Grazeley

Holy Trinity church, Grazeley

Just time for a short, local walk this afternoon.

Thia walk starts on the verge of a lane by a farm to the northwest of the village of Grazeley and follows a roughly triangular route, involving lanes and fields .

You reach Grazeley and pass through the pleasant churchyard of Holy Trinity church (1850, by Benjamin Ferrey). A series of field paths take you north, ever closer to the M4. There you skirt around Hopkiln Farm by the strangely named Kybes Lane. The final third involves more fields and a road passing by the grim Royal Ordnance Factory at Burghfield.

From: Rambling for pleasure Around Reading second series, by David Bounds for the East Berkshire Ramblers Association Group.

Map: Explorer 159 (Reading).

Rating: two stars. This is not a great area for walking: flat, large fields, field paths rather than tracks, motorway noise.

Sightings

A green woodpecker, seen in profile on a telegraph pole, livened up the last stretch of the walk. Also some deer seen across the fields (a pair and a trio at different times). I know farmers find them a pest and there are said to be just too many, but their dainty movement and white rumps are a pretty sight.