Seven of us turned up on this rather wet Saturday in November. The rain was already coming down quite heavily as we started the walk, but in contradiction to forecast, it slowly eased up during the day.
Setting off from Peppard Common, we headed north easterly past the golf course at Bolt's Cross on our way to Greys Green. For some of this part of the route we found two paths running parallel. Eventually we worked out why there were two paths. One was a pedestrian footpath and the other was a bridal way. We had started off on the bridal way but as it got more muddy and churned up, we crossed over to the other path through a break in the fence.
It wasn't long before we were passing the manor house of Greys Court. From there we took a route passing through woodland and farmland that slowly curved round to a westerly direction.
About half way between Bromsden Farm and Lower Highmoor, we stopped for our picnic lunch. The rain had eased up a bit and we found a fallen tree to use as a bench to sit on while we ate our packed lunches. After lunch we continued west to Lower Highmoor, where we took a sharp left turn and headed south.
This took us through Holly Grove to Satwell where the Lamb pub resides. This pub has been closed for many months (maybe more than a year) but I couldn't help notice that the sign outside the pub looked rather new. Perhaps the pub is about to re-open? I hope so. We've seen too many country pubs close down in the last few years.
From there we crossed the B481 and took a route through woodland back to Peppard Common. When walking through woodland in autumn, it is sometimes difficult to maintain your sense of direction with the forest floor covered with leaves. You often find arrows painted on trees lining a footpath, but there is still room for error. We made a slight detour before realising the error. (It didn't add much to the overall length of the walk.)
We continued south through boggy woodland on our way back to Peppard Common, except for the very last stretch, which was on a quiet lane. There was some long grass at the side of the lane, which cleaned our boots as we walked through it. At the end of the walk, four of us decided to visit the local pub for a drink before going home. See our route on Bing maps.
Return to volume index