🥾 Walk 461 - Kintbury and Inkpen Common

Finding somewhere to park in Kintbury on Saturday 19th June proved more difficult than expected, as two other walking groups were starting their walks from the same village. Luckily, most of our group arrived by train, so we didn't contribute too much to the parking problem. There were eleven of us, including four visitors to our group.

Ian started his walk by following Station Road, but before reaching the village centre, we left the road for alley-ways and footpaths, passing St Mary's Church and the Blue Ball pub on the way. Ian was frequently informing us about the history of the place, including stories of the "Swing Riots", which were the agricultural equivalent of the Luddite Riots. (He's a teacher, you know.) Soon we were heading south through farmland toward Inkpen Common.

As we made our way through Inkpen Common, the footpaths often merged with lanes and drives. On several occasions, we shared the lane or drive with a Post Office van. This happened so frequently, we thought Ian must have known the route of the Postman. In fact, the Postman started to recognise us, giving a wave and a grin on each subsequent encounter.

Heading east, toward Hamstead Marshall, we crossed farmland and woodland before reaching the village. Here was the Dogs Trust at Plumb Farm. After saying hello to the dog walkers and admiring a metal mesh statue of a delightful dog, we stopped at the White Hart Inn for drinks and snacks. Having a pub-stop on one of our walks is still a novelty in these time of Covid restrictions.

Next, we were heading into Hamstead Park, and Ian was giving us some historic insight into the place. We stopped at another St Mary's Church and had our lunch in the grounds before leaving the park and joining the Kennet & Avon Canal tow path.

After seeing a few hoof prints on the towpath and discussing how the towpath was originally for the horses towing barges, we were pleasantly surprised to see an actual horse-drawn barge! The horse had been feasting on foliage while the barge went through a lock. Afterwards, it took a lot of persuading to get the horse to give up it's snack break and get back to the hard work of towing a barge full of passengers.

A couple more miles on the towpath brought us back to Kintbury, where we had started our walk. See our route on Google Maps.

Thank you to Ian for leading this walk.

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