The Seven Shires Way - Stage 16

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.

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.

Bluebells

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.

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.

Deer at Seven Barrows

Then descended to Seven Barrows, (Grid Ref: SU32918286) watched by a deer in an adjacent field. 

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).

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.

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.

Summary: A grand day out. Grand views, grand weather and a grand end to the day. Mileage was 10.1 miles. There may have been no stiles but this was the style of day that we like.