# 🥾 Walk 701 - Woolhampton, Beenham & Midgham

As well as being the first day of British Summer Time, Sunday the 30th of March brought us some perfectly timed spring sunshine for the planned route around Woolhampton, Beenham and Midgham.

Eighteen of us set off from the car park beside The Rowbarge public house in Woolhampton (not to be confused with Wolverhampton, which is why the railway station is called Midgham) to head eastwards along the Kennet & Avon Canal towards Froud's Bridge Marina which, as well as having 160 moorings and 9000 feet of jetties, is one of the most biodiverse rural estates in England hosting 10 species of bat.

![Leaving Woolhampton by the Kennet and Avon Canal.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume51/images/leaving-woolhampton.jpg)

We then proceeded northwards in the direction of Beenham, stopping off at St Mary's church which is currently in its third incarnation after the original Saxon church was struck by lightning and burnt down in 1794 as did its successor some years later. The current church was constructed in 1859 and still stands today.

Onward to Beenham, we had a coffee stop at The Six Bells then turned westward towards Upper Woolhampton where we passed through St Peters Church and had a quick look at the west window which was donated by Lady Falmouth in 1861 and is regarded as one of the largest and best stained glass windows in any parish church.

![Approaching Beenham through farmland.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume51/images/approaching-beenham-1.jpg)

Proceeding on the route brought us to our lunch stop at Douai Abbey. As the abbey was open, we were able to use the facilities inside and take a look around; the abbey contains two pipe organs and musical recitals have been recorded there due to very favourable acoustics.

Back onto the route we then headed in a westerly direction towards Midgham Green. At this point there was a stretch of road walking, since on the prewalk we had 'attracted the interest' of a bull in a field to the south of Midgham House. With the welfare of the group the top priority we decided that it was better not to rekindle that friendship and took a diversionary route. To circumvent our taurine chum the diversion by road was necessary and fortunately it was relatively quiet with traffic. We eventually reached the Kennet and Avon canal towpath and onto the last leg of our journey.

![The West Window of St Peter's Church.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume51/images/st-peters-west-window.jpg)

After a mile or so along the towpath we arrived back at The Rowbarge where some of the group who were able to stay had a small refreshment which was very welcome after such a nice days walking. Thanks to Karen for leading and to all of the walkers who came along to make it such an enjoyable walk.

![Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume51/images/douai-abbey-lunchstop.jpg)

*Thanks go to Karen for leading this walk, and for Steve for writing it up.*

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