The old well-head, opposite the Bell InnA sunny Sunday morning - ideal for walk on the Downs. We have done a similar walk around Aldworth a few times before, but it never disappoints.
This 6.5 mile walk notionally starts from the Bell Inn, but as it is always crowded around there we decided to start instead from the church, which is in any event on the route. A series of tracks with fields beside bring you up towards the Ridgeway (a section that we walked along when we were doing the Bury Down to Lardon Chase part of the Berkshire Way).
On the way, there are lovely views to the east over the Goring Gap.
The Ridgeway descends as a track and then becomes a tarmaced road for half a mile or so, until you turn right (south) back towards Aldworth. The track section is leafy and much nicer.
This part of walk soon breaks new ground and the path leads across a large open field in the centre of a wide valley.
At the other side, you turn up an increasingly steep track to a road and the last leg back to Aldworth. We arrived back at Aldworth at the pub, a stopped to establish that the canopied structure opposite is a well-head. A little Googling reveals that it is deep (365 or 372 feet), but nothing about its age or when it was last used.
From: Pub walks for motorists: Berkshire and Oxfordshire by Les Maple (Countryside Books)
Maps: On the join of two maps: Explorer 159 (
Rating: four stars.
Flowers of the day
We saw quite a bit of Scabious by the field edges in the early part of the walk.
Even more widespread was this Greater Knapweed. Every flower - like this one below - seemed to have its resident Painted Lady.
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