Length: 20-5 km (12.7 miles)
Toughness: 6 out of 10
London Paddington: 09-50 hrs Great Western service to Hereford Slough: 10-05 hrs Reading: 10-19 hrs
Arrive Charlbury: 11-01 hrs
Ealing Broadwayers
Ealing Broadway: 09-35 hrs Great Western service from Paddington to Didcot Parkway
Arrive Slough: 09-54 hrs Change trains
Leave Slough: 10-05 hrs Great Western service to Hereford (as above)
Arrive Charlbury: 11-01 hrs
Return
Hanborough to Paddington: 16-19, 17-19, 18-21 and 19-19 hrs
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Charlbury
Today's walk works well in either direction - hence the Walk Directions are written both ways. The advantage of doing the walk "backwards", starting in Charlbury, is we bring into play a lunch pub, for those who like a pub meal en route. Unfortunately, the one pub in the village of Stonesfield - The White Horse - on the main route, closed in 2020 and remains closed as of March 2022.
Leaving the pretty Oxfordshire village of Charlbury you walk through Cornbury Park and head for the village of Finstock, which you walk through to find at its far end your lunch pub, The Plough Inn. Booking ahead is advisable tel: 01993-868333. Your e.t.a is 12-30 pm.
After lunch you head for the village of Fawler, crossing along the way the River Evenlode (which you will come upon three more times on today's walk). On then to the village of Stonesfield, then a long, straight stretch of the Oxfordshire Way to enter the extensive grounds of Royal Woodstock. You now walk through this park and up to the Column of Victory. Ahead of you is Blenheim Palace and the impressive Great Bridge and the Lake. You walk above and alongside the Lake and head for Combe Gate to exit the Blenheim Estate. Over fields and down a minor road takes you back to the River Evenlode. Up a grassy hill directly ahead of you and you enter the village of Hanborough. There are two pubs in this village for walk-end refreshments. Hanborough Railway station is a little further down the road.
T=1.38
Walk Directions are here: L=1.38
1 comment:
11 of us were at Charlbury Station, and 3 walked in the proper direction from Hanborough, so N=14. Three had lunch at Finstock after a few miles. I was intending to go to the pub however inadvertantly missed the path to the village just after the Cornbury Estate due to excessive conversing with another walker. I did not have a map, and cxould not get my Mapsme to work, and could not read my back to front instructions (is there an app that can reverse the directions, however I have just read, belatedly, that the walk directions are written both ways).
The weather was sunny to overcast, a bit chilly at times. The earth was very hard, and the paths are generally long stretches, rather than forever varying.
I found some food in the store at Stonesfield. The pub there has been tragically closed for a while. Seeing a report from a year ago, the pub has been bought and it seemed as though there might be people living there, could not be certain. For quite a big village with no pub to go to is a tradegy as far as I am concerned, and for us walkers also as it is about half way through the walk. I would have thought that any changes need planning permission for it not be to be a pub! I note the locals put enough money to have have bought it, however seemed to have been outbid.
Three of us picnicked by the river Everlode, and others did elsewhere in the shade.
We walked on in varying groups meeting or not along the way. We bumped into the three going the proper way after Stonesfield. The Palace was palace-like to look at with grand bridge and lakes. Some went to look more closely.
Three of us had a pint and a half of 'DNA' from the Charles Wells pub, the George and Dragon, at Long Hanborough, which is a lovely pub, and then it was 10 mins to the station. An uneventful journey home on the 17.19, rather than the eventful journey there where the carriage was packed with Sunderland fans travelling to Oxford (result 1-2). The 09.50 train was packed with many many people standing, beware.
Post a Comment