# 🥾 Walk 162 - Silchester and Pamber Forest
Fifteen of us, including some newcomers, met up on Saturday 6th June at the English Heritage car park by the remains of the Roman Town of Calleva Atrebatum near Silchester. The walk started by heading down to the West Gate of the city wall and from there we walked along the top of the wall, past the North Gate, heading toward the East Gate.
From there we made a brief diversion to have a look at the Roman Amphitheatre before returning to the East Gate, where our route took us past a slightly more modern (12th century) church. Passing a small field with llamas in it, we crossed through the middle of the town, which is mostly farm land now.
On previous walks through Calleva Atrebatum we have been able to see an archaeological excavation site run the the University of Reading. They have been working there since 1997 but finished last year. The site has been filled in and is now a meadow, with only a small information board to indicate where it had been.
Leaving by the West Gate, where we'd first entered the Roman town, we headed south through fields and woodland before following a quiet road for a short while. This brought us to Early Bridge Copse where we crossed Silchester Brook and then through Bridle's Copse before crossing Silchester Road and finally entering Pamber Forest. Once in the nature reserve of Pamber Forest, we found a suitable spot for our picnic lunch, with some fallen trees to sit on.
After lunch we carried on through the forest, crossing streams and following a U-shaped route to take us out of the forest by Silchester. Along the way we had to take a small detour to avoid some tree-cutting before emerging in Silchester by the Calleva Arms pub where we stopped for a drink.
When I lead a walk, I often bring a spare map of the route, just in case someone has to leave early for some reason. Today two people had a reason to leave early. One went as we arrived at the pub and the other went after a quick drink, so both my maps were needed. Luckily I could remember the last part of the route without needing to refer to a map.
I was slightly surprised that when the second person left the pub, four others went at the same time, leaving only nine of the original fifteen. Were we drinking too slowly or was it something I said? ;-) Anyway, we finished our drinks and followed on, crossing the playing field in Silchester and then heading east past Silchester Hall on a footpath that eventually joined our outgoing path.
We followed this back to the car park where we met some of the others that had returned earlier. See our route on Bing Maps. One of my maps was tucked under the windscreen wiper of my car, having been thoughtfully returned by the person who had borrowed it.
## 📸 Back to Volume 12
Return to volume index