Hurst and the River Loddon

St Nicholas, Hurst

Late afternoon, maybe the heat of the day will decline soon, but anyway time for a walk. This walk officially starts from the Green Man pub in Hurst, but I foreshortened it slightly by starting from the village hall, so avoiding a stretch of road.

You quickly reach St Nicholas church, which he walk book describes as 11th century - Pevsner however refers to its as mostly Victorian, although the brick tower, like others in the area, is 17th century - 1612 in fact.

Opposite the church are the handsome Barker's Almshouses. The white stone tablet over the main doorway reveals that they were founded in 1664 by "William Barker of Hurst in the county of Wilts". This just seems to have been a mistake - Berkshire is described as one of the oldest counties, I can find nothing to suggest that Hurst was ever in Wiltshire.




Fields and a lane lead down to Dinton Pastures Country Park. You walk along the lakeside away from the sailing club. I enjoyed this flotilla of Canada Geese.



After diverging from the lake edge for a while, you reach the river Loddon and then walk for a while along a wide track with the Loddon on the left and White Swan Lake on the right. This is a route we took earlier in the year as part of the Woodley to Wokingham section of the Berkshire Way. It must be said that it is much more inviting in June sunshine than in February snow.

Last time we saw a black swan near Black Swan lake, today there was family of white swans on their eponymous lake.


Further along you pass Sandford Lake nature reserve, where a heron was strategically placed to guard the narrow passage between two islands.


The next main section, after crossing the road follows the Loddon for over a mile along a narrow, somewhat overgrown path, with lots of butterflies and dragonflies enjoying the evening sun. A backwater had a lovely collection of yellow waterlilies.



Reaching Whistley bridge you leave the river and I followed the road back to Hurst village hall.

From: Pub walks for motorists: Berkshire and Oxfordshire by Les Maple (Countryside Books).

Map: Explorer 158 (Reading, Wokingham and Pangbourne).

Rating: three and a half stars.


Reflections

This book of pub walks is rather good, but starting and finishing at a pub is slightly distorting - the pubs are not always in the right places to start walking from, and you have to add "unnecessary" bits of road. Not a problem if you actually want to go to the pub of course.


Sightings

Another Kite. Further evidence that in Berkshire, every walk has its Kite.

But much the most exciting was a number of commas gliding in the evening sun. Then two flew passed joined to each other and then settled on some grass for a spot of mating, tantric style, with periods of stillness followed by little bursts of movement. The white comma marks on the underwings which give the butterfly its name are clearly visible in the photo.



Flower of the day

I haven't been able to identify what this splendid specimen is.