SWC Book 1 – Walk 51: Henley to Pangbourne t=1.51
Distance: 11.9 miles or 19.2 km for those more metrically minded
Difficulty: 6 out of 10 for the main walk
Train: Take the 10:08 AM Great Western Didcot Parkway train from London Paddington, changing at Twyford (arrive 10:37; depart 10:45), arriving at Henley at 10:57. Return trains from Pangbourne are at 22 and 52 past the hour. Buy a day return to Pangbourne.
From recollection when updating this walk years ago for the republication of book 1, several stretches of it are along charming country lanes – which should hopefully limit the mud factor... Also, the route is speckled with snow drops and other bright signs of the coming Spring.... You can find more information about the walk and download the walk instructions here.
The recommended lunch pub(s) are the Red Lion (01491 756 561) in Peppard Common 4.5miles/7.6km into the walk or the Unicorn (01491 628 674) in Kingwood 5 miles/8.6 km into the walk. Sadly, many of the other pubs on this former “pub crawl” walk have closed….
Once in Pangbourne, post walk refreshies can had at various locations -- the Swan Inn, a riverside pub by the station, is recommended….
Enjoy the walk!
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A select N=4 on this walk, which was three more than I expected while waiting for the train to come up at Paddington. One was a refugee from the Haslemere walk, having decided she was too late to make that train.
The weather forecast had looked cautiously optimistic, with sunny intervals promised. But it was actually w=mainly-grey. We had three small showers, one during lunch, the other two in the afternoon. My companion said she saw patches of blue sky but I don’t recall this. (“Some of us are looking at the sky and others are avoiding the puddles,” as Oscar Wilde might have said….)
I at first thought the snowdrop quotient of this walk had been oversold: it consisted mostly of small patches. But there were several charmingly situated deep in woods. And three times we saw crocuses in the same habitat, which is very unusual.
Birdsong is definitely gearing up. Near Henley there was a vast flock of redwings twittering in the trees, and during the walk I also heard chaffinch, greenfinch, two mistle thrushes, one blackbird, and a large number of practising song thrushes. Not to mention the usual great tit, blue tit and dunnock.
As is the SWC tradition, our unwieldy group of four soon split into two factions - fast and slightly less fast. But we reunited outside the Red Lion. One went on here and the other three secured the last free table to have a very nice lunch with attentive service. This pub is more restauranty (is that a word?) than I remember, but not overpriced.
I have not mentioned mud thus far because while there was a fair bit of it, it was never off the scale. The ground was wet as much as anything. Before lunch and at the end of the walk there were plenty of puddles to wash boots.
After lunch the three of us stayed together for a good while, until one decided to aim for a 5pm train and sped off. The remaining two got to Whitchurch (across the river from Pangbourne) at 5.13, just as the light was fading, having adequately filled the daylight.
In obedience to the walk poster’s suggestions we went to the Swan near the station, a nice modern pub. We drank wine and tea (guess who had the tea…) and finally ended up getting a train at 7.22.
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