10.07 train from Marylebone to Gerrard's Cross, arriving 10.34. This train goes on to Bicester Village and can be crowded: a more peaceful option is the 9.52 stopping train, which arrives at Gerrard's Cross at 10.30
For walk directions, GPX, map etc click here
This walk gets posted midweek, on Sundays, on New Year's Day, but amazingly has not had a Saturday outing in over six years. Two years ago it had a Sunday outing at this time and was reported good for snowdrops, so let's see, shall we?
The walk needs a separate outward and return train ticket, but don't let this put you off. If you are already covered up to zone six and have a Network or Senior railcard, it is just £2.70 for the outward ticket (from West Ruislip, if zone six is not an option on your ticket machine or app) and £5.90 for the return (Cookham to West Drayton).
- For those who have free travel on the Elizabeth Line the return can be as little as £2.10 (Cookham to Maidenhead).
- If buying a ticket all the way from London you can actually use contactless (tap in, tap out) both ways. To Gerrard's Cross this costs the same as a paper ticket without a railcard (£9.50) but you can reduce that to £6.30 by buying a paper ticket with a railcard. From Cookham to Paddington, it actually seems to be cheaper to use contactless (£8.80) compared to a single with a railcard. which is £10.96.
The best pub stop for this walk is now the charming Blackwood Arms, out in the woods (which has TWO vegan options, btw: burger and curry). I have booked a table for up to 8 people for 1pm, in their enclosed patio area. ("Is it heated?" "Yes, but we also provide blankets"...)
Cookham has several pubs, possibly a tea room in the village, and also a Costa Coffee just beyond the station open to 6pm.
Exending the walk: If you think 9.8 miles is too short, it is a pleasant 1.4 miles along the Thames from Cookham to Bourne End, which is on the same railway line. Just turn right on the path past the Crown Inn. Or you could reverse the morning of SWC walk 56 and walk 4.5 miles the other way along the Thames into Maidenhead.
Trains back from Cookham are at 14 past (11 past from Bourne End)
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N=16 on this walk, split fairly equally between the slow and fast trains (the fast train NOT over-busy, I hear), with one on a later train that we encountered in the woods after lunch.
None of these people had checked the weather forecast, which was indicating w=intermittent-light-rain for this walk, though not for the other two posted walks. But no matter: we had a jolly time notwithstanding.
This was not, shall we say, the driest of walks underfoot. Apart from some pop-up water features on lanes and tracks, there were sections of gloopy mud, most notoriously in the rhododendron thicket in the early afternoon (note to self: just walk along the road in future). But on the plus side some sections I remembered as muddy turned out to be firm underfoot.
A highlight was the lunch pub, the lovely Blackwood Arms. Ten of us ate here, eight of them on a nice table on the covered patio. The heaters didn’t quite reach our lower halves, but warm blankets made up the deficiency. The service was quick, the staff friendly and I think most of us found the food very tasty and in good portions. This pub has a gorgeous location in the woods and must be idyllic in summer.
We got to Cookham at 3.30pm. The Tea Pot Tearoom was already in “takeaway only” mode, so we ignored that. But a cafe in a nearby shopping arcade coped gamely with an unexpected influx of about 10 of us, even though they too were closing at 4pm.
One or two rushed for the 4.14 train. A few went for drinks. Six of us decided to walk to Bourne End. This only took half an hour (unfortunately a somewhat rainy one) so to fill in time before the 5.11 train we did a short further walk along the Thames and then inland to Bourne End’s shopping street. Once on the train, we were reunited with the pub goers at Cookham and then switched at Maidenhead to a busy service back to town.
Oh, and there were indeed plenty of snowdrops throughout the walk, including some wild patches in the woods.
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