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Local Walking Information
Countryside Much of West Berkshire falls within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The AONB also extends into Wiltshire, north Hampshire and south Oxfordshire. West Berkshire Council owns and manages a number of countryside locations including three country parks at Greenham & Crookham Commons, Snelsmore Common and Thatcham Reed Beds, all three of which are located within 2½ miles of the centre of Newbury. Thatcham Reed Beds has a visitor centre, the Nature Discovery Centre. Leaflets for two of the country parks can be downloaded from this page. Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has a number of nature reserves in the area, the largest one being Bowdown Woods. This, Greenham & Crookham Commons and Thatcham Reed Beds form part of the West Berkshire Living Landscape Project area. The Pang, Kennet & Lambourn Valleys Countryside Projects (FWAG) is involved in the maintenance of a number of areas and leaflets about some of them are available from its downloads page. Published Walking Routes There are many publications detailing shorter routes that can be done in anything from an hour to a day. A range of local walk leaflets have been published by West Berkshire Council, BBOWT and a number of parish councils and other organisations – these leaflets can be downloaded from, and other local walking information found on, the following web pages: West Berkshire Tourist Information Centre’s Walking information page and its subsidiary pages West Berkshire Council’s Rights of Way information page BBOWT’s West Berkshire Living Landscape Project page. and the web pages for its major individual reserves such as Bowdown Woods British Waterways’ waterscape.com website has details of a number of walk routes on and near the Kennet & Avon Canal and the River Thames The National Trust has a number of walking leaflets available on its website (West Berkshire falls within its Thames and Solent region, though properties in the Wessex region are also close by). The AA’s Travel section has a Walks and Bike Rides search page which gives access to a number of suggested routes in the area. As part of the Hampstead Marshall Parish Plan two leaflets (A3 folded) are being printed, featuring walks around Hampstead Marshall. Details of these walks can be seen at www.hamsteadmarshall.net/walks Hampshire County Council’s website has a number of walk leaflets available covering places close to the West Berkshire border such as Burghclere, Ecchinswell and Kingsclere. Popular long-distance walking routes in the area are the Thames Path and the Ridgeway (two National Trails), and the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath. Rail services run in parallel with significant sections of both the Thames Path and the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath, so it is possible to walk these sections in easy stages without retracing your steps or having to devise another route to return on. The Ridgeway has a number of local walking route leaflets available as does the Thames Path. As well as the National Trail site, the Visit Thames site has a number of leaflets available for download. Two Hampshire long distance paths, the Test Way (Inkpen Beacon to Totton, Southampton) and the Wayfarers Walk (Inkpen Beacon to Emsworth near Portsmouth) meet just within West Berkshire. BBC Berkshire has published a 90 mile route from Lambourn to Windsor called The Berkshire Way, and we have published a route of our own, the Chairman’s Walk, a 95 mile walk around the perimeter of West Berkshire. Locally there is the 20-mile Lambourn Valley Way (a leaflet can be downloaded by going to this page) – this is accessible using the Newbury to Lambourn (Newbury Buses service 4) and can be covered in several stages if desired. (The start of the walk at White Horse Hill is a 1.5 mile walk along The Ridgeway from the Lambourn to Swindon (Thamesdown Transport service 47) bus route – this connects with the Newbury to Lambourn service.) The Ridgeway crosses the River Thames and leaves West Berkshire at Goring to go into the Chilterns ANOB – The Chiltern Society has a wide range of circular walk leaflets available, some of which cover locations close to West Berkshire.
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