🥾 Walk 303 - Padworth and Wokefield Common

On Sunday 22nd October, twelve of us met up in a small car park in Padworth Common for an easy, eight-mile walk around Burghfield Common, Wokefield Common and Mortimer Common. What a lot of commons! We began by heading north along a quiet lane to the Old Rectory, where we then headed north-east along footpaths, past the fish ponds, to Ufton Court.

Continuing along footpaths through fields and woodland, we made our way to Burghfield Common. Here we followed a road past the Rising Sun, which like many pubs is now sadly closed down. Then we turning off the road and onto a footpath through the mixed woodland of Wokefield Common and Starvale Woods.

We stopped for lunch where a large fallen tree made a useful bench for us to sit, before heading into the village of Mortimer Common. During a short section of road walking, we stopped off at the Turners Arms for a drink.

Leaving the pub and heading into Mortimer West End, we followed footpaths through woodland and fields. We passed Mortimer West End Farm and Mortimer West End Cricket Club before crossing Welshman's Road and heading back to Padworth Common.

On the way, we passed Stockwell's Piece. This had once been woodland but now replaced by a number of artificial ponds. These were fenced off and surrounded by danger signs, warning us of deep water, cold water and contaminated water. One sign even warned of snakes! Clearly, they didn't want anyone going near their ponds.

On the final leg of the walk, heading back to the car park, I noticed a few beads of water appearing on my glasses. Either my glasses were sweating or it was just starting to rain. Anyway, we reached the car park and said our goodbyes before the rain got going. See our route on Google Maps.

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