🥾 Walk 118 - Wick Hill and Longwater Lane, Finchampstead

Eleven of us (including two newcomers) met on Saturday 16th August at the car park behind the shops on Finchampstead Road near the intersection with Nine Mile Ride.

We set off following the road past the shops and along Nine Mile Ride for a short distance before heading down Wick Hill Lane. This gravel road passed through woodlands and a couple of farms before emerging onto the busy B3348 road.

We crossed this road to take a quiet side road down to the bottom of Finchampstead Ridges. Then we took a path up into the woodland of the Ridges, which curved round and back out again further along.

We emerged from Finchampstead Ridges onto a footpath that took us south past Hall Farm and onto a minor road north of Moor Green Lakes, which we followed west before taking a footpath down between the lakes. This area is a nature reserve and I saw numerous bird boxes attached to the trees that lined the path. These were all of different shapes and sizes, probably to allow a variety of different birds to nest there.

Our path joined the Blackwater Valley Path, heading west along the edge of the sand and gravel pits, with their conveyor belts silent and still for the weekend. We came across several birdwatchers along the path, one of which told us of what they had seen today.

Leaving the lakes and crossing the B3016, we continued west and then north into Finchampstead on Longwater Lane. Another footpath took us north to cross the B3348 again and into Finchampstead Park, the home of Finchampstead Cricket Club. We stopped here to have our picnic lunch. It was very pleasant to sit at the picnic tables and watch a match being played while we ate our sandwiches.

After lunch we skirted round the edge of the cricket pitch and joined a footpath heading north to the Queen's Oak pub. This 16th century inn is named after an oak tree planted in 1887 to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. This tree lasted until 2003 but a new oak tree was planted nearby to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

We stopped at the pub for a drink. There had been a wedding in the church opposite the pub and now there was a large party of very smartly dressed people enjoying a drink or two at the pub. I'm not sure how well we blended in.

Once we'd finished our drinks we set off north again and crossed Nine Mile Ride as we entered California Country Park. Here we circumnavigated Longmoor Lake before stopping at the café for tea and cake. Suitably refreshed, we left the park and followed Nine Mile Ride back to the car park where we had started. See our route on Bing Maps.

This is the first walk that Kathy and Ann have led for us and it was most pleasant, with a wide range of scenery including woodland, farmland, lakes, and a cricket match. We were spoiled by having a tea and cake stop as well as the more usual pub stop - and even the weather was on good behaviour. They are leading another walk in September. I'm looking forward to that!

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