Saturday Walkers' Club

Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1

Walk 51 : Henley to Pangbourne

River Thames, beech woods, country lanes and pubs & alpacas

Length 21.5km (12.5 miles), 5 hours 40 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow at least 9 hours 30 minutes. Please note that, given the length of this walk, it is VERY difficult to finish in daylight when done as scheduled on Week 51, unless taking the train nearest 8:30 AM from Paddington. Options do exist for shortening it – See Shortening the Walk below.
OS Landranger Map No.175. Henley, map reference SU 764 823, is in Oxfordshire, 10km north-east of Reading. Pangbourne, map reference SU 633 766, is in Berkshire, 5km north-west of Reading.
Toughness6 out of 10.
Features The walk starts beside the Thames in Henley, goes down one of Henley's most ancient streets, out into a broad valley, to the church and pub at Rotherfield Greys - probably the best pub of the day, but too early for lunch, for most walkers. Then the walk goes to the church at Rotherfield Peppard, and thereafter it is fields, beech woods, country lanes and pubs. This walk does not suffer from a shortage of refreshments stops and includes three pubs ideally located for the lunch stop, plus an additional choice for those choosing to shorten walk. For those of you lucky enough to reach Whitchurch in daylight, the walk also includes an alpaca farm just outside of Whitchurch where you can watch hundreds of alpacas grazing on the fields – a true highlight towards the end of the walk. The walk then carries on to the Whitchurch parish church beside the Thames, to the toll bridge over the Thames, and finally into Pangbourne for a last refreshment stop.
Shortening the Walk The walk can be shortened to a very “winter manageable” 8 miles by catching a bus just outside of The Palm Tree restaurant, an Indian restaurant passed along the way at Cane End. However, by taking this option, you will miss the highlight of the alpacas towards the end of the walk. From just outside The Palm Tree, buses X39/X40 run into Reading every 20-30 minutes Mon.-Sat./hourly on Sun., taking about 20 minutes or so for the journey. For more bus information, phone 0871 200 2233 or check www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk. Alternatively, you could order a taxi from any of the pubs en route.
History

Henley, with its 300 listed buildings, is said to be the oldest settlement in Oxfordshire.

St Mary's Church in Rotherfield Greys(if you should be lucky enough to find the door unlocked) contains the ornate tomb of Robert Knollys, counsellor to Elizabeth I and friend of Mary Queen of Scots.

The building of All Saints Church, Rotherfield Peppard, began in the twelfth century. It has early twentieth-century stained-glass windows designed by Meredith Williams, son of a rector of the parish. At the start of the twentieth century, Mirabel Grey, another local artist, made the Last Supper picture behind the altar, and the other panels of inlaid wood.

St Mary's Church, Whitchurch, dates from the twelfth century. St Birynius is said to have landed at the ferry crossing at Whitchurch and, on seeing how fine the place was, decided to build a church.

An act of parliament in 1792 allowed the building of Whitchurch Toll Bridge, to replace the ferry. The ten proprietors were given the right to charge tolls - for instance, one halfpenny for every sheep and lamb. The present iron bridge (built in 1902) replaces two previous wooden tollbridges.

The earliest mention of Pangbourne is in a Saxon charter of 844 as Paegingaburnam (meaning 'streams of sons of Paega'). In 1919, DH Lawrence stayed in Pangbourne, commenting: 'Pleasant house - Hate Pangbourne - Nothing happens.' Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, lived in Church Cottage, Pangbourne.

Lunch/Tea

For those doing the full-length walk, there are three possible lunch stops within a few miles of one another. The most highly recommended of these is the Reformation (tel 0118 972 3126), Kidmore End. It serves an interesting selection of upscale home-cooked food. It is approximately 6.5 miles into the walk and is open Mon.-Sat.12-3 and Sun. 12-8. Also recommended are (i) 5.2 miles into the walk, the Unicorn pub (tel 01491 628 303) near Peppard Common, a warm and cozy pub serving unpretentious food at reasonable prices 12-3 Tues.–Sat. and 12-3:30 Sun. and(ii)4.5 miles into the walk, the Red Lion pub (tel 01491 628 329) in Peppard Common, serving simple food 12-3 Mon-Fri.and 12-9 Sat./Sun.

For those shortening the walk to 8 miles by catching the bus in Cane End, the gourmet Malster's Arms pub (tel 01491 628 400) in Rotherfield Greys approximately 3 miles into the walk, is an excellent option, serving food 12-2.30pm daily, though it can be very busy at times.

The originally recommended tea place in Pangbourne now closes at 3:00pm, making it a somewhat unrealistic goal. Instead, two new options include: (i) the Elephant at Pangbourne , open daily and serving drinks, tea and cakes until 6:00 pm when dinner starts and (ii)the Cross Keys pub , open Tues.-Sun. and serving light pub snacks and drinks until 6:30 pm when dinner starts.

Travel by Train
  • Out:
  • Back:
Travel by Car

Start: Henley-on-Thames Station is near : RG9 1BE [gmap]

Finish: Pangbourne Station is near : RG8 7DY [gmap]

Return to your car by train:

  • (park at the start) at 4pm
  • (park at the end) at 10am
OS Explorer Map

159 : Reading, Wokingham & Pangbourne [Amazon]

171 : Chiltern Hills West [Amazon]
Revised

This walk was fully revised in : Sep-09

For the walk map, please see the Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
Other Thames Valley Walks Henley (round walk), Pangbourne (round walk), Shiplake to Henley, Oxford round walk, Sunningdale to Windsor, Cookham (round walk), Mortimer to Aldermaston or Theale, Henley via Stonor Circular, Henley via Hambleden Circular, Marlow Circular, Goring Circular, Newbury Racecourse to Woolhampton, Appleford Circular, Cholsey to Goring, Maidenhead to Marlow, Thames Path : Reading to Henley, Thames Path : Marlow via Cookham Circular,

Walking Instructions 

  1. Coming out of Henley Station, turn right and walk 80 meters to the main road. Turn right onto the main road. In 120 meters, you are walking along the Thames with the water on your right hand side.
  2. In 120 meters, turn left up Friday Street with the Anchor Inn on your left hand side. Go straight on ignoring all turn-offs. In 200 meters, you cross Reading Road to continue on Greys Road with the Queens Head on your right-hand side. Go straight on.
  3. In 240 meters, you fork right onto Deanfield Avenue. In a further 15 meters, you fork left onto a car lane, signposted on the right-hand side as a public footpath (sign could be obscured by bushes at certain times of the year), your direction 230°. Go straight on ignoring ways off.
  4. In 350 meters, you come to a tarmac road and carry straight on the road in the same general direction, 245°. In 80 meters, turn right on Tilebarn Close.
  5. In 100 meters, turn left due west on a footpath (sign-marked Rotherfield Grey) between fences with a car park for Henley College on your right-hand side, ignoring the car-wide footpath to the hard left. [2] In 50 meters, go through an old rusted metal kissing gate, with tennis courts on your right-hand side. In 480 meters, cross over a bridleway to go over a stile and straight on, your direction 320°. Soon you are going down the left of a valley of vast fields.
  6. In a further 650 meters, go over a stile into a small copse. Continue on, slightly to your right, following a white arrow on a tree, your direction 295° (ignore a path to the hard right going uphill on the side of the field). In 125 meters, go over a stile to continue straight on a potentially muddy tractor track. In a further 200 meters, you come to a junction of tractor tracks and you carry straight on (crossing a set of tractor tracks) through a field on a tractor track over short grass.
  7. In 400 meters, where the tractor track bears left on 2 separate routes (one on the right-hand side of a field and the other into an avenue of chestnut trees), you fork right to go over a stile 20 meters to the right, following a yellow arrow, with a field fence on your left-hand side, your direction 280°. 300 meters beyond the stile, you follow a yellow arrow straight on, ignoring an arrow to the right.
  8. In 55 meters, go left over a stile to follow its yellow arrow’s direction to the right, with a field hedge on your right-hand side, your direction 275°. In 85 meters, veer left uphill, your direction 210° initially, with a field fence on your left-hand side.
  9. In 520 meters, bear left to come out through a wooden kissing gate onto a tarmac road, where you go right. In 20 meters, you pass the lynchgate of St. Nicholas’ Church, Rotherfield Greys.
  10. In a further 25 meters, just before the Maltster’s Arms pub [3]. Turn left on a sign posted public footpath, your direction 180°, keeping to the edge of the churchyard on your left-hand side. In 70 meters, go through a swing gate and half right, your direction 220°. In 20 meters, go through another swing gate to continue in the same direction across a field. In 220 meters, go through a metal swing gate, then go half right, across another field.
  11. In 140 meters, go through a metal swing gate and turn left on a wide path between hedges, your direction 185°.
  12. In a further 150 meters, go through a wooden swing gate (with a metal field gate to its left) and turn right on an earth car road, your direction 280°.
  13. In 80 meters, by a public bridleway sign, go left through a metal swing gate (a metal field gate to its right), your direction 160°, on a potentially muddy path that winds its way along the fringe of the wood. Ignore ways off.
  14. In 200 meters at a prominent crossing with a footpath, go through the metal kissing gate to the right to go due west through some trees across vast fields, ignoring all ways off. In a further 600 meters, go straight across a path/track to pass through a metal kissing gate and carry onwards between the fences of Rectory Farm.
  15. In 200 meters, go over a stile onto an earth car road where you go right, your direction 300°. In 130 meters, you come to a fine little church, All Saint’s Church, Rotherfield Peppard. Coming out of the church, carry straight on along the road (Church Lane), ignoring ways off.
  16. In 350 meters, you come to a school on your right-hand side and Slaters Farm on your left-hand side, and you fork right, still on a tarmac road, your direction 330 meters. Head towards the Red Lion pub [4], Peppard Common, visible 240 meters ahead and reached after crossing the main road. This is the first of three possible lunch stops. It is open all day and does traditional pub food M-F 12-3 and Sat. –Sun. 12-9.
  17. At the pub, turn left (or, if leaving the pub, turn right) on the minor tarmac road, your direction 240°. Carry along this road for 1 kilometer (ignoring all ways off) when you will arrive at the Unicorn pub on the right-hand side. This is the second of the three suggested lunch stops. It is open T-Sat. 12-3 and Sun. 12-3:30. It serves well-prepared home-cooked traditional pub food and has a nice garden in the back.
  18. From the Unicorn pub, your route is straight on through the road crossing. In 35 meters, go over the main road to carry on, along Wyfold Lane, your direction 240°. Carry on down Wyfold Lane and ignore ways off.
  19. In 300 meters, you take the sign posted footpath through the metal kissing gate to your left to go due south, with a field hedge on your right-hand side. In 200 meters, go through a gap between wooden horse paddock on the left and metal field gate on the right.
  20. In 150 meters, go over a stile. After the stile, go sharp right your direction 310° with the field hedge on your right-hand side.
  21. In 150 meters, you go through a metal kissing gate to enter a beech wood, New Copse (so marked on the OS Map). 5 meters after the metal kissing gate, veer left on the path (ignoring the path straight ahead veering to the right). In a further 10 meters, take the right fork due west. Keep straight on, ignoring ways off. [!]
  22. In 750 meters, you come to a multiple junction with part of a wooden fence directly in front of you and four possible ways onwards [!] (10 meters prior to this junction, it is marked as a footpath T-junction on a tree to the left. Also, there is a field gate and the edge of the wood visible 50 meters away to the right). At this junction go left, your direction 165°. In 300 meters, at cross-roads at a clearing keep straight on (ignoring 2 paths to the right); likewise, in 10 meters at the next crossroads ignore ways off and continue straight on. Your way now is almost car-wide, your direction 170°. [!]
  23. In a further 370 meters, having ignored all ways off, you come out through wooden barriers on to a car lane lined with houses where you go left, your direction 110°.
  24. In 70 meters, you pass the cogwheel of an interesting well on your left-hand side, and, in 15 meters, you come to the main road, where you go right, your direction 250°. In 50 meters, you arrive at the Reformation pub in Kidmore End [5]. The third and most likely the best of the three possible lunch stops. It is open M-Sat. 12-3 and Sun. 12-8. It serves a more exotic menu of tempting home-cooked food.
  25. 550 meters along the main road after the pub (at the end of the fence hidden in the bushes on your right-hand side where there is also a scaffolding pole barrier), you go right on a signposted footpath into the wood. 6 meters into the wood, you follow a faint white arrow marked on a tree, by forking left, your direction 270°. This is Withy Copse (so marked on the OS Map).
  26. Continue along this footpath (which can be faint and overgrown at times) as it winds its way through the woods ignoring all ways off. [!] In 620 meters, a house comes into view ahead through the trees, carry on towards the house (ignoring a path to the right). 20 meters further on past this path, at the wooden fence around the garden of the house, the path is currently (September 2009) in the process of being diverted and you have 2 choices:
    1. Option 1: In the winter when there is not much undergrowth, ignore the stile over the fence and turn left just before the fence. Follow the perimeter of the fence for 120 meters where you turn right to continue following the fence for 80 meters to a tarmac road (it is this last bit that can be overgrown with nettles).
    2. Option 2: In the summer (or during nettle season generally), cross the stile and turn half left to carry-on for 50 meters through a small field to pass through a gap in the fence into another small field. Continue in the same direction through this second small field to the far corner (about 80 meters) where you can climb over the gate (possibly a future stile) onto the same tarmac road at roughly the same location as Option 1.
    Option 2 appears to be the planned official route (re-routing the path diagonally across the two fields from its original route straight up through the main back garden and very near the house) – but, Option 1 does have the benefit of avoiding the fields and appears to be harmless, save when the nettles are out!
  27. Either way, turn left on this tarmac road, your direction 165°. In 100 meters, take the signposted footpath over the stile to your right, your direction 220°. Keep the field hedge on your left-hand side at this point (a timber-framed cottage is visible ahead of you to your right).
  28. In 165 meters, take a stile to your left in the fence to continue on an entrance driveway (ignoring an earlier footpath signpost on the left about half way along this field edge). In 35 meters, turn left on the A4074 by a thatched cottage on your left-hand side, your direction 130°.
  29. In 105 meters, you pass The Palm Tree, Indian restaurant, on your left. It is possible to catch a bus X39/X40 into Reading from the stop just in front of the Indian restaurant. They run about every 20-30 minutes M-Sat. and hourly on Sunday.
  30. 40 meters after the restaurant, where a lane comes in from the left, cross the main road carefully to an earth track opposite, leading to a metal swing gate by a metal field gate. Ignore the track straight ahead and follow the blue arrow bridleway half left, your direction 170°.
  31. In 40 meters, go through a metal swing gate and go half right, your direction 205°. In 30 meters, go through another metal swing gate. Keep straight on through another metal swing gate along the right-side of a field.
  32. In a further 200 meters, follow a path to the right. In 70 meters, you enter the wood, your direction 240°. Keep on the main car wide track. In 100 meters, at a faint white arrow on a tree to the right of the track, follow a M3 arrow to keep straight on along the edge of the wood to your right, your direction 295°.
  33. In 100 meters, you cross a farm track to continue to continue on into the wood, following the white arrows on the trees. In 210 meters, follow the path to the left, your direction 250°, ignoring a faint path to the left.
  34. In 135 meters, at a car road junction, go straight on along a tarmac road (ignoring tracks to the right and left), your direction 240°. In 10 meters, you pass Crossways Cottage on your left-hand side. In a further 160 meters, by concrete bollards on your left-hand side, take the signposted bridleway to your right into the wood, your direction 280°, on a wide muddy track (part of the Hardwick Estate). In 25 meters, veer left onto a narrower track going deeper into the woods (ignoring a wide track going off to the right.)[!!!!!!!] Ignore all ways off through the woods.
  35. In 150 meters, your track crosses another faint track and you turn left [!!!!] onto this track going gently downhill following intermittent white arrows on the trees, your direction initially 240°. Ignore ways off. In 150 meters, your way goes gently uphill. In 120 meters, near the top, follow a white arrow on a tree straight on (ignoring ways off) your way slightly narrower now.
  36. In 400 meters, you come to a tarmac road where you turn left, your direction 120°. In 100 meters you pass on the left the now closed King Charles’ Head pub [6] Goring Heath (currently, as of September 2009, appears to be undergoing a transformation into a private residence).
  37. Opposite the former pub, you go right on a footpath over a stile, signposted Path Hill (stile and sign may be hidden by bushes at certain times), your direction 230°. In 100 meters, go over a stile to the left of a wooden gate to follow the edge of the wood on your left-hand side, your direction 250°.
  38. In 125 meters, go over a stile. In 65 meters, you come out on to a driveway, between fences, past a flint cottage on your left-hand side. In a further 145 meters, cross a tarmac lane to go straight on along a very wide earth avenue.
  39. In 150 meters, turn left on a car wide earth road, signposted public bridleway to Mapledurham, your direction 190°. In 50 meters, by a yellow arrow on a corner post (on your left-hand side), you go right between sheds, your direction 290°. Then, in 25 meters, go through a metal swing gate to the right of a metal field gate and veer slightly to the left across a small field (usually with horses) towards a gap in a fence in about 20 meters leading into an adjacent larger field (usually with geese). Continue downhill across this next field in the same direction, 250°.
  40. In 80 meters, you go through a metal swing gate straight into the wood. In a further 110 meters, you exit the wood through a metal swing gate to continue downhill across a field due west.
  41. In 80 meters, go through a metal swing gate and left uphill, your direction 245°, with the edge of the wood fairly near you on your left-hand side. In a further 120 meters, go through a gap and straight on.
  42. In 75 meters, go through a gate and onto a tarmac road with Path Hill Farm buildings opposite. Cross the road and carry straight on along a tarmac lane [7], signposted footpath, your direction 220°. In 200 meters, you pass the entrance on your left-hand side to a house with turrets.
  43. In 45 meters, you go through a wood barricade slightly to your right (level with the house’s garden gate) to go downhill, ignoring a wider path downhill to the left.
  44. In 230 meters, you come to a tarmac road which you cross to continue straight on, over a stile (with a metal field gate to its right) and go onwards, with a field hedge on your left-hand side.
  45. In 60 meters, you go through a metal kissing gate. In 25 meters, by a painted arrow on a post, turn left downhill, your direction 165°, with a field hedge on your left-hand side. In 150 meters, you come to a tarmac road where you go right.
  46. In 500 meters, you come to the Bozedown Alpaca Farm. Just past the farm, you can get off the road on a path parallel and above it to its right (there is a well placed bench here where you can watch the alpacas grazing in the fields below). In 300 meters, the path rejoins the road for good (having previously dipped down very close to it to cross a driveway). 20 meters after the path rejoins the road for good, turn left at a signposted footpath beside a wooden field gate onto a car-wide road, your direction 170°.
  47. In 190 meters, turn right on the tarmac driveway of a primary school, your direction 235°. In 50 meters, bear right on a lane and, in a further 440 meters, you come to the main road, with the Greyhound pub, Whitchurch, on your right-hand side. You turn left, due south.
  48. In 35 meters, take the footpath right to the church, signed Thames Path, on the tarmac driveway of Walliscote House. In 15 meters you fork left, your direction 225°. In 65 meters, you enter the lynchgate of the Parish Church of Whitchurch-on-Thames, which is worth visiting.
  49. Turn right out of the church. In 45 meters, go down a lane between brick walls. In 30 meters, turn left on a gravel road by a mill house, with the Thames on your right-hand side.
  50. In 65 meters, you come back to the main road and turn right to cross Whitchurch Toll Bridge over the Thames. Keep on this main road.
  51. In 250 meters, you go under the railway bridge. In 75 meters, with the George Hotel on your right-hand side, you come to the main road T-junction. Turn right to find one of the two suggested tea places. In 100 meters, you arrive at the A329, The Elephant at Pangbourne is just across this busy road. They are open daily and serve a full array of beverages and some tea-related food items until 6:00 pm when dinner starts. Alternatively, when you reach the A329, turn left and in 40 meters you will arrive at the Cross Keys pub which is open Tues.-Sun. and also serves a full array of beverages and light bar snacks (i.e. crisps) until dinner starts at 6:30 pm.
  52. Leaving the Elephant turn left (and leaving the Cross Keys turn right) to walk down the A329 to get to the train station. 145 meters from the Elephant (and 185 meters from the Cross Keys), you cross under the railway bridge for Pangbourne Station. Once under the bridge, turn left to enter the Station for trains heading back towards London.