# 🥾 Walk 31 - Langley and Black Park

On Saturday 9th February, seventeen people turned up for a joint walk with the Windsor & District group. The attendees were a pretty even mix of Berkshire Weekend Walkers and Windsor & District members plus a couple from other groups and a potential new member.

The weather looked rather doubtful to start with. There was sleet falling as I left home but Langley only had a light drizzle as we started the walk, and this gradually subsided into a fairly typical February day - cold and overcast.

![On the Slough arm of the Grand Union Canal, near Langley.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume3/images/grand_union_canal1.jpg)

We set off from Langley railway station and joined the tow path, heading west, along the Slough arm of the Grand Union Canal. We didn't stay on the tow path for long, turning off onto a footpath heading north, passing through the Orchard Estate, a hamlet of very smart looking prefabricated housing.

Continuing north we passed through some farm land before entering Langley Park. This country park is a mixture of woodland, grassland and a lake. We skirted the lake and Langley Park House before continuing northward along the very straight, tree lined Avenue Drive until we reached the northern boundary of the park, the A412 Uxbridge Road. We crossed it and entered Black Park.

![The Lake in Langley Park, with Langley Park House visible in the distance.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume3/images/langley_park.jpg)

Black Park country park is a larger and more densely forested park. We made our way to the Visitors Centre to make use of their facilities before walking round Blackpark Lake and continuing north along Queen's Drive.

Eventually we stopped continuing north and turned off to the east and then south, back toward Langley Park. Entering the Park at the north-east corner, we passed through the Temple Gardens on our way to the San Remo Tea Room. It was too early in the year to see the rhododendrons at their best but one or two of the plants were already flowering.

![Avenue Drive, leading north from Langley Park House toward Black Park.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume3/images/avenue_drive.jpg)

The Tea Room wasn't a room at all! It was just a kiosk surrounded by picnic tables, but it was very suitable for us as we would have had to take our muddy boots off if it had been a proper tea room. After coffee, tea and our picnic lunch, we followed Verney Walk to the edge of the park and then turned eastward through farmland toward the village of Iver.

We considered stopping at a pub in Iver but the consensus was to carry on instead. (There you are - proof that we're not really alcoholics!) So we walked through Iver and crossed a foot bridge over the M25 motorway before re-joining the Grand Union Canal tow path. The remainder of the walk followed the canal tow path back to Langley railway station. See our route on Google Maps.

![Grand Union Canal, between Iver and Langley.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume3/images/grand_union_canal2.jpg)

*Thank you to Neil F. for providing the photographs of this walk.*

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