Spa and walk at Donnington, plus some history

Friday 24 August

Ray has been a member for a while at the health club at the Donnington Valley Hotel just outside Newbury – or I should say, Donnington & Co, as it appears to have rebranded itself. He has signed me in as a guest a few times now, which is a pleasant way to spend a morning and I’ve booked in a 25-minute spa treatment each time, mostly the Scalp Ritual so far. A couple of Fridays ago we spent a morning there, had lunch (food is pretty good) and then went for a walk.

The area is of some interest to old/disused road and path geeks. The address of the hotel is Old Oxford Road. The hotel is now the main destination on this road, which carries on more or less parallel with the A339 as far as J13 of the M4, where it ends at a roundabout. There used to be a pub, the Fox & Hounds, further up from the hotel, but this is now closed as of earlier this year. It probably lost most of its passing trade a long time ago when the M4 was built and a new connecting road was built from Newbury to junction 13. Indeed, ChatGPT tells me that its fortunes were shaped by changes to the road network around Newbury:

The Street View image below shows the pub in 2024. I have a memory of it driving past it some years back (OK, a lot of years back) and it seeming in rather an out of the way place. In the late 1990s the Newbury bypass was constructed near the pub (that’s the road bridge in the distance in the Street View image), presumably adding to its difficulties by making it both out of the way and much less peaceful than it was before.

2024 Street View image of the Fox & Hounds, Donnington

Back to our walk. Ray wanted to start off by calling in at the golf club Pro Shop. So we started by walking up the road a short way and turning in by this sign to follow a road up to the golf club. He told me that Donnington Valley golf club used to be a private members’ club, but is now pay and play and is owned by the hotel.

A vibrant green tee

There’s some sort of party barn there, which was hosting a wedding that day – in fact we may have wandered through somewhere we weren’t supposed to. There’s a golfers’ bar at the back of Snelsmore House, and the pro shop is nearby, though Ray only popped in briefly in the end. The golf course was looking pretty brown and crispy, except for the greens and tees which had been kept a vibrant green.

Golfers' bar at the back of Snelsmore House

From Snelsmore House, we retraced our steps to the road and followed a footpath up behind some buildings and through some woods, to come out on the B4494 Wantage Road. The OS map appeared to show a footpath going off the other side of the road, but we could see no evidence of this on the ground. I came up with a cunning theory that the path had probably been re-routed post-Newbury bypass construction – the clues being the presence of the bypass a matter of metres away, and the green dashes on the map appearing to lead straight towards it. We crossed over the road bridge and walked a little way and there was indeed a relatively new-looking footpath sign going in to the left. We followed this, initially down a road past some houses, and then met up with what was clearly the former path, as we could see a fence some distance off with the bypass just beyond it.

Newish footpath sign off the B4494

Former footpath, now fenced off

Relevant area of the OS map

On the map snip, 'CH' (Clubhouse) marks Snelsmore House.

We turned left at a T-junction of paths and followed the path past a property called Beau House and along the road. The road crosses over the A34. There’s another golf club, Donnington Grove, in this area.

We past a couple of houses and a deserted barn from the former Castle Farm. The sign about the Limousin herd now seems to have gone from the end of the building, but I photographed it on a previous walk in 2021.

Donnington Castle

This path passes Donnington Castle. We made our way down to Donnington village and then turned left onto another footpath leading back up northwards towards a spot marked on the map as Nothing Hill.

Path leading towards Nothing Hill

This passes an interesting feature on the left: some land which Ray reckons was originally a 9-hole golf course. It sounds from Chat GPT as though this original 9-hole course was taken out of use when the course east of Wantage Road was expanded on that side of the road to be a full 18 holes. It's not the best photograph, but it shows some high fencing on the left and the ground in the right half of the picture was a raised flat area in manner of a tee or green.

Possible former golf course land at Nothing Hill

There’s some quite interesting history, if assorted AI queries are to be believed:

• The golf course at Donnington Valley began as a family venture in the late 1980s. According to this 2001 Golf Business News piece, the Cox family built the course themselves on land they owned and turned part of their home into a bar and committee room.
• The home in question appears to have been Fairfield Farm Donnington, which a local Facebook group tells me was owned by S L Cox and his two brothers, was sold and redeveloped as Donnington Valley Hotel and golf course.
• The hotel’s website confirms that Nothing Hill used to be part of the golf course.
• 
  Businessman Sir Peter Michael bought the Cox family's golf course around 1990 and it was extended to 18 holes. ChatGPT located a 1991 ad for a Head Greenkeeper for a "recently extended" 18 hole course.
• The hotel was built on the site of the original clubhouse, with golf facilities initially incorporated into the hotel.
• Sir Peter then acquired the neighbouring Snelsmore House estate in the mid-1990s. The golf course was redesigned and Snelsmore House became the clubhouse. It sounds as though the holes west of the B4494 might have been abandoned at this point and additional holes built on the newly-acquired land.

Old OS Pathfinder map showing Fairfield Farm

New OS Explorer map showing the hotel

The left-hand pic is from a 1981 OS "Pathfinder" map that my parents passed on to me. The right-hand pic is from the modern OS Explorer 158.

Walk with Ray via Bisham Woods and Cookham Dean, 6.8 miles

Monday 29 May (the Spring Bank Holiday)

We started this walk with a spot of disused road interest. Well, renamed road, in this case. Ray had to call in briefly to his employer’s premises and after this we stopped briefly on Hurley Lane where I took this picture of a road sign alerting drivers that they’ll be joining an A-road a short way ahead. The road in question hasn’t been the A423 since the early 1990s, when it was renamed the A4130. I guess the sign is in too insignificant a spot to be worth worrying about. Hurley Lane is a tiny road probably only used by residents and by locals who know it's a cut through to the A404.

For our walk, Ray parked in a layby on the A404 near Bisham that’s long been notorious for cruising – it happened to be a convenient parking spot for this walk and at the time we parked up was almost empty. The layby directly borders Temple Golf Club; when Ray worked at the club in the 1990s, there was an amusing, if possibly apocryphal, story circulating of a lady member coming across a scene in the undergrowth that she hadn’t expected and having to be revived with smelling salts or similar. Vegetation is cleared around the layby at intervals to discourage the chaps.

Leaving the layby on the A404 to start our walk

Following the newish bridleway

Walking out of the layby, we were able to take what Ray says is a fairly new bridleway (certainly my OS map doesn’t show it as such) leading off the eastern end of Hurley Lane and running alongside, but separated from, the A404 to come out on Bradenham Lane leading down to Temple village. Certainly nicer than walking/cycling along the edge of the dual carriageway for a short stretch, as you’d have had to do previously.

Bradenham Lane

We followed Bradenham Lane down to Temple village and followed the lane round to where it comes out on Bisham Road. We crossed and walked down The Green, which at one point, before the construction of the Marlow bypass in the early 1970s, ran through to what is now the marooned collection of houses labelled as ‘Bisham Under the Wood’. Ray noted that years ago, he and fellow greenkeepers from nearby Temple used to drive down this lane and store some equipment on some land owned by his then boss’s sister-in-law’s husband. The lane is now blocked off to traffic once you get past the houses at the village end. We briefly peered over the fence to look at the bit of land in question, but it’s all overgrown now.

Abandoned shed formerly used for storage

Ray had been hoping there’d be a tunnel under the A404 at this spot, but there isn’t, so we followed the footpath that leads along the edge of a field, then crossed the field to head towards something labelled on my map as ‘Flood Tunnels’, hoping they were also foot tunnels. Indeed they are, since 2005, according to a plaque at the end of one of them. The tunnel appears to be named the Bowdery Archway, after a member of the local Ramblers who led the campaign to open a footpath through it.

Crossing a field

Tunnel under the A404 Marlow bypass

The plaque

After walking through the tunnels we entered Bisham Woods and followed various paths, some quite hilly, to come out on Hockett Lane in Cookham Dean. Bisham Woods run along a ridge and comprise several smaller woods including Quarry Wood, Fullness Wood and Inkydown Wood.

Path in Bisham Woods

After leaving the wood we walked along roads through Cookham Dean and then joined a path crossing Cookham Dean Common, which was lovely. We then followed Winter Hill Road for a bit and dipped briefly onto the Maidenhead Boundary route to come out on Golden Ball Lane. We stopped off at the Golden Ball in vague hopes of getting lunch, but they had a private event on so weren't doing food. We had a nice cold drink though.

Cookham Dean Common

After leaving the pub we crossed the road and took a footpath leading off opposite - one I don't think I'd been down before, and I think Ray said he'd last been down it as a teenager. It eventually comes out at a junction of tiny lanes. We followed Dungrove Hill Lane back to the A404, passing under the road for a second time and walking back up a short spur of road back to the layby.

Dungrove Hill Lane

Our second tunnel under the A404

Ray said that at one point the lane off Burchetts Green roundabout, which currently leads to Temple Golf Club's greenkeeper sheds and then ends, used to be connected to this bit of road. Have just had a go at finding an old map online that shows this, but haven't managed it yet. It looks plausible, from Google Maps, though must have been before the golf course was constructed.

As we approached the layby where we'd parked, we passed a number of lone men standing on the grass verge just out of sight of the road, nonchalantly looking at their phones. I mean. IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.

Our route shown here:

Old railway bumblings

Ray and I have met up a couple of times recently to try and spot stretches of the former Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. One fairly unsuccessful, back in March, and a much more successful outing last Monday (the May Day Bank Holiday).

Environs of Woodhay station, 11 March

As the level crossing at Kintbury was closed due to line works, I drove to Hungerford and met Ray in the car park there near the station. We sneaked a quick second breakfast at Eliane.

Unnecessary croissant

Ray drove us back over towards Newbury and parked at The Chase, an area of National Trust woodland south of the town near the village of Woolton Hill. I don't think I'd been to The Chase since school, when one of my O-level music teachers (can't remember whether it was Mr Gough or Mr Grant) used to regularly take us in lesson time to walk his dog. Don't suppose that sort of thing would be allowed now.

The Chase's car park is off Station Road (aha!) and Ray had already researched this as being near the site of the former Woodhay station (the name’s a bit of a mystery as it’s some way from the villages of East and West Woodhay).

Location of the former Woodhay station

The grid reference for the station given on Wikipedia shows it as being pretty much where we were looking, and the station house does still exist as a private house. The house is slightly hidden round a bend in the drive, and I did note that there’s a sign telling people to keep out (see snip below from Street View) – perhaps railway enthusiasts are given to going up the drive to have a snoop around?

Signage on the driveway of the former station house

The railway trackbed in this area has been substantially obliterated by being used for the route of the A34 Newbury bypass, and we could make out practically nothing.

Near the former Woodhay station

We walked back into The Chase and had a walk over to the side that’s closest to the A34, and did make out something that seems as though it was probably the old railway embankment.

Probable old railway embankment

Further round we followed something that we thought initially looked like railway trackbed, but ended up concluding was an old loop of road. My Newbury & Hungerford OS Explorer, which is fairly old (it marks the Newbury bypass as due to open late 1998) shows a distinct loop of road here, but Ray’s newer version did not, and Google Maps doesn’t either.

Possible old loop of road

Snip from my OS map

Snip from Google Maps, not showing the loop of road

This really old snip from the map at https://maps.nls.uk/view/97792909 does show it (this map is labelled as revised in 1938). So it looks like the loop was the original route of the road, and the road (now the A343 Andover Road) was later straightened at this point, rendering the loop redundant.

We made our way back round through the wood to the car park. Encountered some cows, which you don't expect to see in woods.

A cow near the path

A watery bit

Environs of Burghclere, 1 May

We drove to the village of Burghclere and parked just off the road by The Clere School, which was deserted as it was a Bank Holiday. At Burghclere, the old railway trackbed hasn’t been used by the Newbury bypass; instead the trunk road has been routed a little way to the west of it, probably because continuing on the trackbed would have obliterated much of Burghclere and they would also probably have had to demolish the National Trust's Sandham Memorial Chapel to do it. Whatever the reason, it made it much easier to locate the track.

From the road bridge just past Spring Lane, it’s possible to see the platform and the station house, though it would probably be clearer in winter when there’s less leaf cover. The trackbed has water in it at this point. The platform is in the garden of the station house, now a private residence, so isn’t publicly accessible.

The old railway from the Harts Lane bridge

We walked down Spring Lane and discreetly viewed the station house. Quite smart; labelled as The Old Station. Ray reckoned it’s probably been extended over the years, which concurs with this Geograph post.

I had assumed that this was Burghclere station, but a little post-walk research revealed that, confusingly, this was Highclere station, even though it’s in the village of Burghclere. There was a Burghclere station as well, but this was further south, at Old Burghclere, and according to Wikipedia was originally called Sydmonton.

The former Highclere station building

We walked on down the road and turned right onto a footpath that led towards the railway trackbed and then on across a field. Looking to your left here, it’s pretty obviously an old railway route. Looking to the right is private, though you can see a couple of derelict buildings that would have been beside the track. The Wikipedia piece says that the signal box and goods shed are still standing – maybe these are them?

Old railway buildings?

At this point, the trackbed wasn’t marked on my old map as a public footpath, so we crossed the field and then entered an area of wood marked on the map as The Alders. There’s a boardwalk through the woods at this point. 

Boardwalk through woods

After the boardwalk ended we had to negotiate some muddy paths back towards an embankment, there’s a path leading up onto the disused railway line. On the ground, the track is marked as a footpath in both directions here, though it isn’t on my map. However, when we consulted Ray’s newer map after the walk, it is now shown as a public path - in fact a national trail, part of the Brenda Parker Way. No idea who Brenda Parker was, but it’s apparently a 78-mile long distance path that was opened in 2011.

We walked southeast along the trackbed for a bit, but then turned back on ourselves as we'd gone off the map and the path was getting a bit muddier.

Endpoint of the public footpath, where it meets a field and the old station premises

We made our way back up Spring Lane and then walked up Pound Lane opposite. From here, the trackbed is in a deepish cutting to the left of the road - there's no public access as far as I could see and it looked a bit boggy anyway. Pound Lane bears round to the right but there's a track that carries on - not sure if this actually leads anywhere; we didn't explore it as we were keen to get to a café for lunch at that point. But it looks from this old map (snip below) that it was a through road at one point, coming out on what's now the A339.

End of Pound Lane

We followed the road round; after going past some houses it becomes a track labelled on the map as Ox Drove (so an old cattle route?). From this we made our way round back into Burghclere.

Ox Drove

We went for lunch at the Honesty Café at the Greenham Business Park. Not long after we'd sat down, there was a torrential rain shower, which luckily had held off during our walk.

Rain at the café

Our route (about four and a half miles in total):