Field near ShinfieldA new local walk. Probably I have been put off because Shinfield has become the site of significant housing development. This one completely avoids the housing estates however.
You start quite close to the M4 motorway by Shinfield Grange, now Reading University's College of Estate Management and head away from both. Within moments you are walking along a pleasant green lane and at the arrive at a tree lined field (above) - apart from the seemingly-distant hum of traffic, you feel that you are instantly in the countryside.
You soon reach the busy A327, walk along it for a short way, cross the river Loddon at one of its least attractive points, and leave the road to follow fields towards Arborfield. You then loop back across the road again into the CEDAR estate (the Centre for Dairy Research. St Bartholomew's church spire can be seen across the fields.
Soon you come to the ruins of the old church, abandoned as being too run down in 1862. Some stonework can just be made out, as well as some brickwork from a later addition.
The handsome Lebanon cedar standing beside the ruins had a fine crop of cones.
After re-crossing the Loddon, a farm track leads back to the start.
From: Rambling for pleasure around Reading (first series) by David Bounds for the East Berkshire Ramblers.
Distance: 4 miles.
Map: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham and Pangbourne).
Rating: three stars. A very pleasant surprise.
Sightings
Nothing particularly unusual, but a nice mix: a deer, rabbits, a group of gray partridges, a few butterflies (Red Admiral, Comma, Whites, Speckled Wood) and a kite (joy!).
Berries of the day
This fine orange specimen seems to be Sea Buckthorn, a plant famed for its medicinal properties and now apparently being used in skin care products.
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