Length: 20.3 km (12.6 mi) [shorter walk possible, see pdf]
Ascent/Descent: 278/275m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 ½ hours
Toughness: 5 out of 10
Take the 10.00 Reading train from Paddington (Slough
10.20), change at Reading (10.34/10.43) onto the Newbury Train (usually
departs from Platform 1); arriving Aldermaston at 10.54.
Return trains: 16.03, 16.56 (change Newbury),
18.02, 18.56 (change Newbury), 20.01… hours (change at
Reading unless otherwise mentioned, from 56 mins journey time). Buy a
Midgham Return.
This walk explores a
surprisingly quiet part of the commuter area that is West Berkshire, less than
an hour from Central London. It is an undulating landscape with some fine views
over unspoilt countryside - the West Berkshire Downs, which are part of the
North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and consist of a mix of
ancient woodlands, commons, fields and pretty villages with pleasant,
historical pubs. The route passes through the chalk stream river valleys of the
Kennet, the Bourne and the Pang, where you’ll also find some evidence of
traditional water meadows. Lunch destination is the very pretty village of
Stanford Dingley in the Pang Valley.
The walk also leads through the Bucklebury Estate, one of the largest in the South, and through the elevated Bucklebury Common, one of the largest commons in Southern England. In the main this consists of a variety of woods, but you’ll also walk through one of Berkshire’s largest heathlands and see part of a famous Avenue of Oaks.
At the end there is a choice of finishes either along the Kennet & Avon Canal or through the landscaped Midgham Park.
Lunch: There are plenty of pubs on and just off route
(see the webpage for details), but the best placed are in Stanford
Dingley, just after the 8 km mark: The Old Boot (food
to 17.00) and The Bull Inn (food to 16.30).
Tea: The Angel Inn
or The
Rowbarge Inn, both in Woolhampton, 2 minutes from Midgham
station (but with The Rowbarge being on the ‘wrong’ side of the level crossing!).
For walk directions, map, height profile, and gpx/kml
files click here. T=swc.117
3 comments:
My day got off to a bad start as the 10.00 from Paddington was so delayed that a couple of other trains departed earlier than it (the 10.15 and the 10.28), but neither of those made the connection at Reading. That left as an option a fast train out to Newbury and then the stopping service back to Aldermaston, resulting in starting 70 minutes behind schedule. That of course meant that I swapped 70 mins of dry weather walking with wet weather walking (according to the forecast).
With the late start, the lovely Chapel Row pub The Bladebone came into play for lunch, and while I was there, a 2-minute shower-lette came down, just enough to leave drops on car tops but not visibly wetting the roads and paths.
The next time some dark clouds moved in, I was just approaching The Bull Inn in Stanford Dingley, so I obliged and 'sheltered' inside for the 5 minutes or so it lasted.
After that, some spittle was in evidence most times, but not enough to don waterproofs.
I got to Midgham Station at 17.35, in good time for the 18.02.
Plenty of bluebell woods were passed, one Pang-side meadow had a lot of standing water, which needed extensive skirting, but mud was not really a problem.
Bucklebury Common though is undergoing some very extensive forestry operations, ripping out practically all trees and bushes that are not gorse or heather. It looks like a bombsite at the moment (skirt along the 'Ground-Nesting Season Alternative' route).
I never saw any other SWC-cie, so I presume: n=1 in w=very-overcast weather.
Re-reading my source material from when I wrote up this walk originally, the long meadow just after the church in Stanford Dingley, blighted by lots of pools and channels of tussock-filled water: that is thought to be remnants of medieval 'flax retting ponds' (flax need to be soaked and left to rot so that the hard outer material could be scraped off before using the rest).
And the works on Bucklebury Common (which looks like one might imagine the Somme in late 1917) are DEFRA and Lottery funded, Natural England administered works to "restore gulleys, create glades,
and extend the heathland. Work will restore ponds, scrapes, install leaky dams, ‘halo’
veteran trees, support the next generation of veteran trees, pollard, remove areas of
holly infestation, selectively thin stands of trees and restore valuable wood pasture." Meanwhile, a skirting route is described...
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