Wallingford and Brightwell-cum-Sotwell

Wallingford Town Hall

It's the second day of Walk in her shoes and we are on a mission to do at least 10,000 steps/5 miles every day for a week. Today I have come up with a "town and country walk", my new big idea - walk around an interesting town and then walk out to a nearby village and back. My recent Thame and Long Crendon walk was the prototype. The excellent Wallingford website has all the information you could wish for and I have merged an audio guided walk around the historic centre (you can print out the commentary) with a walk to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

We parked in the long term car car park and this meant that we joined the town walk near Angier's Almshouses in Reading Road. They date from 1681 and were founded by William Angier, an ironmonger, and his sister Mary. The Gothic windows are a 19th century alteration.

We headed up Lower Wharf, passed the Norman St Leonard's church to walk up the quiet, pleasant Thames St. At the top was St Peter's church, whose wonderful spire we had noticed when we passed near to Wallingford in our most recent leg of the Ridgeway: Swyncombe to Mongewell Park

The medieval church was destroyed in the Civil War and only rebuilt a century later. The wonderful spire was the work of Robert Taylor, who we encountered only yesterday as the architect of Maidenhead bridge.

We headed right from here to see Wallingford Bridge which was rebuilt after the great flood of 1809.

The view up river was very pleasing.

We now followed the High Street, which has some fine Georgian houses, most notably Calleva House, and turned into the narrow St Mary's St to reach the Market Place. This is dominated by the beautiful Town Hall of 1670. It replaced a medieval Guild Hall and is in fact timber-framed, although you would never guess.

I just loved the drinking fountain donated in 1885 by Alderman Hawkins, a draper.

We followed Church St to reach the strangely named Kinecroft, a large grassy area enclosed on two sides by grassy mounds - the town's Saxon ramparts. The name indicates that it was a place fro grazing cattle.

At this point we started our walk to B-cum-S and headed across the Kinecroft and through suburban housing to follow a tarmac path to the ring road and open fields.

We walked across a wide expanse of fields, flat but with hills visible in the distance in two directions. So not a vert distinguished landscape but it was great to be out in the open under a blue sky with fluffy clouds.

After a couple of miles we reached Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, a pretty village with some lovely thatched houses. We followed the main street briefly and then a field edge path which brought us to this especially lovely pair of cottages.

Now it was back across the fields again and through further urban paths to reach Castle St where admired the Old School House and walked down into the town past the cemetery. Walking back from the Market Place to the car park we had a great view of St Mary-le-More just behind the Town Hall.

The church is mainly a Victorian "restoration", but the tower dates from 1653, when it was rebuilt with stones from Wallingford Castle which had been demolished a year earlier. Like others, most recently in our experience, Farnham, the castle had been a Royalist stronghold and was put beyond use by the victorious Parliamentarians.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: 5 miles.

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

Rating: four star.

Bray

Maidenhead Bridge

This week I am supporting Ange in the Walk in her shoes challenge: to walk 10,000 steps a day for a week to raise money for Care International to provide water sources. The underlying idea is that in many parts of the women and girls have to walk up long distances each day just to get water when they could be being educated.

It is a challenge in itself to find new 5 mile walks to do locally - with a very few exceptions, I would always rather do a new walk than repeat an old one. I have come up with this walk from Maidenhead to Bray which we first did exactly seven years ago.

You start at Guards Club Park near Maidenhead Bridge. I am guessing that it was once the grounds of the Brigade of Guards Boat Club, whose impressive Edwardian building is now flats. There is a fine view of the bridge (above) from the little bridge which leads out to Guards Club Island. The bridge dates from 1772-9 and is by Sir Robert Taylor.

On the river bank I spot an Egyptian Goose, once rare but now increasingly common.

We leave the park, walk up to the main road, cross the bridge and head along the river bank on the other side to soon reach Brunel's railway bridge of 1837-8. A helpful plaque explains that the brick arches are the widest and flattest in the world. It now seems to be called the Sounding Bridge. Pevsner adds that it is the bridge which appears in Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed.

At Harefield we head inland across fields. It is surprising how rural it suddenly feels, although the country is flat and not very inspiring. We rejoin the river just past Bray Lock, pass under the motorway and soon pass Monkey Island. It is now a hotel, but originally contained just a pavilion and lodge built for the 3rd Duke of Marlborough in 1774 - I hope this building glimpsed through the trees is one or the other.

We cross the river head towards Bray on the other side. St Michael's church is described by Pevsner as "remarkably large"and is 14th century in origin. The massive square tower seems oddly placed relative to the rest of the building.

In one corner of the church yard is the handsome Lich Gate, dating from 1446 - the house at the back looks rather later.

We emerged onto the High Street and made a detour from the route to see Jesus Hospital, a substantial almshouse of 1627, consisting of 28 dwellings around a quadrangle. I am surprised our walk book doesn't even mention it.

Just as we reached the hospital a hailstorm arrived at we were forced to seek shelter in the nearby pub. We resumed our walk after a very pleasant half an hour or so reading the Sunday papers over a glass of wine.

When the rain stopped, we followed a path away from the centre of Bray and emerged at the pleasant Victorian terrace. The central pediment made me wonder if they were former almshouses, but I can find nothing out about them.

We now crossed the road to follow a pleasant path through Braywick Park and then walked along the road back to the car.

Conditions: grey and not too cold, apart from the hailstorm.

Distance: 5 miles.

From: Rambling for pleasure along the Thames by David Bounds for the East Berkshire Ramblers Group.

Map: Explorer 160 (Windsor, Weybridge and Bracknell.

St Pancras and Camden Town

The St Pancras Hotel

We were in London for dinner at the St Pancras Hotel and a walk around the area seemed to be the natural precursor. This walk, from Stephen Millar's London's Hidden Walks vol 2 starts in fact from King's Cross. As ever, I will be selective in what I comment on.

It is just wonderful how the redevelopment of the station has revealed Cubitt's train shed of 1852 and swept away the ghastly 1960s station concourse.

St Pancras is of course next door and its own refurbishment has rejuvenated Sir George Gilbert Scott's masterpiece. This is a detail of the main tower.

Next door is the unlovely British Library. We quite enjoyed this, what?, installation which is basically designed to draw attention to an exhibition called the Georgians Revealed. The main feature is a head of George I on a grassy pedestal.

Further along the Euston Rd, you turn left into Duke's Road to be greeted by the extraordinary Woburn Walk, a charming group of Georgian houses with unusual medallions around the windows.

St Pancras church (1822) is near by. It is that Greek-temple style church visible from Euston Road with the remarkable statues. There are in fact two sets of statues in vestries on either side of the nave. The technical name for these scupltures is caryatid: a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature.

Rejoining the Euston Road and heading east we pass the superb Fire Station of 1902, curiously not mentioned in the walk description. It is a remarkably modern building for its date.

Now we pass by Euston station and up the west side, through the rather sad St James's Gardens to walk up Hampstead Rd to reach Mornington Crescent to reach one of London's finest art deco buildings, the Carreras factory, the Arcadia Works. I included a full picture and more information in the London art deco walk we did November 2012.

Walking up Camden High St, then right into Pratt St and left in Bayham Road had me exclaiming, "aren't those almshouses on the right there?". Indeed they were, the St Martin in the Fields Almshouses of 1818. One of the fascinating things about almshouses is that they are almost almost readily identified as such.

Soon after this a meander around Camden (villagey Parkway, exclusive Gloucester Crescent and busting Camden High St) brought us to Camden Lock, already teeming with tourists.

We walked along the towpath beside the Regent's Canal for about a mile and a half. Great to be out of the traffic, but not really very scenic and requiring constant evasive action from the frequent bicycles. Redevelopment meant that we couldn't leave the canal at the intended place, but in consequence we had a great view of Gasholder no 8. Remarkably, this has been dismantled and cleaned up (in Yorkshire) before being re-erected in what will become a new public park.

We left the canal at the new Kings Bridge and walked along the Kings Boulevard towards St Pancras. We were very impressed with how this whole area is being redeveloped. We admired the Granary Building, home to the Central St Martins school of art.

As we approached, the St Pancras clock tower glowed in the evening sunshine opposite the refurbished Great Northern Hotel.

Conditions: cloudy, becoming sunnier; quite warm.

Distance: just under 5 miles.

Rating: four stars. Quite inspiring really to see what is being done to this once run-down area.

Thame and Long Crendon

Thame High Street

We lunched in Thame a couple of times when we were doing the Oxfordshire Way. It seemed a pretty place and today I decided it was time to take a proper look. I discovered this walk around the centre of Thame rather mysteriously on the Long Crendon website and then found a leaflet of walks from Thame on the Southern Oxfordshire website.

I started at the large car park near the end of the upper High St. Thame was an important market town from the 13th century onwards and this is where the market was once held. I walked down to the High Street itself, which contains a pleasing variety of old houses and pubs, mainly 15th-17th century, with a few Georgian and Victorian additions. One of the landmarks is the Town Hall of 1883. It is currently hidden by plastic sheeting and I had to go round the back to get any sort of picture. I rather like it, but Pevsner is rather scathing: "a feeble design in Jacobethan style".

Towards the end of the High St there is a particularly fine half-timbered house: The Cruke dates from the 15th century. The gable end is especially pleasing, although the cruck timbers are from a cottage that was previously joined to this house.

A little further on, on the corner of Church St, are the former almshouses, founded by Lord Williams in the 1550s. They are now private houses.

Just along the street is the former Grammar School, also founded by Lord Williams, in 1558. What you see from the road was once the master's house, with the school room being at the back. The building is now offices.

Next you come to the fine 15th century Tithe Barn.

And just beyond it is the imposing cruciform St Mary's church. It dates from the 13th century, but in Pevsner's view was over restored at the end of the 19th century.

Across the road at the back of the church is The Prebendal, strangely not even mentioned on the town walk. (A prebendary was a member of the clergy of a cathedral who received the income of a particular parish.) This particular example dates back to 1140, although the gatehouse range was constructed only in1930. A look through the gate revealed some church buildings, one of whoich was probably the chapel of about 1250 described by Pevsner.

At this point I left the circuit of the town to walk out to Long Crendon, first crossing the pretty river Thame.

After crossing the busy A418, and entering Buckinghamshire, you head across fields along the Thame Valley Walk. There were plenty of Small Tortoisehell butterflies here and this dramatic fallen tree. Normally the roots seem to come up as well, but this one was just snapped off at ground level.

You reach a minor road and turn right to walk up the hill into Long Crendon. I loved this sight of this willow tree high above a wall.

At the top you pass Long Crendon Grange, a 15th century building entered through an imposing gatehouse of the same period.

Further on, the High Street, busy at first, becomes a quiet street of thatched cottages.

At the end there is the beautiful group of St Mary's church - similar in appearance to the one in Thame - and the half-timbered Court House. It dates from the 15th century and is now owned by the National Trust. The upper storey is one large room with a small adjoining one.

A path by the church led across fields and then through an industrial estate back to Thame, where I rejoined the town walk passing some more nice old houses opposite the cricket pitch. Beyond the pitch, a different view of St Mary's church which reveals a sort of small tower on one coroner of the main tower - perhaps a staircase.

I did a bit a googling to see if I could find out more, without success. I did discover however that former Bee Gee Robin Gibb is buried here and that the church gets a three star rating on Trip Advisor. I can feel an old fogey comment coming on.

There was just time for one final surprise. On the way back into the town centre a short detour revealed this lovely house, which rather surprisingly was the Bishop's Palace. It was used by the Bishop on his visits.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: 7 miles (5 miles for the triangular walk to Long Crendon, two around the town).

Map: Explorer 180 (Oxford, Witney and Woodstock).

Rating: four stars.

Wimborne St Giles

The almshouses and the church

I decided to detour via Wimborne St Giles on the way back from a trip to Poole and found this walk on the Dorset Life magazine website, where the village is described as one of the prettiest in Dorset. You start by the large village green, dominated by St Giles church and Sir Anthony Ashley's Almshouses.

The church dates appears Georgian and dates from 1732 - Pevsner finds it similar to the church of St Peter and St Paul in Blandford Forum, built at almost the same time after the great fire there. The intriguing Dorset Online Parish Clerks website in fact says that it was the work of the same architects - the wonderfully named Bastard brothers.

The interior is something of a shock as the church was heavily restored by Sir Ninian Comper after a fire in 1908. The most startling aspect is the impressive gothic screen separating the nave from the altar.

Comper added a north aisle tucked awkwardly in behind the almshouses and added the round columns and a gallery. He also redid the roof and added the rather sweet angels which act as corbels for some of the arches. There is also a dramatic font with a lively cover and memorials of some of the Earls of Shaftesbury.

The almshouses are older than the church - they date from 1624 and were the gift of Sir Anthony Ashley. His grandson became the first Earl of Shaftesbury in 1660 and the title is still in the Ashley-Cooper family.

I headed northwest and followed a field path towards the hamlet of Monkton Up Wimborne. There were lots of Small Tortoiseshells in the field edge and I was pleased to get a few photos. It was interesting to note how different the orange colours can be.

I also saw a lone and rather splendid Brimstone, with a greenish hue as the sun shone through its wings.

At the end of the field I joined a lane leading to Monkton Up Wimborne and this soon converged with the river Allen: very clear and fast flowing but still swollen by the recent heavy rain.

At Manor Farm I realised I would not have time to complete the full circuit, so I headed off left up a bridleway and then across Tenantry Down to reach a road which led to Wimborne St Giles - the one I came in on earlier.

Conditions: bright and sunny, quite warm.

Distance: about 4 miles.

Map: Explorer 118 (Shaftesbury and Cranbourne Chase).

Rating: four stars.


Footnote

Approaching Wimborne St Giles from the B3078 (Wimborne to Cranborne road) you pass the ruins of Knowlton church: Norman, but with 14th century alterations. It is surrounded by - or more correctly, was built inside - a neolithic henge monument of a circular mound with a ditch inside.

The English Heritage plaque says the henge was probably meant for ceremonial use, but is silent on how the church became a ruin.