Day 5: Ashbury to Ogbourne St George

Great to wake up to blue skies. Once again the forecast is showers but that has not deterred Steve with once again showing his fashion prowess with the shorts and non matching accessories.

I hadn't seen the village when we arrived here yesterday as I was keen to have a rest but today I feel much better and I was pleased that the route took us out via the small village.

It is a pretty village with a number of thatched cottages surrounding the 12th century church. Although Ashbury used to be in the county of Berkshire. The boundary changes in 1974 transferred it to Oxfordshire.

There wasn't a great deal of variation in the scenery today as we mainly walked through agricultural land.

As many of you know, cows are not a favourite of mine, so I was pleased that an electric fence plus a barbed wire fence separated this herd from the trail.

Very muddy section.

As this is an ancient track it tends to be very straight.

Although it doesn't look it this was a main road junction as it led to the busy motorway, the M4, which we had to cross.

Whenever I travel on this motorway it is much, much busier than this.

Enjoying a lunch stop in the sunshine.

The fields either had wheat or rape seed growing.

We arrived at our accommodation for the night in the village of Ogbourne St George, mid afternoon. The bar in the pub where we were staying didn't open until 5pm.

Not to miss out on a drink in the beautiful sunshine, the boys found a Golf Club not too far away that was open to the public.

Day 4: Letcombe Regis to Ashbury

I didn't have a good night but I did feel a lot better than yesterday morning so I decided to join the others and walk to our next venue. The sun was shining down on us as we left the wonderful 'Greyhound Inn'

We left the village of Letcombe Regis passing many thatched cottages. I couldn't find a definitive answer to the origin of the village name. 'Regis' is easy as that means the land was owned by the crown as far back as 1086 but there are numerous possibilities for Letcombe such as: Saxon for 'Ledge Valley', Celtic for 'Grey Valley', Roman for Leito-camp meaning Grey open land near a Roman settlement. So take your pick.

 

 
Once we had left the village we joined a path that would lead us back to the Ridgeway Trail. 

The path had trees on either side and views of meadows on one side and gardens and orchards  on the other.

Before reaching the trail we passed a Master Thatcher at work. Apparently it takes 4 to 5 years to become a master thatcher and there is plenty of work for them. Many thatched properties are listed for their architectural or historic interest so they can only be replaced with a thatched roof.

The area has a number of stud farms and stables for race horses. I think we were too late in the day to see any of them out for a gallop. 

The loud cawing indicated the rookery in the trees. 

Although the path wasn't muddy, it was rutted from tractors and this made for an uneven path and hard on the feet.

This is a trig pillar which you find all over GB. They are part of a vast original retriangulation network of over 31,000 points that included lighthouses, beacons, turrets etc. There are around 6500 of these pillars. The pillars tell you their height above sea level.

There are a number of historical monuments close to the Ridgeway which we managed to miss but this one was so close to the path that we couldn't miss it. Wayland's Smithy long barrow was used for burials 5.500 years ago in the Neolithic period.

Every now and then we stop and guess how far we have walked. I found the walk tough in places and felt as though I had walked 20 miles rather than 10 miles. Although there were a couple of inclines they really weren't that bad. I think had I been at home I wouldn't have gone for a 10 mile walk today but the antibiotics had kicked in and I definitely felt better than yesterday.

Here we are arriving in the village of Ashbury.

An Easter themed post box topper 

The boys couldn't resist posing by this road sign.

We arrived at the The Rose and Crown in Ashbury mid afternoon. It wasn't long before I had settled into my room for an afternoon nap!