# 🥾 Walk 533 - Silchester, Bramley and Pamber Forest

Saturday 6th August was a warm, dry, sunny day. Twelve people and a dog met up in the English Heritage car park by the remains of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, near Silchester. We have led several walks from this location, but this 10½ mile walk is a new one, created by Pat and is loosely based on the Silchester Trail, but extended to include Pamber Forest.

We started by crossing the Roman Town to the 12th century church of St Mary, which we looked inside, and then made our way to the Roman Amphitheatre. Next, we joined the Brenda Parker Way heading south-east and left it again at Clapper's Farm. Footpaths through farmland took us to the village of Bramley, at one point passing a farm with some brown and white pygmy goats.

We stopped at the Bramley Village Bakery for coffee and cake. I had a Chelsea bun and a cappuccino. Suitably refreshed, we crossed the local playing field and followed a lane towards a large electricity substation, hidden in Bramley Frith Wood. The substation was practically invisible as we followed a footpath through the wood.

![Some pygmy goats at the farm near Barefoot's House.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume41/images/pygmy_goats.jpg)

Leaving the woodland, we crossed open farmland to Latchmere Green and then Little London. Here we stopped for our picnic lunch at the shaded end of a large field.

After lunch, we crossed the field and entered Pamber Forest at King's Hogsty Copse. We followed a very long and very straight path through the forest, and speculated whether it had once been a Roman road.

After about a mile, we left the straight footpath at Beggar's Bridge Copse and re-joined the Brenda Parker Way. This took us down to Silchester Brook, which was unusually dry, due to the recent long dry spell we've had. We didn't even need to use the boardwalks or bridges.

![Us, crossing some farmland at Latchmere Green.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume41/images/latchmere_green.jpg)

An uphill stretch of path took us through Silchester Common and brought us to Silchester village, close to the Calleva Arms pub. Outside the pub, a number of horses and traps were parked. After a show of hands, it seemed most of us wanted to stop for a drink. The few that didn't were given details of how to complete the last mile of the walk, which was quite straightforward. They messaged us once they'd reached the car park as we were finishing our drinks and about to follow them. See our route on Google Maps.

![Some horses and traps, parked outside the pub in Silchester.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume41/images/horses_and_carts.jpg)

*Thank you to Pat for leading this walk.*

## 📸 Back to Volume 41

Return to volume index