Walk in Maidenhead, about 5 miles

Sunday 10 March

Another walk with Ray. We'd actually planned a while back to do the route of the Maidenhead Boundary Walk, a circular walk of about 14 miles, but wimped out of that. We also had to make an early diversion to Ray's employer's property to remove some branches from the road after a tree had fallen in the heavy winds. After that we went over to Norden Farm for a cup of tea and a sit down - I'm sure I remember there being a much better cake selection the last time we were there, but on this occasion had to content myself with a Stroopwafel.

After refreshments, we parked on Bridle Road and turned down Harrow Road past Furze Platt station (a stop on the branch line between Maidenhead and Marlow) and what was the Farmers Boy pub, now closed. Came out onto Cookham Road almost opposite the parade of shops that used to contain a Ritz Video, where Ray and I rented a LOT of Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes at one point in the past. Turned right onto Garretts Lane, which soon becomes a footpath leading onto North Town Moor. We followed footpaths for a while before coming out onto Ray Mill Road West.

This part of Maidenhead has a whole heap of roads with ‘Ray’ in the title: Ray Mill Roads West and East; Ray Park Avenue, Ray Lea Road, Ray Drive, Ray Street; the charmingly-named In The Ray. There’s a biggish house Ray Lodge, now converted into flats. I lived briefly (before falling out with the other tenants) at Ray Lodge Mews in the early 1990s. A brief bit of digging suggests that ‘Ray’ was the surname of a once-prominent local family.

We walked to Boulter's Lock and crossed over onto Ray Mill Island (there the Rays are again). I didn’t know, but there’s been quite a bit of development here on this stretch between the Thames and the new(ish) Jubilee River – there’s a new footbridge and a shedload of new houses and flats ('Taplow Riverside'). As well as all the housing there are also some nice new pedestrian walkways. We spent quite a while mooching around here.

The new footbridge

Walkway and the Jubilee River

Housing at Taplow Riverside

We walked past what used to be Skindles and is now posh new housing and a posh-looking restaurant called ‘Roux at Skindles’. When I lived in Maidenhead in the early 1990s it housed the Studio Valbonne nightclub, where I clubbed a few times in the days when I did such things. The club’s heyday was way before my time; this source has some interesting snippets about its glamorous history. The new Roux restaurant's Skindles History page notes that ‘in the 1990s, Skindles became a rundown venue hosting discos’ which sounds about right from my memory. It closed in the mid-1990s and the building stood empty for 20 years before being bought up for redevelopment.

We walked into the town centre via Guards Club Park. Access to the island is closed at this time of year because of nesting birds. We had lunch at Funkywood.

The footbridge leading to Guards Club Island

Our route shown in red. It doesn't show as circular because I stopped the tracker when we stopped for lunch.

But here's the rest of it. After leaving the restaurant we walked through Maidenhead's uninspiring town centre (though it's not as bad as Bedford's), across Kidwells Park and along roads back to Ray's car.