4 April 2022
Little walk from Ray's mooring at Kintbury to Avington, and back.
We walked westwards from Kintbury Lock along the towpath to the first bridge, and then up to join the path that runs from Kintbury northwards past Barton Court Fisheries to Avington.
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| The path, leading up from Kintbury to Avington |
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| The River Kennet |
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| Ray surveying the water |
Barton Court is a square-looking red-brick Georgian house. It was owned for many years by Sir Terence Conran; in 2020 (the year of Conran's death), House & Garden re-published this 1984 piece which has some pictures of the house and how the interiors looked then. Evidently the house had been more or less derelict when Conran bought it. I remember that when we went for walks in the Kintbury area years ago with Mum we were always intrigued to note a bright pink flock of deer in the grounds - we couldn't get close enough to see what they were made of. Ray seemed to think that the house had changed hands a year or so ago, and there did look to be some newish-looking signage in the area.
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| Looking towards Barton Court |
Wikipedia describes Avington as a village, but that's stretching a point: it consists of the manor and its outbuildings, a couple of houses that look like estate staff accommodation, and the 11th-century church of St Mark and St Luke. Pevsner's 'Berkshire' describes it as "a memorable little church" and the Norman font as "exceptionally interesting".
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| The church at Avington |
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| The font |
There wasn't any way of making this a circular walk, so we retraced steps and walked into Kintbury village. Our route in red below.
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