It has rained practically every day in March, so by Saturday 25th there was a lot of surface water and mud to contend with. Although this Saturday was quite windy, we only had one rain shower during the walk. Twelve of us attended Ian's walk.
Starting from Hungerford railway station, we headed south-east across Hungerford Common and through farmland to Templeton Stud. A detour was made so Ian could show us St. Cassian's, a Catholic youth retreat centre near Kintbury, before heading south-west to Balsdon Farm.
Continuing westward, we soon entered the expansive grounds of Totterdown House, where there were carpets of daffodils in every direction. The footpath through the grounds took us into an enclosure containing two donkeys, who came over to greet us.
Leaving Totterdown, we stopped in Anville's Copse to have our packed lunches, where we found a few fallen trees to use as benches to sit upon. After lunch we headed for Mount Prosperous, which is not a mountain, but a manor house.
On the way, we crossed a field of sheep. Noticing one was lying on its back and struggling to right itself. A couple of us helped the sheep up onto its feet.
In the middle of the field was a strange metal obelisk. Ian, our leader, came up with several made-up explanations as to what it was. At one point it was a rocket and then he had us believing it was a prop used in an episode of Doctor Who.
There is a footpath that passes down the long driveway to Mount Prosperous manor house, which passes a walled rose garden and then crosses a smaller front garden before exiting into fields. This we followed.
Although the footpath remains outside the high walls of the rose garden, there is a viewing platform thoughtfully put there by the owners to allow people to enjoy this otherwise private garden. There isn't much to see in March, of course, but we've been there in the summer and it is very impressive.
The remainder of the walk headed mostly northward, back to Hungerford, passing through mixed woodland and farmland, via Hornhill and Standen Manor. We entered Hungerford from the west, via Smitham Bridge Road and then Church Street back to the centre of town. See our route on Google Maps.
Ian's description of the walk said it was 9¾ miles and relatively flat-as-a-pancake. My GPS made it 10.2 miles, which is close, but with 480m (1,575 ft) of accent in total, it can't really be classed as a flat walk. Ian comes from a land down under, where pancakes are quite hilly.
Thank you to Ian for leading this walk and providing the photo of us at lunch.
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