# 🥾 Walk 223 - Wick Hill and Longwater Lane

Seventeen people went on our walk on Sunday 22nd May, which included a few newcomers and visitors from other groups. We set off from the car park at the junction of Nine Mile Ride and Finchampstead Road and soon turned off the main road into a Wick Hill Lane. The lane gradually became a footpath, which took us to Wick Hill and then south to North Court Farm.

Crossing the B3348, we followed Dell Road as it descended to the bottom of Finchampstead Ridges, an area of outstanding natural beauty currently owned by the National Trust. Weaving our way through the woodland, we emerged from The Ridges and made our way down to Moor Green Nature Reserve.

![Walking through Wick Hill.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume16/images/wick_hill.jpg)

We walked passed the lakes and gravel extraction equipment, then through overgrown paths until we reached Finchampstead Sports Club, stopping on the way to look as an historic signpost, parts of which are made from a yew tree that dates back to the time of King Henry VII. We stopped for our picnic lunch, sitting on some benches where we could see a cricket match taking place.

After lunch we continued north along a footpath uphill to the Saxon church of St James. Here we stopped to look at a young oak tree planted in 2002 to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. This replaced an oak that was planted there in 1887 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

![An overgrown path through Moor Green Nature Reserve.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume16/images/moor_green_nature_reserve.jpg)

We didn't stop for a drink at the nearby Queen's Oak pub as we were going to have a tea stop later on the walk. (We don't always have a pub stop on every walk.) Continuing north along footpaths, we reached Nine Mile Ride, which we crossed to enter California Country Park. We followed a route around Longmoor Lake and then stopped off at the café for tea and cake. (Some of us had ice creams instead.)

Finally we left the park and followed Nine Mile Ride back to the car park where we had started, having walked about 8 miles. See our route on Bing Maps. The weather forecast had predicted a grey day but we'd had sunny intervals all through the walk.

![Parts of this signpost date back to the 16th Century.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume16/images/henry_vii_signpost.jpg)

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