walk 1
a walk of 3.6 miles, 5.8 Km, about 1.5 to 2.5 hours.
Getting started
This walk keeps to a low elevation around Inkpen village and
visits its two BBOWT-managed nature reserves: Inkpen Common and
the Inkpen Crocus Field.
From the ‘Crown and Garter’ car park, with the pub behind, turn
RIGHT and head on down the byway. Just after a track to farm
buildings on the left, turn LEFT at the byway junction,
sign-posted ‘Restricted Byway’, which winds through a narrow tree
belt towards Inkpen Common. Where the field on the left ends and
fencing begins, take the first kissing gate on the LEFT to enter
the BBOWT nature reserve.
The reserve is an SSSI owned by the Berks, Bucks and Oxon
Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and is an important lowland heathland
site with a wide variety of bird and plant life.
Follow the path straight ahead over the boardwalk and through a
kissing gate. Passing a memorial seat to Lillian Watts on the
right, fork RIGHT just before reaching a way-marked post going
around two large trees on the right. Follow this path for 50
metres and pass through the kissing gate and go straight ahead for
another 50 metres, where three paths meet. Take the RIGHT one at
the way-marked post. Walk towards a post and rail fenced area then
turn LEFT just before it to follow the path through the trees to
descend steps with a handrail on their right side and then bear
RIGHT to go through a kissing gate leading to Ashton’s Pool.
Ashton’s Pool is a very quiet spot formed into a heathland
pool from an old clay extraction site for making pottery in
Inkpen.
Turn LEFT around the left-hand bank, bearing LEFT at the far side
onto a narrow path towards a railed fence. Turn LEFT, with the
fence on the right, to follow the path that leads up to a kissing
and field gate into the BBOWT reserve. Go through the gate and
bear slightly RIGHT passing to the left of a way-marked post to
follow the grassed ‘permissive path’ (PP) straight ahead passing
to the left of another way-marked post (indicating that the PP
path is now an official right of way) to a junction of paths.
A slight detour here to the LEFT leads to an information board
about the Common and Arthur’s Seat with views up to Inkpen Beacon.
Continue on to the footpath sign on the left, keeping straight on
to a kissing and field gate to leave the Common by the reserve
sign and post box. Go straight over the road to follow, as
signposted, ‘Bridleway to PO and Folly Roads’, onto a wide
gravelled track. Proceed on the track, with houses on the right,
down to a bridge; crossing this go up the rise, bearing LEFT at
‘Jangles’ to continue on the track to reach Post Office Road. Turn
LEFT to walk along the right hand side of the road.
Of interest on this stretch:
The first house on the right, called ‘Olive Branch’ , was once
the site of one of Inkpen’s four inns.
The area of small industrial units on the right was originally
the site of Inkpen’s thriving sawmills.
On the left, further along the road, the house called ‘The Old
Chapel’ was once Inkpen’s third Methodist Chapel.
Go down a slight incline to turn RIGHT off the road at the lower
end of a paddock onto a track signposted ‘Restricted Byway’ that
runs between the Memorial Playing Fields on the left and the
paddock on the right. At a ‘crossway’, where there is a signpost
on the left, turn RIGHT and continue through the tree-line path of
a copse into Bracken Close, a square of bungalows, and then the
houses of Robins Hill. Keep straight on to the T-junction ahead.
Turn RIGHT into Folly Road and then very shortly LEFT onto a byway
passing on the left of ‘Folly Lodge’. Follow this wide rough track
through light woodland known as ‘The Folly’. On reaching a
farm-machinery shed on the left, immediately after it take a sharp
LEFT turn just before the byway signpost onto another wide track
to pass on the right a thatched cottage, known as ‘The Folly’,
within a walled garden.
There are good views at this point over to Lower Green and
beyond to Ham Hill in Wiltshire.
Proceed along this track passing ‘ Folly Cottage’ and ‘Haycroft
Cottages’ until it reaches a road. Turn LEFT and almost
immediately RIGHT, just after the 30 MPH and school signs onto a
narrow tarmac road. This pleasant lane drops down to cross a
stream (an area once known as ‘Sheepwash’). Just before the farm
buildings, turn LEFT through a kissing gate. Go straight across
the field to another kissing gate, passing through a small
plantation and another kissing gate. Bearing slightly right,
continue along the right edge of the large garden on the left and
through a steel gate. Turn RIGHT onto a rough track; follow round
left-hand bend and up rise where the track then becomes Pottery
Lane.
A short detour turning RIGHT just past ‘The Old Forge’
cottage leads to Inkpen’s ‘Crocus Field’, another BBOWT
reserve. It is one of only two in this country containing
Mediterranean crocuses (usually in bloom in February/March),
believed to have been brought here by the Knights Templar over
500 years ago.
Continue along Pottery Lane to the end and go almost straight over
the road to a gap opposite between two bungalows (‘Pen-y-Nant’ and
‘Crofton’) to kissing gate set back from the road. Follow the
‘corridor’ between a fence/electrified tapes diagonally right
across a field through a kissing gate onto a track. Turn LEFT,
passing ‘Mistletoe Cottage’ on the right, and follow this track
descending to small bridge. Walk up the rise to take the LEFT fork
to reach an old stone marker post, turn RIGHT before the way-marks
to exit the wood past ‘Inkpen Cottage’ on the right to the road to
arrive back at the starting point.
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Downloads
Start and end point - the car park of ‘The Crown and
Garter’ public house, Inkpen Common.
Terrain - This is an easy walk around Inkpen village. There
are no stiles, but some areas will be muddy outside of the summer
months.
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