# 🥾 Walk 430 - The Ridgeway, Bury Down and Blewbury

We had two walks on the August Bank Holiday weekend. I went to Monday's one, along with four others. Congregating at the Bury Lane car park on The Ridgeway near West Ilsley, we were surprised how warm it felt, with sunshine breaking through the cloud and virtually no wind. Off came the fleeces, before we'd started walking.

We set off, following the Ridgeway, westward on top of Bury Down, until we reached a junction of paths at East Hendred Down. We took a path heading north-east, which soon became a track and then a lane as it descended past the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and arrived at the village of Chilton. After crossing the Chilton junction of the A34, we passed through the village itself. We saw a lot of new houses before passing the old cottages in the centre of the village and finally leaving via Place Farm.

![<i>The Ridgeway</i> on Bury Down.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume33/images/the_ridgeway.jpg)

We followed a track that crossed a dismantled railway and joined the Lynch Way at a tee-junction. After stopping for a water break, our leader (Lee) decided to give some map-reading tuition to one of our recent joiners. Holly then led us (voluntarily) to the little village of Upton and then to the larger, and very picturesque village of Blewbury, with its thatched cob walls, before handing back the map.

After a brief discussion, a unanimous decision was made to visit the Red Lion pub for refreshment in their garden. A mid-walk pub-stop is a rare treat these days, and only occurs if everyone is agreeable. Many of us are understandably cautious about visiting populated places. Refreshed, we continued our route, heading south out of the village and up Churn Hill, stopping to admire the view of Blewburton Hill (a hillfort).

![Blewburton Hill, an iron-age hillfort near Blewbury.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume33/images/blewburton_hill.jpg)

Throughout the walk, we noticed an abundance of berries on hawthorn and blackthorn bushes. We spotted people picking the sloes to make sloe gin. The old fashioned rule is to pick them after the first frost, however this year they were ripe much earlier than normal and you can always pop them in the freezer to simulate a good frost.

Coming down the other side of Churn Hill, we passed a field of sunflowers and borage, often seen growing together, and then a field of maize. Crossing through some gallops, it was uphill again at Blewbury Down and Compton Downs, and we were back on the Ridgeway again. Passing through a tunnel under the A34, we were back on Bury Down and soon at the car park. See our route on Google Maps. With twelve miles and 460 m (1,500 ft) of ascent in total, it had been a good work out!

![A field of Sunflowers and Borage.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume33/images/sunflower_borage.jpg)

*Thank you to Lee for leading this walk and to Holly for navigating from Chilton to Blewbury.*

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