Various walks

River Ouzel near Woolstone

My app-aided walk motivation continues. Have been continuing the early morning walks to work, taking the bus part way and then various permutations of a quite pleasant walk along the canal and via Woolstone and Ouzel Valley Park. Have been occasionally meeting Matt en route, as he has abandoned his usual bike two days a week due to back problems. Spotted this sheep-like installation close to the Neath Hill Roundabout South bus stop.

Brief rundown of selected walks lately, with accompanying fascinating snippets:

Walk Saturday 28 March, to Whiteknights and back, about 6 miles in total 

Took a walk up to Whiteknights a few Saturdays ago intending to purchase kimchi at Seoul Plaza, though in the event it was closed – should have twigged that the university term might have ended. On the way, noticed that the former Wells Hall on Upper Redlands Road is being demolished. It has I think stood empty for a number of years. According to this blurb about the site development, the hall was built in 1974, so not sure why its age renders it no longer suitable as student accommodation given that there appear to be no plans to demolish the much older Wantage Hall on the neighbouring site. As ever, one suspects a bit of a campaign against 1960s and 1970s architecture. I always thought Wells was quite a pleasant-looking building and from memory of going into it a couple of times while I was a student at Reading, well-designed enough.  The hall as was can be viewed on this aerial pic taken from Haslams website, with Wantage Hall to the left of it in the picture:

Walk Good Friday, around Caversham and Emmer Green, about 3½ miles

Trotted out early on Good Friday to get some air before driving to Wales to see family. Wondered, as I often have, how the really quite old-looking Tudor Cottage on Surley Row must have looked before any of the much newer housing around it was built. This Geograph photo has a bit of interesting blurb. This Caversham Heritage Map mentions Tudor Cottage and notes that Surley Row “gives a glimpse of Caversham before the Industrial Revolution”.

Walk 4 April on the Clytha Estate, about 3 ½ miles 

Went for a pleasant walk on the Saturday of the Easter weekend with Ruth and my parents, starting from the Clytha riverside car park and going along the Usk for a bit and then through some attractively flower-bespattered woodland, over fields etc to the Clytha Arms, where we had lunch. After lunch we walked up the road to Clytha Castle, an ornate folly “considered one of the outstanding 18th-century follies of Wales” (surely that’s a pretty small demographic – how many are there?). It was built by William Jones of the nearby Clytha House, apparently with the purpose of 'relieving a mind afflicted with the loss of a most excellent wife'. Fair enough - who among us, after losing a loved one, hasn't wanted to rush out and build a pointy building on a hill?

The picture above right features my parents both having a bit of a snoop beyond the board that said ‘Go No Further’. Being exceptionally law-abiding, I was lurking behind it to take the picture. I think Ruth had sloped off into the woods.

Clytha Castle is available for holiday lets via the Landmark Trust and is advertised on their website thusly. Though the LT, from the random selection of properties I browsed, are not quite as expensive as I’d imagined, they are a bit up themselves for my taste, not providing televisions, radio, telephones or any similar new-fangled nonsense. Well, if one can't amuse oneself for a week's worth of evenings playing Halma and embroidering things, one presumably should buzz off to Pontins.

Walk Easter Sunday in Abergavenny, about 3 miles 

Took a bit of early morning exercise on Easter Sunday before driving to Lambourn for lunch with Ruth’s aunt. Pootled up the Monmouth Road turning into various side streets for a snoop, before completing a circular walk along the water meadows. Was struck by this imposing (and somewhat scary) house on Belmont Road, which was so odd-looking and so much bigger than the houses around it that I did a bit of Googling later to see if I could find out more about it. According to this article from Wales Online, the house is called Fairlea, and was once the childhood home of the crime writer Ethel Lina White – whom I had to confess to not having heard of, but turns out Dad’s mum was a big fan. White’s novels seem to have inspired a couple of films, one the 1946 thriller The Spiral Staircase, which Mum, Hannah and I subsequently watched last Sunday. The SS is apparently based on White’s novel Some Must Watch, and the Wales Online piece has it that the layout of the staircase at Fairlea inspired some of the scenes in the novel. (Bit sad about Dr Huw – hope he found somewhere else nice to live.) This ad via Prime Location has pics of the interior, including the staircase.

Walk before work, 24 April, about 3 ½ miles

Had to climb over a fence. Near the Middleton allotments. Am becoming ever more intrepid.

Walk with Ray to Cosgrove, Saturday 25 April, about 6 miles

Wolverton Viaduct

Ray on the aqueduct

Ray hasn’t been too well lately so I was keen not to overdo it, but he arrived yesterday full of enthusiasm to get out, so we set off up the road to Haversham and then turned left into Ouse Valley Park, where we proceeded under the viaduct and then turned right to join the Ouse Valley Way past an extensive caravan park on the other side of the river, before meeting the canal at the aqueduct. Turned right and walked northwards up the canal past a wad of boats – mainly narrowboats but a few others in addition – until we reached the junction with the ‘Buckingham Arm’, a stretch of canal apparently abandoned in 1964 but evidently now under renovation. The restoration project sounds interesting though challenging given that the A5 now blocks the route. Install a lift bridge??

Horse tunnel

We walked up as far as Cosgrove and used the horse tunnel to cross the canal and have a pootle around the village, which is quite pleasant and seems to have gone in for a Cotswold stone-type look. Unless we missed it the village doesn't have a shop, but there is a pub, The Barley Mow, where we would have gone for a drink if we hadn’t been too early. After a quick circuit of Cosgrove we retraced our steps to the aqueduct and then carried straight on along the canal back to Wolverton Park. We had a quick lunch at Buskers before Ray left to set up Maurice at Laurence's place, where he was apparently doing the overnight security.

Have spent the rest of this weekend pleasantly mooching about the flat (bar a couple of hours' shopping this morning) and enjoying the view from my balcony now that it's (almost) warm enough to sit out there. Increased numbers of narrowboats chugging past, which I assume is a sign of impending summer.