Shinfield Grange and Hall Farm

Field near Shinfield

A 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.

Reading (Soutcote and Calcot)

Kennet & Avon Canal: Through Burghfield Bridge

Been feeling a bit below par this week, so our normal Sunday walk was chosen to be both undemanding and local. The walk begins on the edge of the residential suburb of Southcote at the car park for Southcote Linear Park, near to a set of allotments.

Although this is slightly unprepossessing start, you are soon walking along the side of the Holy Brook, which is narrow and a bit cluttered, but still quite attractive. We saw a large family of swans, with no less than seven nearly fully-grown cygnets (not all in shot).



You walk along the river bank for a while and then turn south under the railway and across some waste ground to join the river Kennet at the pretty Milkmaid's bridge - on the route of another Reading walk we did last year.

From here, you walk west along the river bank and eventually reach a weir where the river joins the Kennet and Avon canal. A short way along the tow path you come to Burghfield Bridge, with canal boats moored along the far bank.




... and then cross to the other bank. Further on you pass Burghfield Lock.



Soon there are delightful meadows to the side and a real sense of being in the country. At Hissey's bridge you turn right and very quickly walk through further meadows to reach the banks of the Holy Brook for the return leg.

Sadly, the route soon diverges from the river bank and goes via the former Calcot Mill into the Calcot housing development, latterly along a series of green spaces between the houses and the railway line. You meet the Holy Brook again just before the end.

From: Rambling for Pleasure: Around Reading first series by David Bounds for the East Berkshire Ramblers’ Association Group.

Distance: 4.5 miles.

Rating: three stars. Surprisingly good urban walk. Spoilt only by the final stretch.

Map: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham & Pangbourne)

Flower of the day

Not many flowers about, but this White Mustard grew in profusion in the wasteland between stream and river.



Berries of the day

Some of the berries of autumn need no introduction: wild rose hips, holly, hawthorn, elder, rowan. However, recent walk in Priddy in Somerset resulted in us noticing the Wayfaring Tree, whose berries were at that stage red and would later ripen to black.

Today we saw these two.




The first turns out to be Spindle-tree (Euonymus europaeus). The pink fruits will later split to reveal orange seeds inside.

The second is a Guelder-rose (Viburnam opulus). The name comes from the Dutch province of Guelderland.

Priddy

Mendip plateau near Priddy

We were in Somerset for the day, and having completed our business, finished the day with a late afternoon walk at Priddy - east along the Mendip scarp from Cheddar Gorge, where we walked only two weeks ago. Priddy is famous for being the highest village in the Mendips at 800 ft and also for its 600 year old Sheep Fair.

We hadn't realised it was on today! So we had to park on the edge of the village, rather than in the centre as planned. But quite by chance the farm used for temporary parking for the Fair was on the return route of the walk, so it all turned out quite nicely.

We walked into the centre of Priddy against a swelling tide of returning fair-goers and heard the appalling sound of "Yesterday" being sung as if it was a traditional folk song. We walked along the side of the famous village green, today covered of course with side shows and entertainments. We didn't see any sheep, but doubtless they were tucked away somewhere.

But soon we had left the village, heading west and already views of the plateau were opening up. We then turned south onto a path across a series of fields. It was already very windy, as you might expect on a high plateau, but we saw some butterflies (including, aptly enough, a Wall) sheltering from the wind and taking the sun on the stone field wall.

There were soon lovely views away to the west ...



... and then the path reached the edge of the Mendip scarp and there were simply fabulous views over the Somerset Levels.



You turn left (east) at this point - and walk along a wide grassy track along the edge of the scarp towards the Deer Leap viewpoint. The views looking across in that direction are even better, and you can see Glastonbury Tor just below the horizon.



After a short walk up the road from the view point, you turn left onto an old sheep drove, Dursdon Drove, and after following this for a while, left onto a farm track which eventually leads to the Wells road on the outskirts of Priddy. This is all very pleasant, but nothing compared to the earlier part of the walk.

Distance: 5.25 miles.

From: More Mendip walks by Sue Gearing (Cromwell Press, Trowbridge).

Map: Explorer 141 (Mendip Hills and Cheddar Gorge West).

Rating: four stars.


Flowers of the day

We saw a lot of this Corn Mint in the early part of the walk.



And several examples of this Wayfaring Tree (viburnam lantana) along Dursdon Drove. It is apparently characteristic for the berries to ripen unevenly from red to black.