Maidenhead Boundary Walk, part 1: 7.75 miles

Thursday 29 December

Ray and I had seen signs for this attached to some footpath signs in the Pinkneys Green area, and had thought a while back that we might walk it. In total it’s a 13-mile route, but we decided to do it in two halves: today we did the bit that passes to the north of the town and will hopefully do the southern bit at the end of January. It’s walked as an annual sponsored walk organized by the local Rotary.

Helpfully there’s a .gpx file of the route (below) which we used in the GPX Viewer app.

We used two cars; Ray parked in the car park at Boulters Lock and I picked him up from there and drove us to the Thicket car park near the A404 roundabout. From there we walked to the point where the route crosses the A4 near the Shire Horse pub, as Ray wanted to start from there. (In the picture above, the route can be seen crossing the A4 (Bath Road) on the left side of the image.)

We walked northwards through Maidenhead Thicket, past Stubbings Nursery and under the A404 to come out on Henley Road near Stubbings village.

Our starting point

Setting off through Maidenhead Thicket

Peeping through trees at the big house at Stubbings

For road geeks: the now-unclassified Henley Road was formerly the A423 until the 1990s, and even more formerly (pre-1935) the A415.

Henley Road at Stubbings

We crossed the road and continued north-east along the exclusive Darling’s Lane and across the top of the common at Pinkneys Green to cross the A308 opposite the Golden Ball pub.

Crossing the common

We passed the Brick & Tile Works site, though didn’t detour into it. Ray told me that when the buildings were still standing, he and a friend once illicitly entered the site and the friend took a load of photographs. He apparently gave Ray copies of these photographs but Ray wasn’t sure whether he still had them. A shame if not as an internet search didn’t turn up any photographs of the buildings and I imagine there would be local interest in them.

We walked along Malders Lane until the junction with Cannon Court Road.

Looking back westwards along Malders Lane

We stopped at the Costa at the row of shops on Shifford Crescent (the Cliveden View Shopping Centre, apparently) for tea and a toastie, and to use their facilities.

We continued on, turning left onto Gardner Road and crossing the railway (the Marlow branch line) just as a train was passing.

We walked through a housing development and onto a lane leading out onto fields. We crossed a footbridge over a waterway (Strand Water) and then followed a path leading north for a while.

We turned right onto a larger path that’s also a cycle path and headed eastwards to skirt the southern edge of Widbrook Common. There are gravel workings in this area but they’re fenced off.

Tree on Widbrook Common

The route then crosses the A4094 and goes across Battlemead Common (thought to have been the site of two historic battles, apparently). There’s a footpath across this leading to the Thames Path, but a passing walker told us that this was currently closed – evidently it’s closed over the winter months to protect bird habitats. This meant we had to take a detour - thankfully easily followed - that added about half a mile to the overall walk length.

Thames view; Cliveden estate opposite

We joined the (muddy) Thames Path and made our way south back to Boulters Lock.

A boundary marker by the Thames Path

Holiday #2 in 2021: Westward Ho!

1-8 November 2021

Where we stayed

Beach House, on the edge of Westward Ho! Booked through Original Cottages.

This trip was a last-minute whim to escape to the coast – we booked it less than two weeks before the start of the holiday and hence got a bit of money off. The property was much larger than Ruth and I strictly needed – three bedrooms, three bathrooms – but we enjoyed luxuriating for the week in all the unnecessary space. The house is on a newish-looking development next to the Royal North Devon Golf Club.

Westward Ho! was a purpose-built resort village, named after the novel of the same name by Charles Kingsley, which seems an odd way of doing things. Kingsley was from nearby Bideford, which we visited during our stay. WH! is pleasant enough though lacks much olde-worlde charm, if that’s your thing. It has a big sandy beach that forms one of a line of them on the north Devon coast – Saunton Sands is to the north, the other side of the Torridge estuary, and Woolacombe further north again beyond Baggy Point.

We did once take a family holiday at Instow, the other side of the river from Appledore, but it’s a holiday I remember very little about and we don’t seem to have much in the way of family photographs. The cottage was afflicted with damp and Mum’s chief memory seems to have been attempting to get Hannah some emergency asthma medication. Hannah reminded me that I had spent much of the week revising for my Chemistry O-level, perhaps explaining why I don’t remember much else about it.

We spent quite a bit of time on the first evening figuring out the ridiculously high-tech cooker, featuring this by way of an extractor. V. sleek but not hugely obvious.

First full day: walk to Appledore via Northam Burrows

We walked from our holiday home to the village of Appledore via Northam Burrows, an area of dunes and saltmarshes that’s home to the course of the Royal North Devon Golf Club (which is, according to Wikipedia, the oldest golf club in England). It was the first time I've seen sheep grazing on a golf course; Ray remembers playing there once and having to clear sheep crap out of the way so that they could use the green to putt.

Setting out across Northam Burrows

Beach from Northam Burrows

This was the only day of the holiday when we had much rain. The golfers were clearly a hardy breed as there were still plenty of them out.

Rain ...

We had a brief walk around the village of Appledore before seeking lunch at The Seagate.

Street in Appledore

We made a vague attempt at locating the pub where Dad had told us he once stayed with his parents as a young boy, 64 years previously, but as he couldn’t remember the name of it, and we had no idea whether it was still there in any case, this was a bit of a doomed endeavour. There were several pubs in the village (and presumably more in times past) – here I am standing outside one called The Champ – which might have been the one; who knows.

I have long-ago family connections with this area on Mum’s side. Auntie Anne sent me this interesting snip that includes a studio photograph from 1844. Susannah Clibbett (the seated woman in the picture) was one of the Appledore Clibbetts, a family of shipbuilders. (Mum says that she was named after Susannah - loosely, as Mum’s name is the shorter form Susan.) Anne writes that Susannah married a Captain George Hicks, a mariner from Cornwall, and that the family later moved to Calstock in Cornwall. 

The little girl in the picture was Mum and Anne’s great-grandmother Blanche Ellery Hicks. Blanche later married a Cornish man, Richard Martyn, and they moved to south Wales, where Anne and Mum were later born.

Route of the walk below: 4.7 miles. We had to walk back as well, but took a shorter route back along roads.

Second full day: walk around Westward Ho!

We had a stroll along the beach.

We passed a swimming pool set into the rocks. We did see some people swimming in it over the course of the week.

We passed Seafield House, a large derelict Victorian house occupying a prominent position on one end of the front. Someone has clearly had some fun with it as there were skeletons etc hanging in the windows.

We identified part of the route of the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway, which seems to have been open for a total of less than twenty years in the early twentieth century. This stretch is now part of the South West Coast Path.

Looking back along the coast path

A while further on we turned away from the coast path and walked inland in order to make it a circular route. Had to stop and take a photo of these old gates. The location given by Google Maps suggests they led to a house that no longer stands.

The return route took us along Bay View Road, set high above the village and featuring some large houses. This was a total route of 7.7 miles.

Third full day: Bideford

We drove into Bideford and had a walk around.

The Torridge estuary at Bideford

We crossed over the bridge and walked a short way along the route of the old Bideford to Barnstaple railway line, noting the platforms of the former station.

We walked up to Chudleigh Fort and then back down and over the bridge back into the main bit of the town. We had lunch at the Pannier Pantry.

Chudleigh Fort

Our lunch spot

After lunch we visited the Burton at Bideford gallery where there was an exhibition of Devon photography by James Ravilious. I'd heard of the painter Eric Ravilious (his father) but hadn't heard of James. They were really interesting photos of rural life there in the 1970s/80s.

The exhibition

The Burton at Bideford gallery and museum

Fourth full day: walk from Saunton Sands to Croyde

We drove to Saunton Sands and parked in the expensive but thankfully fairly empty car park (pondered again how this area must be hell in the holiday season). We had a cup of tea on the beach and then followed the South West Coast Path towards Croyde. 

Looking down Saunton Sands from the north

The path runs parallel with and just above Croyde Road until it descends to the road near Chesil Cliff House, an OTT vanity project featured on a Grand Designs episode in 2019. At the time we walked past it it still looked unfinished but was on the market with Knight Frank for £10 million earlier this year.

Chesil Cliff House

Looking towards Lundy Island

The beach at Croyde

Just past Chesil Cliff House there’s a path leading down towards the rocky coastline, which we took and made our way around to the beach at Croyde. We had a picnic on the sand here before having a bit of a walk around Croyde and then heading back.

Final full day: local bumble and lunch

We walked into Northam to have a look at the Church of St Margaret. I believe some ancestors of mine were married in this church, but have forgotten which ones – quite possibly George and Susannah mentioned in the snip above.

Church of St Margaret of Antioch, Northam

From Northam we walked back into Westward Ho! and had lunch at The Pier House.

My lunch

Westward Ho!

Verdict

It was an enjoyable week and an interesting area; I'd go again. Our holiday house was lovely though aspects of it seemed a bit impractical for a holiday let - in addition to the cooker already mentioned, the kitchen had gorgeous (Corian?) white worktops that were extremely easy to stain, as Ruth did by leaving used teaspoons on the draining area. We had a bit of a panic that we had indelibly stained it and were going to be charged for an entire replacement worktop. A bit of Googling suggested that bicarbonate of soda might do the trick - unsurprisingly, we hadn't brought any with us, but located some in the nearby Tesco and Ruth spread it on and we left it overnight. In the morning, the tea stains looked even darker brown than they had previously. So boo to bicarb. In the end we managed to scrub the tea stains off with some innocuous product like washing up liquid.

Bicarb paste left overnight

Ruth in the living area at Beach House

Chloe: part deux

I spoke too soon. Barely two days after the previous post, Chloe inflicted a significant wound to one of Cassius’ back legs, and he was duly taken to the vet for an expensive stitch-up. He came through that fine but was sent home with medication to be applied and with various follow up appointments, all of which was made more awkward as we were due to be setting off on holiday to Pembrokeshire the following Saturday. We had already booked both Cassius and Chloe into ‘Reggie's Retreat’, a small animal boarding facility in Bracknell recommended by someone in a local Facebook group. Ruth had to contact them to ask if the two could be housed separately, and whether the proprietor Sophie would very much mind administering Cassius’ medication and taking him for a follow up vet appointment the following week. We weren’t at all sure she’d agree to this, but she turned out to be a star, taking him to his vet appointment and phoning through updates to our holiday rental.

Cassius’ leg wound became infected and we weren’t at all sure he’d pull through, but at the time of writing he does seem to have made a full recovery, though the fur hasn’t grown back yet. We kept him caged for a week or so after we returned from holiday, partly to protect him from Chloe and partly to make it easier for Ruth to catch him in order to medicate him. Since being released from confinement, he has been housed in our second bedroom/my office, where he spends a lot of time anyway snoozing at my feet under the desk. Ruth was concerned about muscle atrophy, but he was back almost immediately to jumping onto the footstool and chair in my office, and generally running about. He is an accomplished jumper, certainly given his age, and I realized that he’s able to use the tub chair in the first picture as a launchpad to get onto my desk, so have been having to place barriers in the way of him doing this.

Cassius exploring after his release

Taking the exploring a bit too far

Ruth did phone the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary to tell them that the bonding had broken down somewhat, and had what seems to have been a fairly ill-tempered conversation with Laura, who (according to Ruth) suggested that it must have been something Ruth had done wrong. We subsequently called in to Reading Rabbit Rescue to seek Sandra’s take on the matter. Her view was that the OAS’ defensiveness might have stemmed from a worry that we were going to ask them to pay the vets’ bills – something that hadn’t even occurred to us, but we gathered that this has happened to Sandra a few times after bondings gone wrong. We ended up jointly concluding that it probably is not a good idea to attempt to put Cassius and Chloe back together. It’s looking like the only option is to rehome Chloe, which is a shame but we do need to have two rabbits who can co-exist. We've shelved the issue until after the Christmas/New Year break but will either need to ask the OAS if they’ll take her back or wait until RRR can take her in, which Sandra indicated they might be able to do from February.

Sandra wasn’t optimistic that Chloe will be a candidate for re-bonding given her record with us and suggested that Ruth works on socializing her to get her more used to people in order to make her more suitable for re-homing as an ‘only’ bunny. Sandra did ponder whether Chloe has actually been neutered, given her aggressively territorial behaviour – we don’t know, is the answer; rescue facilities are supposed to make sure all their animals are neutered before being re-homed but Sandra suggested that animals occasionally fall through the gap on this one. Obviously Ruth and I don't have the know-how to check this, but from what Sandra said we'd expect to have noticed a smell with an un-neutered animal, which we haven't.

As we’d got Chloe with the aim of providing Cassius with a companion, we also expressed concern about him being on his own and wondered whether we should try again. Sandra’s advice was that given Cassius’ age (8), we shouldn’t worry too much – if he’d been a two-year old bunny she’d have advised trying again with a different bonding. So it looks as if he may remain on his own, which isn’t ideal - presumably preferable to being housed with a violent companion, but who knows how rabbits' minds work. Given that I'm working at home most of the time, he has fairly constant companionship in his favoured room. We’ve generally been letting him out in the late afternoon/evening to have a run about the house (albeit keeping the door to the dining room, where Chloe is, firmly closed). Here he is on Boxing Day in the living room, seemingly having a go at accessing a box of Milk Tray. The chocs were taken off him shortly after this.

Ironically, Ruth received this from the OAS in mid-December. She did consider responding with the story of Cassius and Chloe, but suspected it wouldn’t make it through the “feel-good” screening. For balance, they ought to have a “The Ones That Got Away” section, surely.

Visit to Warburg Nature Reserve

Walk with Ray around this relatively remote spot northwest of Henley.

Warburg Nature Reserve is owned by BBOWT. It's somewhere I’d noted while map-browsing but probably not somewhere I would have driven to by myself. From Henley, it’s accessed by taking the A4130 out of town. We turned off onto the B480 through Lower and Middle Assendon and then turned left onto Rectory Lane, but it would probably have been more direct to carry on to Bix and turn off there. The minor road goes down into Bix Bottom and then you carry on following it until you get to a car park with, surprisingly, also a small Visitor Centre.

The Visitor Centre had a picture of some strikingly blue fungi, though we didn’t see any of those. The woman there encouraged us to write any species of bird we saw on the board, though I am not much of a bird-spotter and also fight the urge to deface such lists by writing “Superb Bird of Paradise” or similar on them.

We had a lovely walk through the wooded valley.

Afterwards we went over to Stoke Row and had tea at the café at the Stoke Row Store.

Chloe

So two weeks ago we went to fetch the newly-bonded Cassius (pah) and Chloe from the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary at Stadhampton. On arrival, we were presented with a folder of information with this somewhat flowery header sheet. I had assumed it was only Sandra at RRR who did the “husbun” business, but no, clearly not.

We were assured by Laura at OAS that the bunnies had got along very well for the two weeks they’d been together and had been one of the easier bondings that she’s overseen. We concluded that perhaps both bunnies had realized that neither of them is getting any younger and that they might as well get along. Since coming home, they have continued to appear to be getting along OK. There seemed a brief wobble the other morning when they appeared to be having a bit of a scrap over their breakfast, but hopefully this was a one-off.

Since Chloe’s arrival, we have been discouraging Cassius from going upstairs, which he does like doing but we were warned by Laura that the bunnies need to be spending time together in order to stay bonded. Harley at one point used to spent most of his daytime hours under the bed in the master bedroom, but two of his pairings were with females who were not too tolerant of him (Lexie and Willow) so we sort of turned a blind eye. Chloe doesn’t so far (fingers crossed) appear to be exhibiting aggressive or territorial behaviour towards Cassius so we hope it’s going to work out OK.

We don’t know much about Chloe’s background other than she came into rescue at OAS when her companion died. She seems as keen on the garden as Cassius is; unlike him, she’s a burrower, so we have to keep an eye on her while she’s out there (she appears to have taken over the hole that Taylor started). Here she is having a bit of an explore.