Tilford (Waverley Abbey to Frensham Little Pond)

Waverley Abbey

We met up with friends to continue a series of very good walks in Surrey - previously we had done Box Hill and Leith Hill. The walk starts a couple of miles south east of Farnham at the car park near the ruins of Waverley Abbey. The first sight you see however is one of several war time pillboxes which are a feature of the area. I made some notes about them on an earlier walk along the Kennet and Avon canal.

We began with a detour to see the abbey ruins, first walking along the banks of the Wey with the handsome Georgian Waverley Abbey House on the opposite bank. It is now a training and conference centre, owned by CWR, a "christian charitable organisation" according to the house's website.



Pevsner describes Waverley House, as it was when he wrote about it in 1966, as "a puzzling house". The central porticoed part seems to have been built in 1723 by Colen Campbell for Aislabie, the Chancellor of The Exchecquer. The wings were added about 30 years later, but teh whole house is said to have been rebuilt - presumably exactly in 1833.

You reach a lovely bridge over the Wey and turn left to reach the abbey ruins (see above).



The abbey was founded in 1128 by the bishop of Winchester and was the first Cistercian abbey in England. the abbey church had a long nave with no aisles and squat square transepts. All that remains is one transept and parts of a couple of domestic buildings. This was part of the lay brothers' range.




The site is lovely, surrounded by woodland and fields, and included this splendid yew tree.



Returning to the car park to (finally) begin the walk proper, you cross the river Wey and walk along the road, eventually turning right into a byway through very pleasant woodland. This emerges onto a road which leads into Tilford. You cross the medieval bridge ...




... and walk alongside the large village green and up the hill, turning right into a track which takes you through woodland to reach Little Frensham Pond, originally a medieval fish pond.



The pond has the classic surroundings of sandy soil and pine trees. It looked positively Mediterranean in the unseasonal (and unexpected) sunshine.



From here another woodland trail and a bit more road led back to Tilford, where we had a light but restorative lunch in the delightful Barley Mow pub. "England as you expect it to be" justifiably proclaims its website. In the pub, we realised we had passed by the 800 year old Tilford Oak in our rush to reach the pub before it stopped serving food. It has been severely lopped and its trunk has been patched with iron sheets.

We returned along the side of the Wey valley and later along a delightful sunken lane through Sheephatch Copse.




From: 50 walks in Surrey (AA).

Map: Explorer 145 (Guildford and Farnham)

Distance: officially 6 miles, but seemed to be nearer 7 with our diversion.

Rating: four stars. Lots of interest and variety. An oasis of peace, although not that deeply in the country.


Reflections

This is probably the first time that a detour at the start of a walk has been given more attention than the walk itself. But there is a lot to be said for starting walks in places which are inherently interesting and attractive. Our recent walk from Dorchester and one I did in August from Fairford would be good examples.

Cuckhamsley Hill

The Ridgeway

We wanted a nice Sunday morning walk which would not be too muddy after the recent heavy rain - and this clearly pointed to higher ground. This walk, partly along the Ridgeway, had its official start point at Cuckhamsley Hill. But as this is only accessible from East Hendred to the north, and this would have added a lot to our journey there, we started part way round at the wonderfully (and mysteriously) named Lands End, near West Ilsley. There is a copse and an isolated cottage in a pleasant valley.

From here the route leads up a wide shallow valley towards a gap in the trees, just beyond which is the Ridgeway. The track goes by the well-chosen name of Old Street.



At the top you turn east onto the Ridgeway and follow it along an open ridge with fine views north into Oxfordshire. After a while there is light woodland on either side.



And at the end of it, on the right, is a Saxon burial mound - Scutchamer Knob. As you approach you see a mound shaped like an open horseshoe, with a few trees silhouetted on the top. Unfortunately, the sun was directly behind the trees, so I had take my photograph from the other, less interesting, side.




The Cuckhamsley Hill (203m) car park is immediately after the burial mound and the Ridgeway stretches away towards Bury Down, part of our Berkshire Way walk - see photo at the top of this post. Our route however turned right here and followed a delightful descending track back down to Lands End. There were lovely views over the undulating downland to the east.



From: Chilterns and Thames Valley (Pathfinder Guides).

Map: Explorer 170 (Abingdon, Wantage and Vale of White Horse).

Distance: 4 miles.

Rating: four stars. Exhilarating, quiet, that away-from-it-all feeling. Short, but perfectly formed.


Reflections

As I was descending the final section of the route I saw the clump of trees in the last photo and I was watching for the right moment to take a photo which would capture them and the subtle curves of the landscape. It was very striking how quickly the image changed. Obviously it was the combined effect of descending through countryside which was itself constantly changing. But it gave the landscape a sense of real dynamism.

Burford

The High Street

We were visiting friends in the Cotswolds and the plan for this morning was a walk starting from Burford. However, the weather was very uncertain and as it started raining heavily when we arrived at Burford we decided to limit ourselves to a stroll around the town. Pevsner describes Burford as "a remarkable small medieval town". The town's prosperity was based on wool and coaching inns and unusually it had no lord of the manor before the 17th century, being governed by an alderman and burgesses. On a drier day, armed with the Oxfordshire edition of the Buildings of England, we would have got even more out of it.

We approached from the west, parked at the end of Sheep Street (pretty appropriate) and walked along it to join the High Street at about its midpoint - shops to the left going down to the river, but gradually becoming residential uphill to the right.

Immediately opposite we saw the first of many fine old houses. Pevsner dates WJ Castle to the late 15th century and comments as we did on the carved barge boards.



We walked down the high high street, dodged a shower in a delightful art gallery, and reached the medieval bridge over the swollen brown Windrush. We then turned round and went to the left to reach the church of St John Baptist.

The church is Norman in origin - we noted a typical doorway on our approach and the central tower has the typical round arches and thick stonework. The building was extended and remodeled in the 13th and 15th centuries to create the impressive but rather incoherent structure you see today.

One of the most extraordinary features of the interior is the elaborate 17th century tomb of the Tanfield family. Sir Lawrence Tanfield purchased the lordship of the manor in 1617 and this rather reduced the power of the burgesses who had previously run the town. The tomb was apparently just installed in this chapel by his grandson without permission, occasioning much grumbling. It is tempting to see it as a reaffirmation of who was now the boss.



Outside in the churchyard there is a group of bale tombs of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.



Only now could the facade of the church be clearly seen - and it was too wide to be squeezed into the frame of my camera. The porch is particularly impressive.



We returned to the High Street via Guildenford and Witney Street and were now facing the 16th century Tolsey or Court House. The tolls which were collected here were from people who wished to trade in the town's market.



Another shower drove us, without much resistance, into the Highway Inn of about 1500 where we had a nice lunch before returning home to watch England's dismal performance against Argentina.

Conditions: wet obviously.

Distance: probably no more than a mile.

Rating: four stars.

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.

Burnham Beeches

Burnham Beeches

A lovely sunny autumn morning and I made an impromptu decision to go immediately out for a walk. And where better on such a day than Burnham Beeches? Not everybody knows that it is owned by the City of London, who bought the site in 1879 when it was on sale as land for housing. It is now maintained as a nature reserve. One manifestation of this is that fallen branches are left in place, unlike at Westonbirt Arboretum, where we walked a few days ago, which is remarkable clean and tidy beneath the trees.

Equipped with an excellent leaflet, available from the information centre, I set off along Halse Drive, one of the main routes into the wood. I had roughed out a clockwise circular walk to get a good sense of the Beeches.



After a short distance, in a dip, I turned left onto a footpath named Victoria Drive. Already I appreciated the discrete names for all the pathways which are displayed at major junctions. Burnham Beeches is not as dense as many woodlands, but these signs certainly deal with the greater risk of getting lost when on a walk through woods. We saw the same sort of thing on a much larger scale in the forest of Fontainebleau recently.



After a while, approaching the road which bounds this side of the woods, I turned off onto a smaller path to the right to walk parallel with it. I emerged at the junction of Green Lane, Pumpkin Hill and Park Lane and walked up the quiet Park Lane with woodland on both sides. I soon re-entered the wood and headed along McAuliffe Drive.


The wood was more open here and soon looked even more different as the beeches gave way to Silver Birch and Oak. Crossing Halse Drive again, I continued on the delightful Burnham Walk - possibly the prettiest of the paths so far.




This curved round to again reach Halse Drive where I planned to retrace my original path back to the start. However, I was enjoying it too much to stop, and I spotted an opportunity to turn the route into a figure of eight and see some more corners of the wood. I headed across and quickly turned left up Mendelssohn's Slope ...



... to eventually reach another of the main thoroughfares, Lord Mayor's Drive, where I had noticed the Druid's Oak marked on the map. This turned out to be a battered, pollarded oak, 800 years old - the oldest tree in Burnham Beeches.



I followed Lord Mayor's Drive back to the car park, just taking a short diversion to the right to see the Upper Pond.



Distance: about 4 miles.

Map: Explorer 172 (Chiltern Hills East).

Rating: four stars. Lovely colours, including a surprising amount of green from young beech leaves, and more variety than I had anticipated.


Sightings

Passing through a clearing on the edge of the wood I was pleased and surprised to see a very late-flying Red Admiral. The excellent Learn about butterflies site also reports sitings of red admirals this week - and 10 other species.

I could not resist photographing this sign. The "Please don't pick the mushrooms" message is unremarkable, but the translation into (only) Polish was unexpected. I had noticed some Polish shops as I drove north out of Slough, so that is part of the explanation. Does Polish cooking depend heavily on wild mushrooms?


Postscript

It was clouding over as I finished my walk, and pouring with rain by the time I reached home 35 minutes later. Strong reinforcement for applying the principle of carpe diem.

Westonbirt Arboretum

In the Acer glade

We decided to drop into Westonbirt on the way back from a flying visit to Somerset. I had got the idea from an interesting piece on autumn walks in last Saturday's Daily Telegraph. We didn't arrive until nearly 4pm, when it was already getting dark, and initially it seemed that we might have made a wasted effort. However, although we saw less than we had expected, the great benefit of arriving late in the day was that most people had already left, or at least were on their way out - the number of cars in the car parks, and the trampled muddy grass, strongly indicated that massive numbers had been there earlier in the day. I took fewer photographs than I would have wished, but at least they weren't full of other people taking photographs.

We had read about the seasonal trails through the arboretum and in the time available before dusk we opted to follow shorter trail, through the Old Arboretum (the other trail goes through the much larger Silk wood).

Leaving the restaurant/shop complex, you follow a mud path into the Old Arboretum and are quickly presented with the Savill Glade, an area of mature trees dating back to when the Arboretum was founded in the 1850s by Robert Stayner Holford.



Soon the path leads to the first of many wonderful Japanese maples (acer palmata).



Then you reach Holford Ride, with Westonbirt House (a school since 1928) framed at the end. One might think that the ride was laid out in order to see and be seen from the house, but in fact the reverse is true. Holford knocked down the house built by his father only 40 years earlier and built Westonbirt House, positioned in such a way that he could look down Holford Ride.



A few steps from here brings you to the Acer Glade, epicentre of the autumn colours at Westonbirt. Apart from the colours, the shapes of the trees and their sinuous branches add interest and beauty.



Further on, we marveled at this Oriental Plane, with its multiple trunks and great spreading canopy.



And in Specimen Row, we were staggered to learn that the beautiful Ginkgo, with its delicate, butterfly-like leaves, was the first tree to evolve, some 250 million years ago.



Distance: no more than 1.5 miles.

Rating: four stars. A wonderful experience. A gentle, winding walk through a garden devoted only to trees, planted in the aesthetic or romantic style - for appearance or effect and not in formal rows. We know we have only scratched the surface and can't wait to return.

A world without bees by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum

A World without Bees presents a powerful and alarming account of current threats to the Western Honey Bee and draws attention to just how serious it would be if bees were to die out. We learn that a third of the average diet (presumably in the west) has been pollinated by honey bees, and other crops pollinated by honey bees are critically important as animal feeds. The food supply and economic consequences would be plainly catastrophic. So what is the problem and what causes it?

In a nutshell, the problem is sudden and substantial deaths among bees. In the USA for example, about 30% of the 2.4 million bee colonies died in 2007 and 2008. And large numbers of colonies have also mysteriously died in Canada, Europe, Asia and South America.

The term Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been coined to describe the phenomenon. Its typical features are: colonies die or dwindle despite having plenty of honey stores, the queen is usually still alive, most bees die in the field rather than in the hive, and most cases occur in the spring or autumn when the weather is cool.

However, there are some problems with the notion that CCD is the right way to encapsulate the problem. Firstly, sudden losses are not a new phenomenon: the authors describe other examples in America and elsewhere going back as far as 1869 and continuing in most decades since, usually being given a new name: May disease, disappearing disease, Isle of Wight disease. Secondly, some authorities and some countries (Including Britain and Australia) don't accept they have CCD. And thirdly, it seems to be accepted that not all losses are due to CCD.

So the problem is a little ill-defined. Are the causes any clearer? Alas no. What the book reveals is that there are large number of strongly-held theories and explanations, but no clear consensus. The main ones are as follows:

• Infestations by parasites: especially the varroa mite and the nosema ceranae fungus.
• Viruses: for example Chronic Paralysis Virus and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus.
• Agricultural pesticides: neonicotinoids, especially one marketed by Bayer under the name Gaucho.
• Genetically modified crops, especially sweetcorn, which produce a pesticides.
• Mobile phone transmitters which are alleged to interfere with bees' homing instincts. (Ironically, this seems to be the one theory which has entered popular folklore and yet for which there is no scientific support.)
• Poor bee-keeping practices by bee-keepers e.g. over-use of pesticides designed to eliminate parasites.
• Monocultural farming which depletes the bees' diet.
• The weather: several specific episodes have been blamed on unseasonal weather.

Additionally, the authors emphasise what they call the industrialisation of pollination. In the USA there are about 2.4m hives and most of these are operated commercially. This means that they are moved around the country by truck to pollinate crops at specified times of the year. The most staggering example is the Californian almond crop. There are 60m trees producing 80% of the world's almonds and they require 1.2m hives for their annual pollination. Yes, half of all bee hives in America are trucked into a 600,000 acre area of California for the purpose. Maybe, the stress of being trucked around reduces bees' immunity to the diseases and pests they are assaulted by.

Secondly, commercial use of bees has driven selective breeding in favour of sub-species which are gentle (i.e. less likely to sting) and good honey-producers. Maybe the price is reduced resistance.

What the book also makes clear is that pet theories abound, that scientists (who tend to favour virus theories) and bee-keepers (who are more likely to focus on environmental threats) see things differently, and that economic interests are also a factor (including those of the agro-chemicals industry). It is also clear that some strongly-held theories fail basic logical tests: bee disappearances have occurred for example in locations where neonicotinoid pesticides have not been used.

So what are we to think? The authors come to no clear conclusion, although they note at the end of the book that the scientists generally think the cause is viral, with other factors increasing bees' susceptibility. They also refer to "the noose tightening around the pesticide companies", which suggests that they see this as a critical factor.

Overall, this a very stimulating book, which marshals a vast range of evidence in a very readable way. There are some problems with the structure which combines a sequential approach to the story with thematic chapters on possible causes, resulting in some repetition. I was never entirely convinced that the core problem was entirely nailed: are losses of entire colonies the same as reductions in the number of bees in a colony?

And perhaps, finally, the book is too apocalyptic in tone - the argument is not really made for a world without bees. There are for example other types of honey bee, who do not appear to be subject to CCD: the Eastern Honey Bee and the African Honey Bee. The latter are unpopular in America because they are more "defensive" (i.e more likely to sting) - and more likely to incur lawsuits! There are also many other varieties of bee. However, this book was obviously intended as a wake-up call, and in that I am sure it has succeeded.

A world without bees by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCullum, Guardian Books, 2009