Aldworth and the Ridgeway

The Goring Gap

This is a very simple but glorious walk which starts from Aldworth Church. You follow the track beside the church until you reach the Ridgeway Path, turn right for a mile or so, and then take another track back to Aldworth, arriving in the centre of the village, by the Bell Inn. Enjoyed on a lovely sunny day, just a bit hazy.

From: Village walks in Berkshire – Berkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes (Countryside Books). Well not so much from as inspired by. The walk in the book starts by the church and follows three sides of a rectangle (a muddy track, field edges) to join the track from the church, and doesn't quite reach the Ridgeway before returning by a circular route through more fields. Pleasant enough, and it opened up this more satisfying route.

Rating: Four stars. I have come to the view that walks on tracks are generally much to be preferred to walks through fields, and fields (with odd bits of woodland for variety) are the staple of walks in Berkshire. The other great joys of this walk is feeling of being if not on top of the world, at least above much of it, and the lovely views over open country. The view east towards the Goring Gap is a particular pleasure.

Maps: Irritatingly on the join of two maps: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham & Pangbourne) and Explorer 170 (Abingdon, Wantage & Vale of White Horse)

The Goring Gap from a few hundred yards further South

Reflections

It's the Rape season of course and I continue to be struck by the almost abstract impact of its blocks of seemingly solid colour on the landscape.

Rape fields near Aldworth