# 🥾 Walk 463 - Hungerford Common and Lower Green

On Saturday 3rd July, Ian led another one of his Ten Mile Walks. (This one was eleven miles long.) The walk got off to a delayed start and those of us who drove to the walk were stuck in a traffic jam and those who arrived by train were on a delayed service. Anyway, we all made it there and we only started about 20 minutes later than planned.

We left Hungerford railway station and followed Park Street into Hungerford Park. Dodging the cow pats, we crossed the park and joined a footpath heading south-east for about a mile, to Templeton Stud. A number of paths through woods and fields brought us out at Lower Green.

![A woodland path near Templeton.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/templeton_woodland_path.jpg)

Due to our late start, it was already lunchtime and the green offered us benches under a tree and a felled tree trunk to sit on for our picnic lunch. While we ate, we saw a man painting the red telephone box on the corner of the green. Like many phone boxes nowadays, it had been decommissioned and re-purposed as a small library. We stopped for a chat with the man before continuing our walk.

The plan was to visit St Michael's Church on our way out of Lower Green, however, an accidental detour was made and we headed towards Inkpen. It was a nice route, with boardwalks to keep us out of the mud, and we passed a magnificent tree-house before the walk leader realised he hadn't seen any of these things on the pre-walk. On reaching Manor Farm, we made a U-turn and headed back into Lower Green.

![An impressive tree-house between Lower Green and Inkpen.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/inkpen_tree_house.jpg)

After looking at St Michael's church (exterior only, as it was locked) we headed west towards Mount Prosperous. (It wasn't a mountain.) We entered the Prosperous Estate along a tree-lined avenue which passed a walled garden. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the owners had provided public access to some steps and a viewing platform, which allowed us to see into the walled garden. It was very impressive.

The walled garden belonged to a house, and the house had once belonged to Jethro Tull. That's the agriculturalist (1674-1741) not the progressive rock band.

![A tree-line avenue on the Prosperous Estate.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/mount_prosperous_estate.jpg)

Leaving Mount Prosperous, we headed north-west toward the Stype Estate, where we had been on one of Ian's previous walks. This time we didn't follow the Long Walk but instead turned north and made our way through farmland for a couple of miles back to the edge of Hungerford. A bit of urban walking got us through the town and back to the railway station. See our route on Google Maps.

Another enjoyable and feature-filled walk from Ian, and despite the pessimistic weather forecast, the rain held off until just after the walk had finished. Those waiting for the train home, did so at a nearby pub.

![A walled garden on the Prosperous Estate.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/mount_prosperous_garden.jpg)

*Thank you to Ian for leading this walk.*

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