Crazies Hill

The Horns, Crazies Hill

Another impromptu walk. We decided quite late in the morning, so we looked for a walk starting at a pub where we could have a bit of lunch first. Lunch at the 16th century The Horns was excellent. The hamlet of Crazies Hill is north of Wargrave, where we had a pleasant walk earlier in the year. It turns out that it is not a mad-house - crazies was a local name for the buttercups which used to abound here.

You turn right out of The Horns and shortly turn right past the impressive white porticoed front of Crazies Hall, hiding behind high walls. Amazingly, this was once Henley Town Hall and was dismantled and moved here in the late 19th century. (The current Queen Anne style town hall in Henley dates from 1900, which is consistent.)



From here, you cross fields and follow a road a short way before turning onto a fenced path with lovely views towards what seems to be the park of Hennerton House, a mansion dating from 1817.



You climb past the golf course and cross fields before entering the splendidly-named Bottom Boles Wood. This turned out to be the nicest part of the walk, with some very pretty beech copses within it.



After a left hand turn the route continues through further woodland to pass Rebecca's Well, which is said to have once been the main water supply for Crazies Hill. The existing structure was built by new curate in 1870. The fresco depicts the biblical story of Rebecca, chosen to be Isiah's wife when she went to the well. However, the local name for the well was previously Rebra's well and it seems the Rebecca connection is a fanciful interpretation by the curate. Still, it was a wonderful wayside discovery.



Weather: dull at first, then rain.

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

Map: Explorer 171 (Chiltern Hills West).

Distance: 4.5 miles.

Rating: three and half stars.


Sightings

We were, in a loose sense, followed for much of the way by a cruising kite. We wondered if the kite should be the new emblem of Berkshire.

We just loved these impressively straight-backed cattle in a field on the edge of Crazies Hill.



And although Fly Agaric is far from unusual, we enjoyed the orange (rather than the normal red) shade of this pair, spotted in the wood.