Our Scrapbook of Previous Walks

Walk 710 - Great Bedwyn, Ham and Shalbourne

Eight willing and wonderfully engaged walkers turned up at Great Bedwyn for the 10+ mile walk on Saturday 10^th May. True to the description the walk came in at close to 12 miles - not a bad estimation! Beautiful sunshine greeted us as we headed out of Great Bedwyn and this was to be continued throughout the day.

After fairly easy walking we commenced a walk on footpaths that were rarely traversed. Fortunately the mud that was prevalent on the recci had largely dried up - which was fortunate as for stretches we were walking on what were previously runoffs. We emerged from the forest/bushland and then followed a brook for a considerable time before heading through Mt Prosperous, which was the home of the legendary agricultural engineer, Jethro Tull. (See his Wikipedia biography)

Our next stop was the hamlet of Ham where lunch and drinks was had on the back deck of the local pub - a recommended stop. After visiting the ancient church of All Saints we moved onto Shalbourne and then through Poseidon Estate and into Bedwyn Brail.

After confirming that we had reached 10 miles we then moved into Bedwyn where we were greeted by the bells of the local church, the very impressive St Mary's. After a quick squiz through the front doors, and a conversation with what was the best man, we realised that we had stumbled across the wedding of the owner of the local manor - who generously asked us to join the wedding! The best man was his son and the groom was seventy-seven years old, proving that there is hope for all of us.

A cooling drink was then had at the Three Tuns hotel.

Thanks go to Ian for leading the walk and writing it up, and to Karen for providing the photos.

Walk 709 - Windsor Great Park

On Sunday 4^th May, twenty-five of us assembled at the end of Ridgemead Road, Englefield Green for a 5¼ mile walk through the south-east corner of Windsor Great Park. We set off along Crimp Hill and joined Bishopsgate Road, which took us into the park through the Bishop's Gate gatehouse.

We headed west and then south, passing Smith's Lawn, where there were a few horsemen practicing for polo. We stopped for a look at the equestrian statue of Prince Albert.

Leaving the polo grounds, we continued south-easterly to the Valley Gardens. We stopped for a comfort-break at the public toilets in the gardens before heading to the rhododendron garden, hidden in woodland by Virginia Water.

Kathy, our leader, had chosen the date of this walk very carefully, and all of the plants were in flower. There was an amazing show of different colours in this wonderful (and highly seasonal) garden.

Having circumnavigated the rhododendron garden, we continued eastward through the Valley Gardens and out into more open land. Our next stop was the Totem Pole, which was given to the late Queen Elizabeth in 1958 by the people of Canada to celebrate 100 years since the proclamation of British Columbia as a crown colony.

Now heading north, we approached the Cumberland Obelisk and pond near the Savill Gardens. Skirting the pond and passing the obelisk, we stopped at the entrance to the Savill Gardens. Here we stopped to eat our packed lunches.

After lunch, we followed a track called Rhododendron Ride northward through Chapel Wood. We passed the edge of the Savill Gardens and the Cow Pond before reaching the Bishop's Gate gatehouse, where we'd first entered the park.

The last leg of the walk was to retrace our outward route from Ridgemead Road. Although this was a short walk, it certainly packed in lots of interesting things to see.

Thanks go to Kathy for leading this walk and Rob for the write-up.

Walk 708 - Combe and Buttermere

On Saturday 3^rd May, eight keen walkers arrived for the strenuous 11 mile walk around Combe. Strenuous it was, as voted by those undertaking the walk. So keen they were that they elected to add an extra mile to visit the historic Combe church which is situated next to the original manor house, which sadly is no longer standing. A fine and sunny day provided excellent view across the countryside.

We started the walk on the Wayfarer's Walk before descending, ascending and then descending into Combe, a hamlet of only 14 land titles apparently. In the past it had a school, shop and two pubs, but long gone they are. Apparently the manor was bought by an upstanding gentleman who was the Governor of the Bank of England and he quickly closed the two pubs!

We then ascended what was a very steep hill, punctuated by two stiles, before passing the second highest point in the county, Mt Combe. We then descended down to the Test Way which we followed for some time before starting a moderate climb up to Buttermere where we checked out the church and had a well deserved rest.

Onward and upward, back to the Wayfarer's Walk extension and onto Combe Gibbet where we had a quick photo shoot. From there it was a trek back to the start of our walk. All in all it was a lovely walk with a wonderful collection of walkers of all ages. The legs were feeling the strain the next day and so necessitated another walk to relieve the stiffness.

Thanks go to Ian and Mike for leading this walk and to Ian for writing it up.

Walk 704 - Whitchurch Hill and Mapledurham

On Sunday 13^th April a lovely group of 23 people assembled at the recreation ground of Whitchurch Hill ready for Hazel and Anne's 10 mile circular walk. We started off walking along a road with some of the original houses of Whitchurch Hill village and past the well which was sunk in 1853 by Samuel Weare Gardiner to provide the locals with clean drinking water. We soon turned off the road and joined the Chiltern Way Extension footpath which had some glorious rural vistas, complete with a few bluebells, cowslips, cows and their calves.

There were a few nerves about which fields on the walk the cows would or would not be occupying and luckily we only had a very small section of a field that was shared by our four legged friends and fortunately they didn't seem to spot us until most people had got through the gate into the next field.

We passed through a lovely avenue of trees with white blossoms at Collins End. We then enjoyed the hamlet's beautiful old buildings, including Holly Copse, which was originally a pub hundreds of years ago and reputedly served Charles I in 1647.

We stopped for some delicious mini hot cross buns kindly supplied by Hazel opposite Step Cottage, the cottage used by the German collaborator, Joanne Grey, in the famous film The Eagle has Landed. We continued up the hill having a lovely view of the Thames and down into Mapledurham behind us. As we entered the Mapledurham woods we were delighted to see that the bluebells were in full bloom.

The historical village of Mapledurham has been used as a location for several films and television programmes, most notably and extensively in The Eagle has Landed, and Midsomer Murders (A Grain of Truth), and the first Black Sabbath album cover features Mapledurham Mill. We had our lunch on benches scattered around the Church yard and made use of the one outside Church toilet.

As we left our lunch spot the weather turned and the promised rain arrived. We had a short, sharp hill to climb up Straw Hill, at the top of the Hardwick Estate. The views are stunning over the River Thames but the rain put the dampeners on that unfortunately so we had a quick Easter egg as a reward for getting to the top of the hill and then quickly entered the woods.

There are many permissible paths cut into the Hardwick Estate woods so we followed one of these until we reached the Ice House. This may have been used as an ice house, or a bear pit, an air raid shelter, but was most definitely a folly at some point. A few minutes further on we came to a second folly, The Baulk, which has some lovely flint towers and have now been joined by a rather magnificent unique house.

Hardwick Hall itself was not visible from the woods (in fact it is not visible from Hardwick Lane either) but was once home to the inspiration for Mr Toad from Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows. Sir Charles Rose, the owner, was a banking friend of Kenneth Graham and was into fast cars, yachts, and gambling amongst other things. His house was and still is a great example of an Elizabethan mansion.

We walked down to Hardwick Lane and along the quiet lane past the award winning Bozedown Alpaca farm. After the alpacas had posed for some nice photos we entered Whitchurch village and eagerly made our way to the Greyhound Inn, a beautiful old pub with beams and low ceilings and a large terrace garden out the back, for a quick drink and comfort break.

Suitably refreshed we set off on the last leg of the walk between Whitchurch and Whitchurch Hill which, as the name implies, meant one more hill to climb. The sun had come back out for the walk through the pretty village of Whitchurch and many a front garden was admitted for dazzling displays of Spring flowers. Thanks to everyone who came on the walk and enjoyed a typical April day of sunshine and showers.

Thanks go to Anne and Hazel for leading this walk and to Anne for writing it up.