On Sunday 13th September, the day after our trip to the BBC Proms in the Park, fifteen people turned up for a 13½ mile walk around Cholsey, East Hagbourne and Blewbury. It was good to see a few recent newcomers returning to walk with us again.
We set off from Cholsey railway station and followed a few roads and then a footpath to the Church of St Mary on the outskirts of Cholsey. Here we stopped to look at the grave of crime novelist and playwright Agatha Christie, who was buried here in 1976. We didn't look around the church as there was a service taking place. Briefly following Church Road out of the village, we then took a footpath across fields, from where we could see the ancient wooded chalk hills of Wittenham Clumps to the north.
To the north-west, we could see the remaining three cooling towers of Didcot power station. The other three cooling towers were demolished last year as part of a programme of demolition of the coal-fired part of the power station. (The tall chimney in the photograph belongs to the more modern gas-fired part of the power station.)
Soon we reached the village of South Moreton, which we passed through and back out into the countryside again. We stopped by Mill Brook to have our packed lunches before carrying on to the village of East Hagbourne, which is much prettier than it sounds, where we stopped for a drink at the Fleur de Lys pub.
After our drink, we passed a number of unusual scarecrows as we left the village. We crossed more fields to West Hagbourne and then more fields to the villages of Upton and then Blewbury. Here we stopped at St Michael's Church for tea and home made cakes. These were on sale in the church to raise money for the church fund. I had a slice of an excellent Victoria sponge.
Replete with tea and cake, we continued on our way, passing Blewburton Hill with its Iron Age hillfort. After a straw poll, we decided not to ascend the hill, but to carry on to the next villages of Aston Upthorpe and Aston Tirrold. From there we crossed through more fields and farmland, finally arriving back at Cholsey. See our route on Bing Maps.
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