Fawley to Ashdown House
Thursday 17 April 2014
Walking on a Thursday? Well tomorrow is Good Friday and not
such a good day for walking as we all have family commitments. A bit of a trek
to the start in the small village of Fawley which is deep in the Berkshire
Downs. T travelled from Reading to Didcot and then met P. Both then caught the
X32 Thames Travel bus to Wantage which goes via Harwell Campus (twice). A short
wait and then N arrived on a direct bus Stagecoach X30 from Oxford. The only
way to Fawley is to take a taxi – luckily the driver actually knew where it
was.
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| Downland beyond Fawley |
So we set off at around 10:45, the weather was grand; sunny,
warm out of the wind and cool on the top of the hills – excellent for walking.
The views were excellent and we remarked several times during the day that this
was a better route than the Ridgeway further north.
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| Bluebells |
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| Cowslips |
Came across bluebells and
cowslips and primroses in a sheltered wood and enjoyed a first sandwich of the
day at Grange Farm (Grid Ref: SU35878006).
Headed north west across beautiful downland with views
southwards towards the Marlborough Downs. To the north there was Warren Farm, a
beef testing centre / research farm. Were passed by an off-road cyclist, the
first of four people we saw all day, then came across a lady lying on a grassy
verge enjoying the sunshine (second person). Actually the sun was rather strong
by now and coupled with the forecast ozone hole T regretted he didn’t have a
hat.
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| Sheepdrove Farm |
Past an interesting old farmhouse at Sheepdrove Farm (Grid
Ref: SU34738233). Obviously quite wealthy around here as the farm road was
metalled and had an electric bollard to protect its privacy. We reached the
border with Oxfordshire again (Grid Ref: SU34428322) and decided to take an
obvious detour saving about a mile and a half to cross the Wantage to Lambourn
road.
Lunched in a glade of beech trees and reminisced on how we got started on
these walks and how one day we will summarise the Oxfordshire Way and the
Ridgeway that we did in 2008 and 2009.
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| Deer at Seven Barrows |
Then descended to Seven Barrows, (Grid Ref: SU32918286) watched by a
deer in an adjacent field.
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| One of the seven barrows |
The barrows are a collection of bronze age burial
barrows of various designs and by all accounts this area has not been
cultivated for thousands of years - T reflected that “it must have been grazed though, as it is
not covered with trees”. The barrows lie in what is normally a dry valley but
there was plenty of evidence of flood damage due to the wet winter of 2013/14.
Walked past Nicky Henderson’s stables where preparations for the Lambourn open
day were underway. Many of the stables in the Lambourn area “Valley of Racing”
hold an open day on Good Friday for charity.
Our route climbed again alongside an all-weather gallop
where we met persons three and four, a couple out for a fitness walk complete with
walking poles. Debate then ensued as to whether walking poles are good.
Probably yes especially on open land but for many of the places we have been
they would be a hindrance – just think of all those Buckinghamshire stiles.
That’s a point no stiles today (so far).
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| Racehorse view of the Lambourn Downs |
Carried on heading roughly west towards our goal of Ashdown
House and took another brief stop at Knighton Bushes (Grid Ref: SU30188305) before
the last ascent up Weathercock Hill, (Grid Ref: SU29018207), yes, it has a
weathercock on the top of it.
Starting to cloud over a bit and get a bit
cooler. “Is that a stile?” – no it's a
kissing gate. The book then suggested taking whatever route is easiest as the
descent into the valley road (Lambourn to Ashbury) can be quite steep.
So here
we are at the entrance to Ashdown House (National Trust), (Grid Ref:
SU28468232), next to the wether stones, (grey sarsen stones that from a distance
look like grazing sheep), "wether" is a dialect word for a sheep. It was 15:45. We
called the taxi firm in Wantage and realised while waiting the half an hour for
it to arrive that we knew little of the “Winter Queen” who had lived in the
house.
A bit of research later revealed that the house had been built to offer
accommodation to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia who was the eldest daughter
of James I (James VI of Scotland). She married Fredrick V Elector Palatine who
was King of Bohemia for about six months in the winter of 1619/20 before being
deposed, hence the name “Winter” Queen. She had loads of children and lived in
relative penury. She was mother of Prince Rupert (dashing cavalier type) who
charged around civil war battle fields (not terribly effectively) on behalf of
his cousin Charles I. More importantly she was the Grandmother of George I,
that’s why we ended up with a German royal family.
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| Ashdown House |
The taxi turned up and whisked us at high speed back to
Wantage. The driver was very
knowledgeable and gave us the complete tourist spiel. He recommended the Royal
Sovereign in Wantage but that was closed
so luckily we opted for the Shoulder of Mutton and enjoyed a couple of
pints of a very local ale – can’t remember the name (they were having a real
ale festival). We rated the Shoulder of Mutton, 9 out of 10 for beer, ambience
and friendliness. Departed at around 17:30 for our destinations of Oxford and
Didcot. Next time we return to Henley-on-Thames to catch up on the bits missed
during the floods of early 2014.
