🥾 Walk 374 - Chapel Row, Bradfield and Stanford Dingley

This weekend's walk was on Saturday 30th March, so as not to clash with Mother's Day. It also turned out to be the best day of the weekend, weather-wise. Twelve of us turned up for a repeat of a 7-mile walk that Sue had led about the same time last year, on which day it snowed! See last year's scrapbook entry.

We set off from outside the Bladebone Inn at Chapel Row and headed northwards, passed St Anne's Farm and St Crispin's Farm. Along the way, we passed a field full of inquisitive young sheep. (Probably too old to still be lambs.) They had a slightly unusual look to them. Someone suggested they might be Jacobs Sheep. Not a variety we see on most of our walks.

Branching off to the east, through King's Copse, we followed an uphill route to Clay Hill. Here we passed a house with a long garden, at the end of which was a small field containing a couple of llamas, or alpacas, I'm never quite certain how you tell.

A bit of road walking to the north was required before taking another footpath to the east, through Jennetshill Wood to Rotten Row. This picturesque hamlet is built on a steep slope. Our leader likened it to a Cornish fishing village because of this. There were some lovely cottages with gardens showing off early flowering plants, such as daffodils, magnolias and cherry blossom. At the top of the hill, we paused for breath before heading east again.

A footpath led us through woodland and across fields on our way to Bradfield. Passing through an avenue of large trees, we joined the road into the village, which we followed up to the crossroads by the college. Two left turns and we were doubling back on a route that followed the River Pang.

We stopped for lunch by the river where we found a bench and some steps to sit on. The occasional dog-walker passed us by, busy controlling their dogs, who were interested in us and our lunch! Then we continued along the same path, leaving Bradfield College behind and passing by Bradfield Hall Farm, which is pretty close the Rotten Row, where we'd been earlier.

Our route passed the watercress beds by Kimberhead Farm before leading us to the little village of Stanford Dingley. Stopping at The Old Boot Inn for refreshments, we sat in their back garden, enjoying the sunshine. When Sue led this walk last year, they sheltered in the pub by the fire, watching the snow through the windows.

Leaving the pub, we followed the road to the west before taking a footpath south. This soon joined up with our outward route, near King's Copse. Retracing our steps, we passed the farms and arrived back at the Bladebone Inn at Chapel Row, where we'd started. See our route on Google Maps.

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