How hard is it? 6 miles; easy; one short, steep climb

Start: Crown & Anchor, Ham, Marlborough SN8 3RB (OS ref SU 331630)

Getting there: Bus 20 (Hungerford-Marlborough)
Road – Ham is signed off A338 (Hungerford-Marlborough)

Walk (OS Explorer 158): South along road (‘Buttermere, Andover’). In 500m opposite Manor Farm, left (332625, ‘Mid Wilts Way’/MWW on pole). In ½ mile, right across field (339626, MWW). At foot of down, left on track (340622). In 200m, right (342622), gate, MWW), half left up steep path to gate (344620). Half left to ridge track (346619). Left. In ¾ mile at ring of 6 beech trees, just before dip with fingerpost, left (358621, stile, arrow). 50m past Wigmoreash Pond, left (359622) steeply downhill. Gate at bottom (357623); path north for 1 mile to road (356638). Right; in 250m, left at Inkpen Church fingerpost (357639) past Bitham Farmhouse. On along byway. In 1½ miles, opposite Mount Prosperous gates and drive on right, left (334641) across fields for ⅔ mile to road (333632). Right into Ham.

Lunch/accommodation: Crown & Anchor, Ham (01488-503040, crownandanchorham.co.uk)

Info: Hungerford TIC (01488-692419)

 Posted by at 01:02
May 112019
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Chaffinches spurting out their stuttering song, a wren squeaking and trilling, blackbirds fluting, the throaty cooing of pigeons – Combe was a valley full of birdsong. White violets dotted the mossy lane banks, and a partridge scuttled brainlessly ahead of us before ducking at last gasp under a gate.

The broad field beyond Combe village was more flint than soil. Our boots clinked with every step, disturbing a sleek and handsome brown hare who cantered away across the young wheat like a miniature racehorse.

Steeply up the face of Sugglestone Down and we were up on the heights under a wide and blowy Berkshire sky. From the crest we looked back over the Combe valley, a patchwork of milky chalk soil and green wheat, all under the eye of a red kite riding the wind with exquisite balance as it scanned the fields two hundred feet below.

A long flinty holloway dropped through hazel copses where sheaves of wild garlic leaves rustled and long-tailed tits swung twittering on the topmost twigs. At the bottom under Cleve Hill Down we found the Test Way footpath, a guide through the quiet hollows and inlands of these downs.

Someone in a conifer plantation was whistling to the kites, a close imitation of their sharp descending wail of a call. Two of the birds were flapping and playing over the wood, swooping together, springing apart at the last moment, while much higher overhead a pair of buzzards performed the same springtime dance.

The Test Way tilted and steepened as it climbed to the roof of the downs once more. An ancient ridge-way on Inkpen Hill ran east past the tall stark T-shape of Combe Gibbet, at whose yard ends in 1676 murderers George Broomham and Dorothy Newman had swung. They had drowned Broomham’s wife Margaret in a pond after she had caught them in flagrante delicto on the downs nearby.

On the great Iron Age rampart of Walbury Camp hill fort we paused for a final stare out over a prospect of farmlands, villages, woods and hills, stretching away west, north and east for dozens of miles – one of the great high vistas of southern Britain.

Start: Walbury Hill easterly car park, near Inkpen, Berks RG17 9EH approx (OS ref SU 380616)

Getting there: Kintbury (signed from A4, Hungerford-Newbury); Kintbury Cross Ways, Rooksnest, Inkpen Common, Crown & Garter PH, then follow ‘Faccombe’ to car park.

Walk (8 miles, moderate, OS Explorers 158, 131): West up trackway. In 200m, left (378616, fingerpost/FP) down path to Combe. At memorial bench, left (373609, FP) past cottages; in 200m, left (373607), then across wide field. From old fencepost (378606) path goes half right, steeply up Sugglestone Down to stile (379604). Aim for mast; path curves right to road (384601). Right (red arrow/RA) on Byway. In 1¼ miles cross road (372587, ‘Linkenholt’). In 100m, right on track. In ½ mile pass Adventure Centre (364586; Test Way/TW joins from left). In 250m, TW forks left past barn (364588). In 1 mile, at west edge of Combe Wood (353598), TW turns right, steeply uphill. In 1 mile, right through gate (358613, TW, Buttermere Estate notice). In ¼ mile at hedge break (359617, 3-finger post), ahead (not right) to ridge track (358621); TW right to Combe Gibbet and Walbury Hill.

Conditions: 2 short steep climbs

Lunch/Accommodation: Crown & Garter, Great Common Rd, Inkpen RG17 9QR (01488-668325, crownandgarter.co.uk)

Info: West Berks Museum, Newbury (01635-519562)

satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Ships of Heaven – The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals by Christopher Somerville (Doubleday) out now

 Posted by at 01:28
Jul 212018
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Aldworth slumbered along its sunny lanes. A tiny cream-and-green car stood outside the bike shop. ‘An original Fiat 500, 1937,’ said the owner proudly. ‘They called it the Topolino, the Little Mouse – rather a good name.’

The long lane to the Berkshire Downs ran between hedges thick with the summer’s growth – angelica, cow parsley, pale pink blackberry flowers, docks brown and crisped by July heat. A comma butterfly with raggedly scalloped wings settled on a stinging nettle and opened its wings to catch the sun. At Starveall cottage a patch of wild ground was bright with flowers – purple mallows and knapweeds, blue powder-puff heads of scabious, a bubbly yellow froth of lady’s bedstraw.

Here the motor road expired as if it couldn’t be bothered to crawl any further. A stony lane took over, the dusty flints crunching and knobbling underfoot. We crossed the ancient Ridgeway track and took the road less travelled, a grassy way between cornfields where the fat ripe ears of wheat and barley drooped earthwards on their short stalks as though already bowing their necks for the harvester’s blades.

A marbled white butterfly went kettering over a bank of thistles in a tarry blur of wings. We passed Lowbury Hill, a slightly swelling dome amid the oilseed rape. Was it here that the future King Alfred dealt the Danes a terrible beating on a winter’s day in 871 at the Battle of Ashdown? Or was it on Kingstanding Hill, at the far end of the splendid old grass track called The Fair Mile that runs straight and true, west to east along the spine of the Berkshire Downs? There’s no telling the battle’s exact location now, but the views from Kingstanding across Berkshire into Oxfordshire are something to savour.

We dropped down above Starveall Farm – another Starveall! This must have been a grim area to farm in times past. After the heat and dust of the downland cornfields, the cool green light under the beeches of Unhill Wood was delightful. When we emerged to follow the flinty trackways back to Aldworth, a whitethroat in an elder bush sang us by as though in private raptures.

Start: Bell Inn, Aldworth, Streatley, Berks RG8 9SE (OS ref SU556796)

Getting there: Aldworth is on B4009, signposted from Streatley (M4 Jct 12, A340, A329)

Walk (8 miles, easy, OS Explorers 158, 170): From Bell Inn, right to junction; right on Ambury Road. In 1 mile pass Starveall cottage (546809); in another half mile, Ridgeway track crosses and forks left (540815), but take right fork (grassy central strip). In ¾ mile, just past ‘Ridgeway closed to motor vehicles’ notice, right (544826) along The Fair Mile for 2 miles. Just before A417, turn right through right-hand of 2 gates (573837). Half right down field slope to bottom right corner (571835). Right along drive; in 75m, left up roadway. In ¾ mile, at sharp left bend (564823), ahead on grass track (fingerpost), forking left into woods. Uphill; at start of next descent, right at pheasant feeder (564821) on grass path. In 150m, at pheasant pen (562821), left down to tarmac lane. Right; in ½ mile, at fork, ahead between waymark posts (555817). Path to stile onto driveway (553814); right to gate; right along trackway. In 200m, left (550812, ‘Byway’); in ½ mile, bend right (552805, ‘Byway’) to road (551804); left to Aldworth.

Lunch: Bell Inn, Aldworth (01635-578272) – a rural delight (NB closed Mondays)

Accommodation: Bull Inn, Streatley RG8 9JJ (01491-872392, bullinnpub.co.uk) – comfortable, friendly pub

visitthames.co.uk; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

 Posted by at 01:55
Dec 052015
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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A blustery afternoon with a driving sky and reports of trees down across Berkshire. It was a day just like this, according to an anonymous poet of the school of William McGonagall, when the old church tower at Kintbury blew down;

‘Fate had decreed, come down he must,
And Boreas then gave him an extra gust,
And down he went with a crashing fall,
Clocks, birds, bats, the green ivy and all.’

The church bell, often cursed by the villagers for its loudness, rolled into the River Kennet, and tolls there still – according to legend. But all we heard as we set out was the ting-ting of the level crossing bell, and the rattle of the London-bound train.

It’s a very long time since the Kennet & Avon Canal provided ‘logistics solutions’ to the broad green countryside of the Kennet Valley. We walked its muddy towpath by still waters through a tangle of willows, reeds and marshy ground. A fisherman had hooked a rainbow trout, but it got away with a mighty splashing as he drew it to the bank. ‘That’s the trickiest bit,’ he sighed ruefully, ‘when they catch sight of the net!’

At Hamstead Lock we cross the humpy canal bridge and entered the green spaces of Hamstead Park. Fine specimen oaks and chestnuts, some very old and storm-blasted, raised skeletal limbs to the racing clouds. A pair of red kites hung on their elbow crooks and bounced in the wind over our heads, craning their heads to assess us from on high.

We came up from the pools and lakes along the Kennet and followed a path beside an ash coppice where ripe sloes hung from blackthorn twigs. They looked so tempting and felt so plump I just had to pop one in my mouth. Ugh! Bitter aloes and blotting paper, as ever.

A tedious stretch of road through Hamstead Marshall led to rutted fields around Barr’s Farm where Friesian heifers came cantering up to check us out. The silvery light of a stormy winter’s evening streaked the west as we turned away from the long line of the Berkshire Downs and dropped back down to Shepherd’s Bridge and the homeward path along the old canal.

Start: Kintbury Station, Berkshire, RG17 9UT (OS ref SU 386672)

Getting there: Rail to Kintbury
Road: Kintbury is signed off A4 between Hungerford and Newbury. Use Dundas Arms car park opposite station (ticket from pub).

Walk (7½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 158. Detailed directions recommended – download them with online map, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): Left (east) along north bank of canal for 2½ miles to Hamstead Lock (423670). Cross canal; on right bend of road, left (kissing gate) into Hamstead Park.

Ahead (yellow arrow/YA), following tarmac drive. Pass lake (428667) and curve right; in another 500m, at right bend into The Mews (428661), keep ahead off drive, through kissing gate (YA). Ahead up hedge; in 100m, ahead across grassland to drive (428659). Left; at left bend by memorial, right through gate (431657, YA). Aim a little right to find gate into trees (429656, YA). Follow path and YAs for ¾ mile to road (421651). Right along road through Hamstead Marshall (take care!).

In ¾ mile, right (412657, ‘Marsh Benham’). In 250m on right bend, left (411659, stile, YA), aiming half left across field to farm track (407659). Right/north up track for 700m to lane (406665). Left to pass Peartree Cottage; in another 100m at junction, right (403665, stile, YA). Aim for middle tree of three; same direction to far left corner of field by conifer plantation (401668). Join grassy track; keep ahead along it. In 150m on left bend, right over stile (400670); descend field to cross Shepherd’s Bridge (398672). Left to Kintbury Station.

Conditions: Take care on road through Hamstead Marshall!

Lunch/Accommodation: Dundas Arms, Kintbury RG17 9UT (01488-658263, dundasarms.co.uk) – warm, stylish stopover

Info: Newbury TIC (01635-30267)
visitengland.com satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

 Posted by at 02:35
Feb 012014
 

The Norman invasion of 1066 must have been a devastating blow to the Saxon landowner who lent his name to today’s downland village of East Garston. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Not only was Asgar – ‘Spear of God’ – severely wounded at the Battle of Hastings; he also lost his extensive estates on the Berkshire downs and his prestigious position as procurer of horses for King Harold, slain in the battle.

Asgar’s tradition, though, lives on hereabouts. These wide, rolling downs with their lush grass are still prime horse-training country. Strangely enough, though jumps and grass courses and railed gallops seemed everywhere, we saw not one actual horse all day as we tramped the downland tracks. Maybe they were indoors, taking it easy or in light training for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The first creature we saw was more exotic and certainly more unexpected than any horse – a marsh harrier, dark and enormous against the cloudy sky, balancing on long-wings as it quartered the Lambourn valley looking for unwary mice. Two red kites wheeled not far away, forked tails spread on the wind. When we were able to tear our gaze away from these dramatic sailors of the sky, it was to find ourselves in a dappling landscape of valleys whose farmhouses lay sunk in shelter trees among fields crisp with stubbles.

From Maidencourt Farm a gravelly track rose between thick hedges, climbing the face of the downs before dipping over to run down through the meadows to Whatcombe. A few humps and hollows showed where a medieval village had stood close to Whatcombe monastery, before history cleared both away. Now a beautifully-appointed stables stands in the hidden valley – stalls, barns, sheds and a great covered exercise ring.

Beyond Whatcombe it was ploughland and big skies all the way to South Fawley, another famous racing establishment. We went west under gently stirring shawls of cloud, ambling along a quiet road to nowhere. On Washmore Hill there was time to picnic and watch a sparrow pretending to be a stone in the furrows, so well camouflaged it was hard to distinguish bird from soil. Then we headed for home, south across a grassy gallop and down past lonely Winterdown Barn in its roadless hollow, down to the old thatched and timbered cottages of Asgar’s settlement once more.

Start: Queen’s Arms, East Garston, Berks, RG17 7ET (OS ref SU 366764)

Getting there: Bus service 4 (newburyanddistrict.co.uk), Newbury-Swindon
Road – M4 Jct 14, A338 to Great Shefford, left (‘Lambourn’) to East Garston.

Walk (8½ miles, easy/moderate, OS Explorer 158 and170): From Queen’s Arms, left along road, first left into East Garston, cross River Lambourn, and turn right along Lambourn Valley Way (fingerpost). In 50m, left up fence (368765) and follow ‘Permitted Path, Shefford’. At Maidencourt Farm (373761), left up stony track for 1 mile. Just beyond Furze Border thicket, fork right (376777, fingerpost) for three quarters of a mile to signal mast on Kite Hill. Ahead through hedge (388783, fingerpost); follow BAs for ½ mile down to Whatcombe (393789).

Right (BA) for 150m. Just past house, left before horseshoe-shaped pond (394789) up hedge. Left at top of garden (yellow arrow/YA); right up path in hedge (YA) and on with hedge on right. Nearing South Fawley, cross 2 paddocks (391799, stiles, YAs); cross stile on right into lane; left to T-junction (390802). Left (‘Eastbury, Warren Farm’) on tarmac lane, then stony track for 1½ miles to junction of tracks on Washmore Hill (367804). Pass a line of conifers on your right; just before a waymark pole on left, turn left along the side of a thicket.

In 700m, at T-junction of tracks (366797, ‘Restricted Byway’), turn left for 30m; then right on grassy path/track with bank and gallops on your left. In ⅓ mile, track bends right; in 150m, go left (363792, fingerpost) across field. Pass through wooden fence (364790, YA); keep same line ahead, crossing gallop (365788 – take care!) and grassland, aiming for left-hand of three trees on skyline. Recross gallop (366784 – take care!); descend to fingerpost (365783). Down across field, then through grassland down to track (365778). Left into East Garston. Just before first buildings, left (363772, fingerpost). At field end, right (365771, fingerpost) down fenced path to road. Left into village.

Conditions: Please look out and take care crossing gallops!

Lunch/Accommodation: Queen’s Arms Hotel, East Garston, Berks RG17 7EE (01488-648757, queensarmshotel.co.uk).

www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk visitengland.com

 Posted by at 01:28
Jan 042014
 

Hurley lies modestly beside the River Thames a little west of London, a quiet village of handsome red brick houses. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The single road ends just before the river at the remnants of a Benedictine priory – church, house and barn made of flint, infilled with that soft blocky building chalk known as clunch.

Jane and I set out under a sky opaque with cold milky light. A scraping of snow clung to the field slopes. Big burly sheep cropped the grass, their fleeces dark with winter mud. Under the sycamores and beeches in High Wood at the top of the down, little Eeyore-stile shelters of propped-up sticks showed where local children had been hiding out in their own make-believe world.

A horse-gallop forty feet wide led like a green highway towards thickly wooded Ashley Hill, where bare trees stood knotted with mistletoe clumps. A stripped-back, skeletal landscape, as thin and stark as this midwinter season. By contrast we found the chimney of the Dew Drop Inn smoking cheerfully. The secluded pub, tucked down in its dell, exuded a seductive smell of burning beech and hazel logs. What a siren note a good pub fire sings out to winter walkers. We stepped inside out of the cold air and spatter of rain, and found soft lamplight, low chatter and the growl of sweet soul music on the sound system. A quick one, eh?

Back outside in a nipping wind we went on along a muddy bridleway that wound through green wooded country, gently rolling, generously wooded. From a nature reserve coppice we got a stunning view out over a swooping field where seven dark horses walked slowly in line abreast up the slope, tossing their heads conversationally together. On the squared-off stump of a fence post lay the greeny-white skull of a squirrel, clean and feather-light, the tremendously long incisors seeming too large for the narrow face structure.

Down in the valley the River Thames ran snow-swollen and brassy brown, a muscular arm of water flexing towards London and the sea. We followed it back to Hurley past willow-smothered eyots or islets, on through flooded meadows where Canada geese sailed with dignity and black-headed gulls screeched over their feast of drowned insects like greedy clubmen over the port and stilton.

Start: Hurley village car park, High Street, Hurley, SL6 5NB approx. (OS ref SU 825840)

Getting there: Bus service 239 (courtneybuses.com), Henley-Maidenhead
Road – Hurley is signposted off A4130 between Maidenhead and Henley-on-Thames

Walk: (5½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 172. NB: online map, more walks: christophersomerville.co.uk): From car park, right along village street to cross A4130 (827831). Ahead up fenced path. At top of rise, ahead (828827) through High Wood, then on along horse gallop (yellow arrow/YA). In 600m cross track (828820); ahead (YA) across field and along green lane past Ladyeplace to road (828815). Right; follow ‘Dew Drop Inn’ past end of Honey Lane (825815). In 250m, right (823814; ‘Knowl Hill Bridleway Circuit’/KHBC) past Dew Drop Inn. In 400m, left at T-Junction (822818; KHBC). In 400m, right (818817) along track. In 600m, enter Nature Reserve (813819). At far end KHBC turns left (813822), but go right here (‘bridleway’) for ½ mile to cross A4130 (812830). Down Blackboy Lane to River Thames (810835). Right on Thames Path for 1¼ miles. At tall footbridge (825842), right to car park.

Lunch: Dew Drop Inn, Batts Green, Honey Lane (01628 315662; dewdrophurley.co.uk) – cosy, warm and welcoming

Info: Maidenhead TIC (01628-796502);

www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk visitengland.com

 Posted by at 08:20
Jun 022012
 

Gentlemen in cream linen jackets and white hats, ladies in floral dresses fluttered by the solitary zephyr to stir a baking hot summer morning in the southern end of Windsor Great Park.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Lord, what a beautiful day! The Royal Landscape (Savill Gardens, Valley Gardens and Virginia Water) looked absolutely at its peak, the Savill Gardens especially. Their many decades of scrupulous landscaping, planting and pruning were bursting out in this Diamond Jubilee weather in a carefully crafted ‘sweet disorder’ of rhododendrons – purple, pink, orange, peach, white, mauve. The gardens, created in the 1930s, only occupy 35 acres of ground, but I could happily have lost myself all day following the trails to the Hidden Gardens and the intensely scented Rose Garden, through Spring Wood and Summer Wood, past the coot sailing in the Obelisk Pond and the flood of psychedelic colour from the senetti magenta in the Queen Elizabeth Temperate House.

At last I tore myself away, paused in the Savill Building for a glass of lemonade that hardly touched the sides going down, and set out through the glades and lawns of Windsor’s wider Great Park. This is one of England’s oldest parks, founded by William the Conqueror and embellished over a thousand years by his successors. After the beautifully sculpted formality and simmering heat of the Savill Gardens, it was like throwing off a heavy cloak to wander in the shade of the oaks and sweet chestnuts, past Cow Pond (a unique Baroque water feature, recently restored from dereliction), and to see what artless nature had scattered in the grass – bluebells, milkmaids, red campion, buttercups.

Up at Snow Hill, King George III in green bronze looked out from his seat on a pawing horse over the Great Park, where the Long Walk ran arrow-straight between newly mown verges towards the distant towers and battlements of Windsor Castle nearly three miles away. Back south through the woods and down beside the wide empty polo field, and a final saunter through hilly Valley Gardens and along the tree-lined banks of Virginia Water, that vast man-made lake, in a blue simmering haze of heat so arcadian I might just have dreamed the whole walk up.

Start & finish: Savill Gardens car park, Englefield Green, Berks TW20 0XD (OS ref SU 977707)
Getting there: Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Egham (2½ miles). Road: Savill Gardens (car park: about £5 cash) signposted from A30 (M25 Jct 13)
Walk (7½ miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 160): Start with circuit of Savill Gardens (adult £8.50, senior £7.95, child 6-16 £3.75, family of 4 £21; includes leaflet map). Return to car park; leaving Savill Building, left (north) along tarmac track. In 300m, ahead past ‘No Cycling’ notice (977710). In 400 m, left past end of Cow Pond. Left on track from pond’s left (west) edge; in 300 m, right (972715) up tarmac drive. In half a mile pass pink lodge (976722); through gates (press button); over Spring Hill to equestrian statue on Snow Hill (967727). Left (south) on grassy ride for ½ mile into trees. In 250 m, 7 tracks meet (967717); left on gravel path bisecting 2 tarmac drives. In 400 m, at 5-way junction (971715), right on gravel path; on beside Smith’s Lawn for 1 mile. Just before bridge over Virginia Water, bear left (966695; ‘Lakeside Walk’). Follow along shore for 1½ miles; left past Totem Pole (980696); follow ‘Savill Gardens’ to car park.

Lunch: Savill Building restaurant (01784-485402)
More info: theroyallandscape.co.uk; thecrownestate.co.uk/windsor

Breast Cancer Care’s Pink Ribbon Walk:
0870-145-0101; www.pinkribbonwalk.org.uk: Marble Hill Park, London, 16 June
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

 Posted by at 02:45
Mar 212009
 

A beautiful sunny day in West Berkshire; just the afternoon to go strolling on the common. Skylarks climbed high in the blue overhead, pouring out passionate song. Golden cowslips and pale pink milkmaids bobbed in the breeze. Cows grazed contentedly. Beneath their hooves, under the turf of the common, lay hidden the ghostly shape of the runway that once slashed its concrete scar across this heath. Beyond the fence squatted the truncated, toad-like shapes of silos which held the doomsday weapons that, in the event of war at the end of the 20th century, would have lifted off the runway in the bellies of USAF bombers, bound for a dropping point somewhere over Russia.

‘I stumbled on Greenham Common while I was taking the dogs for a walk, some time after we moved to the area in 1978,’ mused Derek Emes, Chairman of Greenham and Crookham Conservation Volunteers, as we strolled the common together. A retired civil engineer who’s worked all over the world, Derek and a band of like-minded volunteers have laboured tirelessly to restore the disused Greenham Common cruise missile base to its former state of ecological richness. ‘The nuclear silos were just being built, but the whole place was in a dormant state; the fence had been allowed to deteriorate, and I found I could get in and out pretty much as I pleased. I thought: what a lovely place! Of course, once the cruise missiles were installed and the first women’s protest group arrived from Wales, the ‘Women for Life on Earth’, everything changed.’

Greenham Common is not like any other common in these islands. From the Second World War until 1997 it was an air base, run for the most part by the United States Air Force; and for eight of those years, 1983-1991, it housed cruise missiles with a nuclear capability. No-one who watched television news in the haunted years of the 1980s, with international tension sharp and the Iron Curtain giving no hint of melting away, could fail to remember the Women’s Peace Camp that established itself outside the gates, nor the fence-scalings, incursions, sit-down protests, chants, televised struggles with stolid policemen, and other ways that the women found to keep their anti-missile cause in the headlines.

‘The peace women weren’t especially unpopular hereabouts,’ noted Derek. ‘But they weren’t exactly welcome, either. Greenham Common is really two neighbouring commons, Greenham and Crookham, and the women found out that some local commoners still enjoyed ancient rights of access to Crookham Common. So they befriended them, and were able to get onto that section and carry on publicising their cause.’

Eventually the peace women saw their mission fulfilled. By 1992 the USSR’s policy of glasnost or open engagement with the West had neutralized its perceived threat. The nuclear missiles of Greenham Common were removed and returned to the USA. Five years later the air base was closed, and the MoD handed Greenham Common over to Newbury District Council and the Greenham Trust. Since then the 1,200 acres of Greenham and Crookham Commons have been managed as one enormous nature reserve.

Two factors vie for your attention as you walk the common: the natural world that is re-establishing itself with astonishing speed, and the ominous remains of the air base that still lie in situ. Here are mires and sphagnum bogs, ponds and streams, acid grassland, mown meadows where orchids thrive – bee orchids with their bumble-bee-bum patterns, green-winged orchids, Autumn lady’s tresses with tiny white flowers. Hares, rabbits, weasels and foxes find refuge here. Dartford warblers nest, and so do skylarks and woodlarks. The common is bright with great blue drifts of viper’s bugloss, yellow of ragwort and purple-pink of rosebay willowherb, and the pink 5-petalled stars of lime-loving common centaury. These thrive next to acid soil plants such as bell heather, in patches where lime leaching out of the broken old runways has enriched the surrounding heathland. Nearby, old air base buildings quietly crumble. The cruise missile silos, green flat-topped pyramids with dark entrances, squat behind a triple layer of fencing like the burial mounds of long-superseded warriors. And a fire-practice plane lies in its moat of water, no longer blasted with flame in simulated emergency, silently rusting itself away.

This wonderful variety of wildlife, the resurgence of the common’s ecological riches after half a century in the shadow of military development, has not come about by chance. ‘All sorts of ideas were put forward for the base when it was closed,’ said Derek, ‘a housing estate, a new airport for London, a car racing track. But in the end we got what we were lobbying for. The Greenham Trust bought the entire site for about £7 million, and leased the Greenham and Crookham commons to West Berkshire Council for one pound. Our conservation volunteers meet on the third Sunday of each month and we go out on a task – scrub-bashing, perhaps, or clearing away rubble, cleaning up the ponds or maybe doing some hedge-laying or putting in a footbridge. Little improvements, but persistent.’

The shadow of the past still lies long on this wild place, lending it an extraordinary poignancy. And the Greenham and Crookham Conservation Volunteers can’t afford to be complacent, insists their Chairman. ‘The commons themselves may be safe now, but we’re always having to challenge applications for inappropriate development around the perimeter – intrusive lights, too-tall factories, increases in road noise and transport movements.’ Derek Emes swept his arm wide in a gesture that embraced wild flowers, ponds, woods and streamlets. ‘It’s just so beautiful when it’s all out in full colour on a day like this. A miracle, really, to think what it was like only ten years ago. And we are completely determined to keep it safe for the future. That’s what it’s all about.’

Information on Greenham and Crookham Conservation Volunteers (www.gccv.org.uk):

 

Greenham Common is one of 500 wild places described and explored in Christopher Somerville’s latest fully-illustrated book, Britain and Ireland’s Best Wild Places – 500 Ways to Discover the Wild (Allen Lane, £25)

 

 Posted by at 00:00