We had two walks over the late May Bank Holiday; a short five mile stroll over in Goring on the Saturday followed on Monday by a longer eleven mile hike starting from the car park in Pinkneys Green. This was located a short distance from the urban settlement of Maidenhead. The morning didn’t start too well for me as I overslept and when I woke up at 9.15am I was more hurried than I would have preferred to be. However, the drive to the start point was not long and we all gathered together in the car park in plenty of time as it so happens. Unusually, the make up of the group today consisted of six females and me, the solitary male representative! Amongst the six ladies we welcomed a member of the Berkshire Weekend Walkers.
We soon set off through the woods to the west of Pinkneys Green passing a number of signs to a nearby café. Despite one person’s eagerness, it was too early for tea and cake so we marched on passing Stubbings farm at Burchett’s Green. I helped our walk leader with the recce and then it was here when we had to put our rain jackets on. Rather oddly, we felt the presence of a few rain droplets again in the very similar spot but thankfully it did not come to anything.
The walk took us into more open land over some uncut grassland towards and passing to the edge of Berkshire College of Agriculture at Hall Place. This is a magnificent Georgian House built in 1728 which had remained in the East family until the house was requisitioned by the Government in 1939 and subsequently sold to Berkshire County Council soon after who set up the College. We walked through the peaceful estate, stopping briefly to view at the some of the animals that included alpacas, possibly a lama, donkey a number of rabbits and the rare red squirrel. During the recce we heard monkeys shrieking but today it was very quite. No one knows what happened to them today. No one asked.
We strode on leaving the safari behind us and headed towards the village of Hurley via the unimaginatively named High Wood. More animals were spotted to our right as we descended the hill soon after departing the woodland. Lions? Rhinos? Giraffes? Sadly not – how fun would that be? – but a herd of cows sitting down in a field instead.
The village of Hurley was soon reached which is home to a public house that is considered to date back to the twelfth century. As we had not had our picnic lunches it was too early to slake our thirst here. Instead we had to carry on through more agricultural farmland before picking up the Thames Path where we had perhaps reached the half way mark and so the return journey began. We spotted further wildlife on the river with a number of young and cute ducklings swimming merrily away next to their mummies.
We arrived at Hurley lock where we sat down on some well cut grassland and tucked into picnic lunches. We were observing the behaviour of a couple of Mallard ducks who we didn’t think were being terribly kind to a female duck trying to look after her young. Mallards can be rather aggressive creatures to say the least to other ducks.
Clare our walk leader had pointed out a nearby café where we were able to sample a few liquid and food delights. Most of us took advantage and delved into a slice of delicious cake and warmed up on what was a slightly chilly May day with some hot liquid refreshment. Before long we were off, passing a campsite located nearby and continuing along the Thames Path where we witnessed a number of small groups of people gathering to have private barbeques. It was noted how everyone was wrapped up in fleeces as it was by no means perfect barbeque weather.
The group left the Thames Path at Frogmill Farm and having safely negotiated the crossing of the main A4130 we ascended a short hill and took a left turning where we picked up the Knowl Hill Bridleway Circuit and saw a couple of friendly horses being ridden. It was not long before we found the prerequisite pub stop. On the recce we were disappointed to find the establishment temporarily shut but we were not greeted with any such misfortune today. As there were only seven of us we all managed to congregate on one table sampling either a large, cider, ale or soft drink.
The walk was now approaching its final stages. A short road section was followed by brief period traversing along the Chiltern Way on soft ground. We retraced our footsteps briefly from earlier in the walk at Stubbings Farm. The conclusion took us through the beach woodland of Maidenhead thicket and finally through the Common at Pinkneys Green. We were then back at our cars having enjoyed another great day’s walk.