🥾 Walk 475 - Pewsey Downs

Rosy led her first walk for us on Saturday 4th September. This 12 mile walk was designed as a continuation of the walk Ian led in May along the Pewsey Downs in Wiltshire, this time exploring the western half of the downs. The walk started from Wilcot, which is a small village a couple of miles north-west of Pewsey.

Although twelve people had booked a place on this walk, we only ended up with six. The plan had been for some of the group to arrive by train at Pewsey and be collected on the way by some of those arriving by car. A last minute cancellation of the train disrupted our plans with not enough time to arrange car sharing from Berkshire.

We started the walk by following the Kennet and Avon Canal westward for a couple of miles then stopped at the tiny hamlet of Honey Street, where there was a cafe.

Well, it would be rude not to stop for tea, wouldn't it. So that's what we did. Ian generously bought half-a-dozen chocolate brownies for the group to have with our tea. We sat at a table on their patio, which overlooked the canal.

Leaving the cafe and the canal, we walked through the picturesque village of Stanton St Bernard, with its thatched cottages, before heading through farmland towards the downs. From time to time, we caught a glimpse of the Pewsey White Horse carved into the side of the chalk downs. Later, our route would take us right past it.

Before our uphill slog to Rybury hill-fort on Clifford's Hill, we passed a large field of sunflowers, behind which, we could see several of the hills that made up the Pewsey Downs. We would be walking along them before long.

Leaving the hill-fort for Tan Hill, we soon joined Wansdyke, an early medieval defensive earthwork joining the Savernake Forest and Morgan's Hill in a fairly straight line, with a ditch on the north side and a ridge on the south side. We followed this eastward for a mile before stopping for our picnic lunch, sitting on the ridge.

After lunch we left Wansdyke and headed south across a field to join the White Horse Trail on Pewsey Downs. We passed the chalk horse, which doesn't look so good close up. You can't really see the shape of it, but you can see the weeds!

We continued along the top of the downs, to Walkers Hill, where we could look back at where we'd previously been and get a better view of the chalk horse. Next came Adam's Grave, a Neolithic long barrow, commanding panoramic views of the downs.

It was downhill now, to the Pewsey Downs car park and then we joined the Workway Drove track, which became more overgrown, the further away it got from the car park. Not a popular route, I suspect. A thoughtful farmer had allowed a detour along the edge of a barley field, running parallel to the track. This was much easier going.

Some minor road walking through West Stowell took us onto a footpath that led us back into Wilcot, where we had started. See our route on Google Maps. We'd done 11.8 miles with 452m (1500ft) of ascent, so a good workout with wonderful views.

Most of us stayed on for some very welcome refreshments at the Golden Swan, not far from where we'd parked. There was a wedding reception taking place there, so we could hear the pub before we saw it! There was still plenty of space for us.

Thank you to Rosy for leading her first walk for the BWW.

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