Walk around Burchetts Green and Littlewick Green, 8.5 miles

Saturday 12 January

Weekend walk with Ray, christening the ’50 Walks in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire’ book that I’d bought myself for Christmas (have definitely reached middle age). We ended up combining two walks in the book: the ‘Around Burchetts Green’ walk and the ‘Littlewick Green and Maidenhead Thicket’ walk.

We parked again at the Butterfly Trail car park and joined the walk route at Robin Hood’s Arbour. Maidenhead Thicket was, apparently, notorious for highwaymen in olden times, and at one time outlaws in general were apparently known as ‘Robin Hoods’. Robin Hood’s Arbour is an Iron Age earthwork. Ray reminisced somewhat bitterly about how, as a small boy, he had been sold a longish walk to RHA under the guise of its being a ‘fort’, which had led him to expect battlements, drawbridges etc, rather than underwhelming humps and ditches.

We followed the path to Stubbings House Lodge, crossed the road and followed the footpath across fields to the posh village of Burchetts Green. We crossed the road by The Crown and headed up Hall Place Lane. We stopped briefly by a large white house called the Dower House for Ray to Google what this actually meant – it seems that the term referred to the house on an estate that was gifted to the widow of the estate owner after he had died, presumably to allow her eldest son to move into the big house. Doesn’t seem a bad deal.

House with dovecote, Burchetts Green

At the end of the lane, we crossed a field and headed down the drive towards Hall Place, a red-brick Georgian mansion that forms the centrepiece of the Berkshire College of Agriculture.

Crossing a field

Hall Place

We skirted round to the right of Hall Place and walked along North Drive to the statue of Diana, before turning briefly left and then right across fields towards woodland (High Wood). We continued through the small wood to its end where the book told us to enjoy the views north over the Thames Valley, so we did briefly. Then back through more of the grounds of BCA where we turned right and passed the Dew Drop Inn before entering Ashley Hill Forest.

Walking through High Wood

Ray by a carved wooden thing

In Ashley Hill Forest

There seems to be a single house at the top of Ashley Hill, an isolated property by UK standards. As a lad, Ray used to be friendly with the son of the landlord of the Dew Drop Inn, and he and this boy would then enjoy exploring around what was then apparently some sort of abandoned hunting lodge. It’s clearly been rebuilt since then as a large though architecturally uninteresting private house. I took a picture of its gates.

Gates to 'Clifton'

Aerial view of Ashley Hill, showing 'Clifton'

We came down Ashley Hill by a different path and made our way back to Burchetts Green. From there, we made our way south, crossing the A4, to the village of Littlewick Green. Have driven past signs to this village for over 20 years but never been in to the village before. It’s very attractive. We stopped at The Cricketers for a light lunch.

Littlewick Green

After lunch, we headed south out of the village and turned left along a tarmac track running alongside fields, coming out on Cherry Garden Lane. Turned left and headed north back to the A4 and then through the Thicket back to the car.

Our route shown in red: