Reading Walks Festival 2026

After enjoying the couple of walks we went on at last year’s event, and meeting a woman who’d taken the week off work to do some of the Walks Festival walks, I thought this was a good idea, and as we didn’t book to go away in May this year, thought I’d take a week off and do this instead.

I booked on to four walks. I’d made a note in my diary to check the schedule in plenty of time, but still found the Historic Holybrook walk booked up and had to put myself on a waiting list. Thankfully a place did become available. I think I heard someone say in the course of one of the walks that the idea of the festival had been to show the attractions of Reading to people not from the area, but that in reality the walks had mainly been attracting Reading locals. There’s also quite a heavy Ramblers presence, as evidently REDA had approached local groups to ask if any members would be prepared to lead walks. All four of the walks I did this year were led by members of local Ramblers groups.

First walk: River Kennet and Green Park [5 miles]

Walk led by Joyce, of Windsor & District Ramblers – I’d say 70-something. And her friend Rita, who acted as back marker.

We gathered outside the station in front of The Three Guineas pub. From there, we set off through the town centre and from Bridge Street headed down to the canal towpath, where we walked along past County Lock, under the IDR and Berkeley Avenue, past the back gardens of Elgar Road, under Rose Kiln Lane and the A33 to Fobney Lock, where we paused. When we resumed we walked away from the canal down Island Road to come out by the tip (aka Reading Recycling Centre) and continued along to cross the A33 at the lights and onto the Kennet Island development, where we paused at the Fidget & Bob café, which had kindly agreed to make its toilet facilities open to us. In practice a good many of us also bought some light refreshments.

The Kennet Island development started construction in the 2000s on the site of the old sewage treatment works. In addition to housing, the site also includes a Hilton and a private hospital. The new sewage works is the other side of the A33.

Looking out from Fidget & Bob's across some sort of piazza affair

We unfortunately lost two participants – a couple, who evidently found the pace of the walk too fast. For most of the walk I walked just behind the leader, Joyce, with Yvette, a retired lady who was evidently a keen walker, though a double knee replacement a few years back has meant she can’t do as much as before. While we were progressing along the canal bank through Katesgrove, Joyce got a call from Rita asking her to slow down as the group was getting too spread out. We paused at Fobney Lock to wait for the tail; Rita eventually appeared sans the couple, who had apparently bailed out – she had directed them to a local café for a sit down.

The River Kennet by Fobney Pumping Station

After the café/toilet stop, we retraced steps out of Kennet Island and walked south to enter Green Park and proceed via Brook Drive and footpaths to the new(ish) railway station, where most of the group got the train back. I had brought some sandwiches with me which I ate sitting by the lake near the station, intending to get a bus back into Reading, but as it happened there was a train arriving sooner, so I got that instead.

At Reading Green Park station

The route of the walk:

Second walk: Walking the Historic Holybrook [7 miles]

Led by Steve, of Loddon Valley Ramblers. The tail walker was another LVR. This walk started from Theale railway station, though I got the bus instead as the timings were more convenient and then walked the short distance down Station Road. The walk leads, plus two or three of the other walkers, were on the same bus.

The Holy Brook is an offshoot of the River Kennet that flows alongside it to the north, from Theale into Reading. This walk was clearly popular, as I'd had to go on a waiting list initially and it was scheduled to be repeated later in the week.

I was a bit disappointed not to start from Arrow Head, the actual source of the Holy Brook, but I assume it is on private land. Steve did note Arrowhead Road on the left as we passed it. Instead we walked down the road to the canal and joined the canal towpath, which we followed for about a mile, past Garston Lock and under the M4. We then turned off left across a meadow and over the railway line to join the Holy Brook.

Garston Lock with its two pillboxes

Crossing the meadow to join the Holy Brook

We walked eastwards through the Holybrook Linear Park, south of the Beansheaf, Fords Farm, Southcote and Coley Park estates. Most of the route until Coley Park Farm was new to me.

Walking through the Linear Park

The Holy Brook near Burghfield Road

We passed this curious bridge carrying Burghfield Road over the Holybrook. What's its story?

The curious bridge

I did a quick Google search but the only thing I could find concerning this specific bridge was this exchange on Reddit, part of a thread called 'The Double Bridge':

After going up to road level to cross Burghfield Road we carried along through Southcote Linear Park and passed under railway bridges two or three times. We briefly joined the path following the trackbed of the old Coley Branch Line, which Steve reckoned he could just about remember trains on. The line used to run from Southcote Junction to Reading Central Goods Depot. I have no memory of it; it closed in the early 80s and was never a passenger line.

Following the old railway trackbed

We turned off the railway trackbed to follow the Holybrook as it goes up towards Coley Park (footpath shown in the Explorer map snip). The path crosses water meadows and the Coley Park Flats can be seen in the distance.

Looking across to the Coley Park Flats

The stretch from Coley Park Farm to the metal gate just before the rear of the Reading Link Retail Park was not quite as overgrown as it had been when Ray and I passed along it in September 2023, but still fairly nettley. Instead of being forced to turn off to the right, as Ray and I had been, along the boundary of the retail park and then onto the road, this time we carried on, emerging at a bridge over the Holy Brook just by the Admirals Court development. At this point, Steve advised us that it’s possible at a push to carry on following the Holy Brook further, but it’s overgrown and not too attractive. So we turned off and walked through the Admirals Court development up onto Berkeley Avenue.

Met an interesting chatty chap – must have been slightly older than me – who had grown up in Coley and said his parents had come over on the Windrush. He recalled swimming in the Holy Brook as a lad, and also in County Lock in January (strewth). He also claimed that he and his friends used to pinch bottles of beer from Simonds Brewery and store them in the Holy Brook for when they fancied a drink. He also remembered the Coley Boys' Baths, which seem to have been about where Admirals Court now is, though he claimed they weren’t all that nice as water from the Holy Brook got into them. I found these notes from another of Steve Vale's walks, this one from the 2024 walks festival, which mention the baths. I was also amused by the extract above from a 1930 Reading Standard, posted in an 'old Coley' Facebook group. Those baths certainly don't sound appealing.

From Berkeley Avenue we walked down onto the canal towpath and back into Reading. The Holy Brook goes underground near Brook Street West, and surfaces at intervals in the town centre until it flows into the Kennet at Abbey Wharf. Building works to the Abbey Wharf offices were obscuring the viewpoint of the two waterways meeting, so the fourth photo below was as close as I could get.

The Holy Brook underground, near Bridge Street

The Holy Brook flowing past the Oracle shopping centre

Abbey Mill Wharf

The Holy Brook flowing under the offices at Abbey Wharf

This was a very interesting walk though some of the route was almost certainly not public footpath. I don't think the disused railway line path is, though it's evidently an accepted walking route. The path behind the retail park feels a bit unofficial - the top right of the OS snip above shows the green footpath dashes abruptly ending at the retail park. Who knows?

Walking behind the Reading Link Retail Park

This walk felt more difficult than the one the previous day, though it was not all that long and was fairly flat. Perhaps I was tired by the five miles the day before plus five more miles in the afternoon accompanying Ruth around the Caversham Arts Trail.

The route of the walk:

 

Third walk: The Sights and SANGs of Spencers Wood and Shinfield [7 miles]

This one was a walk to the south of Reading, probably the side of town I know least well. It started from the Mereoak Park and Ride, south of the M4 near Three Mile Cross. Part of a relaxing week for me is not doing any unnecessary driving, so I opted to take the park&ride bus 600 to get out there from the centre of town. I’d had some vague expectation that the site might include some basic facilities like a waiting room and toilets, but no, it’s just a big car park with a few bus shelters.

A SANG is, apparently, a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace. We passed through at least two on this walk, Langley Mead and The Ridge, and possibly more that I failed to note down.

The Reading Walks Festival assign various handy labels to the walks to assist with judging which ones would be suitable for you. One of these is “healthy” walks (more walking, less talking from the guide) vs. “sociable” walks (a walk designed to make new friends while walking). Of the four walks I did, this was the only one categorized in the latter group and also the only one billed as ‘child friendly’. In the event, this walk felt at a brisker pace than the two previous ones – certainly in the second half, the leader, Richard, was striding off in front and had a go at persuading us (unsuccessfully) to skip the refreshment stop in Shinfield, issuing warnings about how long modern coffees take to make. Not sure what the 'child friendly' bit was about - there were no children on the walk (or on any of the four I did); I suppose that if there had been the walk leader would have had to tailor the content a bit. Additionally, though I had picked the walk out of interest in the route rather than as an opportunity to make new friends (am not much good at doing that to order) it was if anything slightly less sociable than the previous two walks, probably because it seemed to have fewer people who’d come along on their own. I was though mightily impressed by two ladies who were visiting Reading from Hertfordshire specially to take part in the walks festival - they were staying overnight in a hotel in town and then doing another walk the following day.

Woodcock Lane

We started off by heading north out of the car park up Mereoak Lane and then crossed the A33 into Three Mile Cross, where we turned immediately right onto Woodcock Lane, now a footpath but previously, apparently, an old droving road that went all the way to Basingstoke. We turned off after a bit and followed a path into woodland, and then across a field into Spencers Wood. I think Richard said the field was part of Spencers Wood Common.

Crossing field towards Spencers Wood

We walked through residential development in Spencers Wood and then towards Shinfield. I don’t know Spencers Wood well; was amused by Richard’s comment that although SW is called a village, it’s actually a T-junction. The old Basingstoke Road goes through SW, long since bypassed by the main A33 to the west of the village.

We detoured to High Copse Pavilion for a toilet stop; the festival had evidently arranged for us to be let in specially for this. (The downside of these sorts of events mainly attracting people of middle-age upwards, I guess.)

We walked through Langley Mead, apparently the biggest SANG on the route. It seems to be owned and managed by the University of Reading. I think the photo below was taken there though I neglected to label it when my memory was fresher.

Langley Mead, I think

We stopped, despite Richard's reluctance, at the School Green Centre in Shinfield, which includes a café selling light refreshments. I availed myself of a cup of tea and some sort of sweetmeat. Regarding the Centre's architecture: Richard told us that it had been controversial, but that he quite likes it. The building seems to have won a RIBA award. According to the linked RIBA piece, it's a "playful" extension to an old parish hall. This 2023 Observer review is headed "where Lidl meets idyll" (there's a Lidl next door to it - evidently many Shinfield residents had wanted a Waitrose, with a view to their house prices, but Lidl had won the day).

School Green Centre, Shinfield

After the break, we walked through The Ridge, another SANG and apparently the highest part of the walk, and noted the views of Reading to the north.

View from The Ridge

Towards the end of the walk the weather turned, becoming something resembling hail. I took the pic below as we were walking back through Three Mile Cross and I was wishing I'd brought gloves with me. Richard (in red) was taking no prisoners by this point.

Walking back through Three Mile Cross

The handful of us who'd taken the bus thankfully didn't have too long to wait for one. I went home to warm up.

The route of the walk:

 

Fourth and final walk: Kennet and Southcote [6 miles]

Another walk led by Steve Vale, a knowledgeable chap who’s apparently lived in Reading his whole life. In previous walk festivals he’s evidently led an interesting-sounding walk around Old Coley – a neighbourhood decimated by the construction of the IDR – but he told me he’s got a bit bored with it now so didn’t offer it this year. Fair enough. Maybe next year.

We walked along Bridge Street again and I was expecting this walk to have to repeat part of the route along the Kennet that I’d already walked the previous Saturday, so I was pleased that instead Steve led us over the bridge and through the foot tunnel under the IDR by County Lock. This comes out into Katesgrove, by what used to be the Hook & Tackle pub (and, even more previously, the Tanners Arms) but is currently the Namaste Kitchen.

We walked past the massive Victorian primary school and across down Elgar Road, a street of Victorian terraces. The houses on the west side of the road have gardens that run down to the Kennet. As we walked down Elgar Road there was a lot of comment from some in the group on the various modifications that have been made to some of the houses (as is the case on a lot of terraced streets). I took this photo of three that had retained a reasonably uniform look. Impressively decorative brickwork for such modest houses.

Well-preserved terraces on Elgar Road

Steve paused to look up Dale Road, saying that the site used to be Colliers Brickworks. I can find a reference to Colliers Brickworks’ Grovelands site, but I assume that was near what’s now Grovelands Road. So I'm not sure what that was about - perhaps I misheard.

The southern half of Elgar Road is industrial estate. Just before that, we turned off into Waterloo Meadows, an "urban park" next to the Kennet. I don't think I'd ever walked through there before; it's actually quite nice and surprisingly rural-feeling.

Walking through Waterloo Meadows

The Kennet from Waterloo Meadows

We briefly went up onto Rose Kiln Lane to cross over the Kennet and then re-joined the river path on the other side, and continued on as far as Southcote Lock, where we paused for a sit down and I had another go at a selfie.

The Kennet from Rose Kiln Lane

Fobney Lock with the pumping station beyond

Pausing by Southcote Lock (behind me) and Milkmaid's Bridge

Another selfie attempt

After the break, we crossed Milkmaid's Bridge and followed the path northwards across the water meadows, reaching Circuit Lane and the Southcote estate. We continued through the estate coming out on the Bath Road. At this point, two women reckoned they'd had enough and were going to catch a bus back into town. The rest of us walked through part of Prospect Park to come out on Liebenrood Road.

Kennet water meadows near Southcote

Trees in Prospect Park

The last part of the walk was along roads, which Steve seemed to think was less interesting but I quite enjoyed the cut-through via Kearsley Road and Parkhouse Lane as I'd never walked that way before. We walked back into town via Brunswick Hill and Baker Street, then down Russell Street onto the Oxford Road. Steve noted the Nag's Head on Russell Street, plus the former Pavilion Cinema, now the home of Life Spring Church.

The route of the walk:

 

Various photos were taken by the walk leaders; Alex of REDA assured me that they'd be made available after the festival finished but no sign as yet.