Eversley Bridge to Sandhurst (Blackwater Valley Path 2

The Blackwater near Finchampstead

A lovely sunny afternoon and we decided to make further progress along the Blackwater Valley Path. We set out from Eversley Bridge away from the river, walked along a lane and past Fleethill Farm and along the edge of a field beside Fleet Copse. We have been this way several times before and we were surprised to see a series of great earth mounds along the edge of the field blocking the view from the path. Once we could see past them it all became clear: the gravel extraction which dominates the Blackwater Valley from Finchamsptead to Sandhurst has just spread a bit further west. Presumably it will have to stop when it gets close to Eversley Bridge.

Eventually we rejoined the river and walked along with vast gravel works on the left and the river on the right. You just have to keep looking right!

A bit further on we entered Moor Green Lakes Nature Reserve - the eventual upside of gravel extraction - and were thrilled to find this heron standing calmly on the far side of the river, not of course that it is very wide.



He is a fine sight of course, but the real delight was that I saw a heron standing calmly in the exact same place in May 2009. Surely it must have been the same one. Was he there for the whole time in between?

On reaching the end of Horseshoe Lake with its water sports centre you leave the river again and follow Lower Church Rd with St Michael's church, Sandhurst on the left. Pevsner says it was the work of GE Street in 1853, but was enlarged in the 1860s. I rather liked the bell-tower directly over the porch.



Then through Sandhurst High St with an odd mixture of shops including a wig maker and a knob specialist, to finally rejoin the river at Swan Lane.

From: Blackwater Valley Path (Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership) Stages 10-8.

Map: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham and Pangbourne).

Conditions: dry, sunny, very warm.

Distance: 5 miles.

Rating: three stars.


Sightings

Right at the start of the walk we saw three of the five butterflies you are likely to spot at this time of year: Brimstone, Comma and this lovely Peacock, with its intense iridescent colours.



Small Tortoiseshell and Orange Tip (perhaps a bit later) are the others. We also saw a couple of Widgeon near the nature reserve


Flower of the day

There were a couple of clumps of these intensely-coloured violets.