# 🥾 Walk 754 - Chieveley and Beedon

Sunday 25th January’s weather hadn’t looked too promising for our circular walk starting at The Crab & Boar pub near Chieveley,  but amazingly 20 ramblers turned up.

The walk started by heading north through North Heath Farm and then we had a steady climb towards Chapel Farm, which has history dating back to medieval times.  From here we had some beautiful views of the Berkshire Downs.

![Near Beedon](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume55/images/chieveley-1.jpg)

The heavy rainfall over recent days had made the footpaths and bridleways very muddy but we made good progress and after a short stretch of The Ilsley Down Riding Route, we crossed fields towards the hamlet of Stanmore. We then made our way to the 13th century parish church of St Nicholas at Beedon.  The large church porch offered us cosy and sheltered seating for our lunch stop.

After lunch our route continued across fields, with wide open vistas, to the tiny hamlet of Beedon Common where we stopped to admire the snowdrops and chat to one of the local residents.

![Lunch stop at the church](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume55/images/chieveley-2.jpg)

Our homeward stretch took us on the Gidley Lane Path, past Hazelhanger Farm, and then back to The Crab and Boar where most of the group stayed for refreshments and breathed a sigh of relief that we had only one short spell of rain.  See our route on OS Maps.

![Group photo near Beedon Common](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume55/images/chieveley-3.jpg)

*Thanks go to Anne and Hazel for leading this walk and to Hazel for writing it up.*

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