Blackwater to Crowthorne or Wokingham

Length: 17.7km (10.9 miles) to Crowthorne or 25.5km (15.8 miles) to Wokingham

The stations on this walk are reachable from both Waterloo or Paddington. Paddington is a bit quicker, but Waterloo probably more convenient for many of you...

- From Waterloo catch the 9.30 train to Guildford, arriving 10.02, changing there for the 10.19 train to Blackwater, arriving 10.37. Please wait 9 minutes for the Paddington train to arrive...

From Clapham Junction get the 9.27 to Woking, arriving 9.46, to pick up the Guildford train at 9.55

- From Paddington catch the 9.50 train to Reading, arriving 10.13, changing there for the 10.24 train to Blackwater, arriving 10.46.

From Ealing Broadway your only option is the Liz Line departing 9.26 to Reading, arriving there at 10.12

Tickets: 

- From Paddington get a day return to Blackwater ("Any Permitted"). 

- From Waterloo get a day return to Crowthorne if you have absolutely decided to finish the walk there, or Wokingham otherwise. This can be a "via Guildford/Ascot" ticket if that is available, as that is cheaper than an "Any Permitted".

For walk directions, GPX and map click here. The walk's home page also outlines numerous other options for the walk, which I will let you read yourself...

After writing all those train details, I can understand why this walk does not get posted that often.... Its last outing was in 2022, barring a very poorly attended one in January 2025. Yet my memory from 2022 is that it made a pleasant enough day out. There is some woodland and also a fair number of water features, whose plant life may still be lush and green (and flowering) as a contrast to the wearisome brown of our fields at present (if this week's rain has not fixed that).

Lunch is 6 miles in in the village of Finchamstead. The Queen's Head got a good write-up last time: an alternative is the Greyhound. 

For tea or something stronger there is a craft beer/coffee shop called The Hive in Crowthorne. If you persist to Wokingham, you will find a pleasant town with lots of pubs and stuff.

Trains back (Gawd: here we go again...) from Crowthorne are at 12 past to Reading, where you change for Paddington (46 minutes journey time), or 38 past to Guildford, where you change for Waterloo (1 hour 14 minutes). 

From Wokingham there seem to be direct trains to Waterloo at 23 and 53 past, or 18, 27, 46 and 57 past to Reading, or 03 and 33 past to Guildford. Journey times roughly the same as from Crowthorne.

#2026-08-29T09:30 T=swc.83