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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.

Sunday 23 February 2020

Sunday Walk: Goring Circular - UK Pub of the Year, England's deepest well, mysterious giants.

SWC walk 17.
11.4 miles 17.5km  or 9.6 miles 15.45km. Difficulty 7/10
A walk in the downland above Goring. You’ve got a choice of two slightly different walks. The shortest is a hand-drawn map produced by Streatley YHA (used with permission). That is 9.6 miles. The SWC version is 11.4 miles.
Trains
Get a return to “Goring & Streatley”.
Get the 09:24 Didcot Parkway train from Paddington (Ealing Broadway 9:32) arriving “Goring & Streatley” 10:30.
You can also get the 9:42 Hereford train and change onto the above at Reading (arrive 10:10 platform 8, depart 10:18 platform 13)
Trains return at xx:45.
Lunch
CAMRA have just declared your lunch stop, the Bell in Aldworth, their Pub of the Year. Don’t expect nothing fancy – just simple fare like rolls, ploughmans and puddings.
The well opposite is said to be the deepest in England. Well, well, well! Also in Aldworth, St Mary’s church is home to the Aldworth giants, once so famous that Elizabeth I made a special detour to see them. They’re in worse nick these days, after a bashing by Roundheads, but still worth a look. The 1000 year old yew in the churchyard is also in worse nick, after a bashing by lightning.
Tea
Returning through Streatley, you first encounter The Bull, then the Swan at Streatley. Over the river, you've got the Miller of Mansfield, the Catherine Wheel and the John Barleycorn. Why not try them all? (The Queen’s Arms, still mentioned in the walk notes, is now a Tesco’s).
Directions
Walk info here. The SWC Walk is on the “Download Walk” button.
The map walk is on the "YHA Goring via Aldworth" button. Anti-clockwise is suggested to tie in with the SWC walk.  Although the length is given as 8 miles, the route to and from the station (0.8 miles to the east) is not included. (In essence, it is a circular walk near the YHA hostel).
The details below link the station to the YHA walk.
From the station: head right for the High Street then turn left downhill. Cross the river and pass the Swan pub. Here you have a choice of 2 anti-clockwise starts, both depicted on the map.
For the gentlest route, turn right about 45m after the Swan, following a sign for the Thames Path. Then follow the map route. (This is similar to the SWC start).
The second choice involves a steep climb with a view at the top.  Pass the Swan pub and continue ahead across the A329 onto a lane to turn right shortly afterwards, onto the map route.
Returning to the station: left along the A329 to the crossroads, cross the A road, then the river, head uphill on the High Street and turn right for the station after crossing the rail bridge.
T= swc.17

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

CAMRA Pub of the Year: The Bell Inn in Berkshire comes out top
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-51474059

Anonymous said...

Yes lovely down to earth pub.Take cash . May walk jfk

Anonymous said...

I intend to go.

Mr M Tiger said...

Just to point out that you might want to allow more time to get to Paddington on Sunday. The Circle line is out of action and strikes are affecting the Bakerloo line. The Hammmersmith & City line is serving Paddington but a section (from Baker St. to Barking) is closed. It is about 10 minutes walk to Paddington from Lancaster Gate on the Central Line, or, indeed, get the Central Line to Ealing Broadway. https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Mr M Tiger said...

n=5 on a day that was w=cloudy-at-first-sunny-later-and-windy A little muddy in places, but not enough to whinge about. One went for the steep start and the Warren route, the rest went the more traditional way. Lunch at the Bell was - as predicted - rolls. They did a nice pint of mild (called Baldrick)
After lunch, two took the shorter map route, one took the SWC route, two tarried. Two rounded off the walk with a visit to the Bull.