Maidenhead Boundary Walk, part 2: 8.6 miles

Saturday 28 January

Met up with Ray to do the southern half of this route. This was a dull day but a very interesting walk.

We started from Boulters Lock, where we’d finished the northern half in December, and walked to Maidenhead Bridge, where we crossed over to join the Thames Path leading south towards Bray. We passed the Sounding Arch and Bray Lock.

The Sounding Arch

Turreted house with turreted boathouse

The lock cottage at Bray Lock

The annual Rotary event apparently uses a ferry crossing at Bray, specially laid on for the occasion by the Sea Cadets. As that obviously wasn’t operating on the day we did it, Ray and I had to go a bit further on and cross back over the Thames using a bridge that carries the M4 but also has a pedestrian walkway. This bridge was widened in 2020 to allow for the new ‘smart’ motorway that now extends as far as Reading.

Steps leading up to the M4 Thames Bridge

Crossing the bridge on the pedestrian walkway

After crossing the bridge we walked along Old Mill Lane into Bray village. After passing through the village the route turns off across Jubilee Field and crosses a waterway called The Cut.

At Braywick Road, we left the route to detour to the new leisure centre for a spot of lunch in the café. I had noticed on the way through Maidenhead in the morning that the old Magnet leisure centre is in the process of being demolished. I swam there a few times back in the 1990s.

After lunch we retraced our steps to pick up the route again and turned up Harvest Hill Road, and then further along turned left onto Kimber’s Lane. Assume at one point that this was a through route joining up with Ockwells Road, but it’s now cut off by the A404(M), and hence pretty quiet.

We spent some time on this stretch trying to work out where the abandoned route of the old A4(M) Maidenhead Bypass would have been. The route is quite clear on Google Maps but on the ground is pretty hard to make out. See its entry on Pathetic Motorways.

Image showing route of the former A4(M)

It might have been over there somewhere

End of Kimbers Lane and the footbridge over the A404(M)

After crossing the footbridge the route goes along Ockwells Road and then through suburbia. By the Thatched Cottage pub on Cannon Lane, it passes down Firs Lane and then into countryside. We followed footpaths and minor roads to arrive at The Shire Horse pub on the A4, our end point.

Footpath to the west of Cannon Lane

The Shire Horse

We had a pint in the pub and Ray contrived to organise us a taxi back to Boulters Lock.

   

Footnote to my speculation above that Kimber's Lane was once a through road: have just discovered this fantastically useful resource at the National Library of Scotland, which allows you to view old maps. This snip of the one showing Cox Green and White Waltham clearly shows that it was indeed; Kimber's Lane is shown going through to Ockwells Manor.