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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 25 July 2015

Saturday Second Walk - Four villages, each with a good pub

SWC Walk 176 - Kings Sutton Circular
Length: 17.2 km (10.7 miles)
Toughness: 3 out of 10

9.36 train from Marylebone to Banbury, arriving 10.40, connecting there to the 11.02 train to King's Sutton, arriving 11.07

Buy a day return to Banbury.

For walk directions click here.

I have had a request for this walk, which has not had a Saturday outing for a good while, if at all, and so deserves one now.

The author says little about the type of terrain traversed, though from the map it seems to be gentle territory to the south of Banbury. But the walk does apparently have four good pubs, each in its own village and each serving a good selection of real ales, so it should be a pleasant way to while away a fine summer's day.

A walker who did this walk in November 2013 commented: "Not a walk for the more precious SWC-folk, what with several long arable field crossings and the ever present hum of the M40 in the morning, but a delightful addition for the rest of us. Lovely villages, some rolling hillocky bits providing occasional far(ish) views, plenty of woods, several impressive stately piles, interesting churches and plenty of pubs, the occasional road walking mostly on quiet lanes."

A glance at the train times will show you that there is a 22 minute wait in Banbury on the outward journey for a connection (for a stopping train heading back SOUTH). You can cut this out by simply starting the walk from Banbury, adding 6km (3.7 miles) to the walk: directions are given in the document.

Trains back from Kings Sutton are at 16.34, 16.43, 17.29, 18.28, 18.43, 19.07, 20.11, 20.28, 20.44. These go in various directions and require various changes:
- The 16.34 and 20.11 are direct services southwards to London
- The 16.43, 18.28, and 20.28 require a change in Banbury - that is, you head north and then connect to a fast train south
- The 17.29 heads south and you change in Oxford.
- The 18.43 heads north requires a change in BOTH Banbury and Oxford.
- The 19.07 also heads south and requires a change in Oxford, but if you also change in Didcot you save 20 minutes (1 hour 30 v 1 hour 50).
- The 20.44 heads south and you change in Oxford and Reading

5 comments:

Colin said...

I plan to go

Anonymous said...

Me too.

Archibald said...

Forecast's dry - I'm coming too.

Anonymous said...

n=4, W=sunny_and_warm_all_day. All agreed this is an exceptional rural walk in the border of Oxfordshire, with gentle rolling hills, woods and beautiful landscape. Villages are cotswolds like with pretty stone cottages. The previous walker's description did not do this walk a complete fair justice. And we also found the direction, although in slightly different style from usual SWC format, it was largely clear and easy to follow. Some M40 traffic noises could be heard in the morning as mentioned in the post but the scenery more than compensated. We stayed together in the morning, had lunch at Fox Pub in Souldern (very pretty village with an interesting church). Pub food was good and reasonably priced. Orange juice only cost 80p. After lunch, one went ahead, three of us stayed together. Had tea in Rose & Crown Pub in Charlton - another cotswolds like pretty village before catching 6:28pm train back to London. Will definitely do this walk again.

Anonymous said...

The person who allegedly requested this walk did not show or vanished into the thin air. We do not know if anyone did the long version from Banbury. All 4 did the standard 10.7 miles.