# 🥾 Walk 437 - Greenham Common and Headley

We had two walks on the weekend of 17th/18th October. I went to the 13.5 mile walk on Saturday, along with five other people including Lee (the leader) and Dan, a visitor from the BW 20s & 30s group. In fact, most of us there had been members of the BWs years ago, before transferring to the BWWs, so Dan was amongst old friends.

The walk started from Thatcham railway station and immediately joined the Kennet & Avon Canal, heading west. After about half a mile, we crossed the canal on a swing bridge and took a footpath that passed Chamberhouse Farm and headed uphill through woodland to Greenham Common. Crossing the common, we reached the last remaining section of the 10,000 feet long runway, that was once the longest in Europe. Most of it was dug up when RAF Greenham Common was closed.

![The remaining piece of runway at Greenham Common.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/greenham_runway.jpg)

After a brief discussion, we decided to take a slight detour and stop for a hot drink at the Control Tower Cafe, now set up for outdoor operation only, due to the Coronavirus restrictions. Warmed by our drinks, we carried on heading west and then south towards the grass-topped concrete hangers that once housed American long-range bomber aircraft and more recently appeared in two Star Wars films. From there, we made our way to the old Fire Plane, once used to train fire fighting crews.

Leaving Greenham Common through some woodland, we followed the busy A339 eastward to a roundabout, where we then followed a quieter road into Bishop's Green. A narrow alley took us from the road into the woodland of Sydmonton Common. After another brief discussion, we decided to take the longer and more scenic route.

![The aircraft bunkers at Greenham Common.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/greenham_bunkers.jpg)

Here we stopped by a tributary of the River Enbourne for a socially-distanced picnic. Then, a mile or so of woodland walking took us through Sydmonton Common, which was quite hilly. A bit of road walking took us to more woodland, this time in Headley. Crossing the very busy A339 once again, we then walked along the long but quiet Ashford Hill Road, turning off after about a mile to reach Hill View Farm.

Crossing a large cow field, Lee decided to let me go on ahead, with directions to keep to the footpath. Meanwhile, he seemed to be heading in a different direction. It soon became obvious that the directions he'd given us would have meant crossing a style into an adjacent field and then crossing back into the first field a few metres later. Needless to say, we skipped that rather pointless part of the route and followed Lee.

![A socially distanced picnic by the River Enbourne.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/river_picnic.jpg)

A steep path through woodland took us up Huntsmoor Hill, where we joined the Benda Parker Way. This led us through farmland and then through the garden of a rather large private house, complete with tennis court. No sign of any tennis players.

We continued following the Brenda Parker Way until it crossed the River Enborne. Several more miles of footpath and road walking took us through woodland and farmland as we made our way north to Midgeham Lock. We started watching a very wide narrow-boat negotiating the lock, but decided to press on as it was getting late, and followed the tow path back to Thatcham. See our route on Google Maps. It was gone 5pm when we finished, and with all our optional detours, the length of the walk was 15 miles with 620m (over 2000ft) of ascent in total. I was quite tired after that!

![A boat entering the lock at Midgham.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/midgham_lock.jpg)

*Thank you to Lee for leading this walk.*

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