Little Bedwyn to Hungerford by Canal – Crossing Borders
- Paul Timlett
- Jun 8
- 12 min read
This is the second in my series of walks along and around the Kennet & Avon Canal, and another of our occasional cross border raids – this time into Berkshire. Again I am indebted to Louise Powell of Circular Wiltshire Walks who inspired the route for this walk. Louise’s Instagram page which contains numerous walks, mostly in Wiltshire, can be found here:
The walk begins in Little Bedwyn which, as the name suggests, is little more than a hamlet. Louise helpfully provides the What3Words reference for two parking options in the village but I imagine parking would be tricky at busy times such as Bank Holidays. The two locations are ///sling.lyricist.lorry (which is where I parked – by the phone box and the footbridge over the railway) and ///vouch.bagels.imply (which is by the canal).
You would think that Little Bedwyn would be a hive of activity. It’s one of the places where a road, river, canal and railway pass through it, all running parallel to each other. The railway line is the mainline to Paddington so there are pretty frequent trains but somehow this doesn’t disturb the tranquillity. From my parking spot I walked the short distance along Church Street towards St Michael’s church, past a short row of sturdy, handsome estate cottages that date to the mid 19th century.
For me no walk would be complete without a Medieval church and this was to be no exception. The first phase of construction of St Michael’s was in the 12th century with further phases in the 13th, 15thand 19th centuries. But there is evidence of Saxon origins. I was surprised how big the church was for such a small settlement. The interior was delightfully simple with plain whitewashed walls and few embellishments. As I sat in the church soaking in the peaceful atmosphere, sunlight from two simple windows flooded the blue clothed alter table in the south aisle bathing the scene in a warm glow. My walk nearly ended here. This was bliss.
As I explored the churchyard I found the grave of one Sam Farmer. If you read my last blog that included a stretch of the canal between Crofton and Burbage Wharf, you will recall that I sat for a while at Sam Farmer Lock. And here he was! After exploring the churchyard I went through the gate in the eastern corner that led me into a small wood – Sandy’s Wood.
This appears to have been the result of a very successful initiative for people to sponsor a tree. I’m not sure when this began but what I found before me was a mature woodland through which two footpaths led. I followed the designated public footpath northwards alongside the stream and the railway. Emerging from the wood it follows a field boundary by the railway line before reaching the crossing by a white cottage. Just in time to complete my photograph a train came thundering down the tracks.
After crossing the railway and passing a couple of peaceful cottages slumbering in the morning sun, the track lead me to Fore Bridge over the canal. This was to be the start of a lengthy stretch of my walk along the canal all the way to Hungerford, traversing the Wiltshire/Berkshire border along the way.
The canal towpath between Fore Bridge and the next lock to the north is narrow and was a little overgrown with Common Butterbur, looking not unlike wild Rhubarb, and Yellow Iris. The path is squeezed between the canal itself and the adjacent lane.
The road was surprisingly well used. Not constant traffic but cars whipped past fairly frequently sounding very close behind the hedgerow. But in between the cars the only sound was the prolific birdsong and occasional train. The predominant birdsong was that of the Sedge Warbler. They seemed to be everywhere and now and then I got a fleeting glimpse. One sat on top of small tree on the opposite bank singing its heart out for several minutes. A frantic, urgent song that suggested a bird on an important mission.
At the first lock there was a bench and a table. A guy was preparing his canoe for launch and it being mid-morning already I decided to have a quiet coffee alone beside the canal. At this point a couple of cars and a barge arrived. No quiet coffee for me. The occupants of the cars got out, one couple to walk a dog and the other to have an early lunch. The barge was operated by the Canal and River Trust. I assume they were doing an inspection, but they also seemed to be training one of the crew in the operation of lock gates and canal engineering. I listened with interest. This boat was to accompany me for much of my walk along the canal. Whilst it was able to motor a little faster than I walked, it would slip behind as it negotiated each of the locks.
At the following lock by Frith Copse I arrived just after the Canal and River Trust boat and as I peered down into the overflow channel, which after the rain the day before was fast flowing, I noticed something in the water pressed against the grill which was there to prevent debris from blocking the channel. I realised it was the carcass of a small deer that had obviously fallen into the canal and drowned. I mentioned it to the Trust crew who said they’d heard reports of it. Unfortunately for them it was now their duty to retrieve the body. I decided not to hang around for this and continued on my way! Around Oakhill Farm the busy A4 swings in from the north and the sound of its traffic was to be my accompaniment all the way from here to Hungerford.
Arriving at a bridge where the railway crosses over the canal the OS map shows a swing bridge. However all I could see was a footbridge so I assume the swing bridge has been removed. This was disappointing as I was looking forward to seeing it.
But there are others along the way. I soon came to Cobbler’s Lock with its perfectly placed white cottage, presumably once the lockkeepers cottage. Behind the cottage I could see what appeared to be water meadows and a little footbridge.
This was the start of Freeman’s Marsh, now a nature reserve. Just after the lock gates was an interpretation board about the reserve but the plastic protective covering made it difficult to read so I’ve included a link below to the website.
In these days when local authorities have sold off so much of their land in order to alleviate budget deficits it was encouraging to see that this nature reserve is actually owned by the Town and Manor of Hungerford, which hopefully will provide it with some protection. In order to enter the reserve you have to continue to the next lock where you will find a swing bridge. So I crossed the bridge and entered Freeman’s Marsh.
I was hoping to find Southern Marsh Orchids whilst on Freeman’s Marsh. At the time of my visit in mid-May there were a few out at Jones’s Mill, a similar landscape at Pewsey. But if they were at Freeman’s Marsh I didn’t find them. However I did find plenty of Cuckoo Flowers (my first this year) and Ragged Robin. The reserve is also known for its ground nesting birds but the number of dog owners who ignored the many signs asking them to keep their dogs on leads meant there were none. I found a quiet spot on a bench next to the River Dun which flows through Freeman’s Marsh and had some lunch. As I sat in the sun quietly sipping my coffee I listened to the many birds that mostly do not nest on the ground so survived the disturbance of dogs. I can identify a lot birds by their song but had to resort to the Merlin app on my phone for assistance. This is what it picked up:
Wren Skylark
Blackbird Cetti’s Warbler
Chaffinch Goldfinch
Song Thrush Sedge Warbler
Woodpigeon Black Redstart (unlikely)
Chiffchaff Greenfinch
Linnet Garden Warbler
Dunnock
A thoroughly respectable hoard.
I followed the clearly marked path through the reserve, at one point following a tiny stream instead of the Dun, through some reed beds and over a small bridge until I caught sight of the lock and next swing bridge on the canal with the substantial tower of St Lawrence’s church beyond.
Unfortunately my timing was poor as I just missed seeing a canal boat navigating the swing bridge. Crossing the canal I walked through the churchyard to the southern corner. St Lawrence's is a large town centre church and there was a classical music event going on so I decided on this occasion not to spend any more time there.
But in the corner of the churchyard there was something I wanted to see – something that Louise Powell had specifically mentioned in her walk description. And this was a clapper or tumble stile. I’d seen one before somewhere but couldn’t remember where or how it worked! As I climbed over it I soon found out. To quote from the Hungerford Virtual Museum website:
“The four cross bars are hinged by single bolts (possibly wooden pegs in earlier years), and weighted with simple wooden blocks. To cross the stile, the user has to press down the cross bars, and step over. On releasing the bars, the weights return them to the horizontal, making a pleasing triple clattering sound.”
Since I was on my own, and I didn’t really want to have to ask a passer-by to help with my photograph, I had to find a way to demonstrate what it looks like with the cross bars pushed down. So I found a large stone and wedged it under one of the wooden blocks. Otherwise it would just have looked like a four bar fence. I think you can get the gist of it from the photograph.
From the stile I walked past The Old Vicarage and round to the right following the road across the bridge over Shalbourne Brook to the junction with Marsh Road where I turned right passing through a suburb of Hungerford. Rounding the bend by an industrial estate and immediately across the road bridge, hidden almost out of sight on the opposite side of the road is a public footpath sign. This was a start of a long stretch through uninspiring scenery beside arable fields. Once I’d got beyond the “dog walker zone” (the 250 metres or so from a parking place or habitation where dog walkers turn round and return to their cars/homes, leaving whatever their dog ate earlier on the path) the path was slightly more pleasant. But the huge fields of monoculture and field margins burned yellow from the application of chemicals couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the morning’s walk. There were no flowers, no bees, no butterflies and hardly any birds despite the hedgerow next to the path. This was a sterile almost dead landscape that has clearly been intensively farmed for many years. I picked up a handful of lifeless soil and felt immense sadness.
After passing through a small copse and on along the public footpath I found in front of me what looked like parkland in a country estate. And that’s exactly what it was. The “Private” signs everywhere told me this was the Standen Estate and across the park in front of me was the very substantial manor house.
Much, I’m sure, to their annoyance the footpath crosses the park in front of the house up to the gates on the drive. As I reached the gates a large Mercedes estate came up the drive driven by a very elegant blonde with an Alice band. She peered down her nose at me and passed through the electrically operated gates. I did a quick internet search to see who owned the state and it turned out to be the Sangster family and the woman I had seen was the current Mrs Sangster. The estate was built on the wealth of the guy who started Vernon’s pools and today they make their money from horse racing and farming. The sterile landscape I had passed through was theirs.
At the aforementioned gates the drive splits – one way leads to the house and the other, on the far side of the manor house wall, through a farmyard then on to pass the almost equally as impressive Standen Manor Farmhouse.
This looks like you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be but there are several rights of way through the farmyard. Past the farmhouse the road/track turns left between more arable wilderness before reaching a wood, Catmore Copse, where the track crosses the border back into Wiltshire. On entering the wood there is a sign on the right pointing both along the track and through the wood on an ill-defined path. You could continue along the track to reach a minor road where you would turn right along the road to Bagshot. But I chose to walk through the wood.
The path disappeared completely in a couple of places but I followed my nose in the direction I had started and soon came to the edge of the wood to find a clear path mown across a field of long grass that had been left unmown. This was much better. Over to my left across the field was a thatched cottage whose roof seemed to reach the ground. But following the path across the field past a white thatched house to the left I came to the aforementioned road where I turned right past a couple of houses that comprise Bagshot.
Just after Limetree Cottage on the right of the road is a metal swing gate into the next large country estate – Stype Grange.
Next to the gate was one of the most elaborate and ridiculous warning signs I’ve ever seen, listing all the things that I should and shouldn’t be doing and warning me that I was being filmed for, amongst other things, health and safety and fraud prevention reasons!!
Again I did a quick internet search to see who owned this place. I could hear Peacocks so naturally assumed that there was a grand country house nearby. But there was no way you could see it through the many tall hedgerows, fences and earthworks. I could just about make out a roof but someone clearly doesn’t want us to see what they’re up to. As far as I could determine the estate is (or was) owned by the Magor family whose ancestors were involved in the East India Company and were tea producers. It’s probably best if I say no more on that subject. I could not find any photos of the house other than one from 2013 when a footpath seemed to cross the estate with clear views of what is an enormous house. But that path and those views no longer exist so I can only assume that the owners had the path diverted. I later read that the estate may now be owned by one of the country's many billionaire hedge fund managers, which might explain the secrecy.
Having passed through the swing gate I followed the high hedgerows for some distance. The diverted path rejoins the line of the (no longer accessible) legal footpath shown on the OS map by the gates to the drive to the house, which was unseen round more hedges and a bend in the drive. But continuing along the drive in a north-westerly direction I could see a lodge by the side of the drive and beyond it a long straight avenue cut through the woods – Stype Wood.
Passing through a pedestrian gate next to the lodge I started along the broad avenue known as Long Walk. There are warning signs everywhere ordering you not to enter the woods, which were full of Rhododendron. I don’t know whether these were the invasive vigorous growing species but they had penetrated deep into the woods.
As I continued on a pair of Muntjac deer appeared ahead of me, oblivious to my presence until I approached. A little later the Rhododendron became less prevalent and Beech trees took over, Beech Walk shown on the map to my left but in the part of the wood marked as “Private”.
Eventually I reached the end of Long Walk and emerged onto a track where I turned left, following it along the edge of the wood until I came to a junction of rights of way where I turned right towards Jugg’s Wood. The sun was sinking in the late afternoon sky and struggled to penetrate the canopy of trees. The track along the edge of Jugg’s Wood is sunk deep into the landscape here suggesting it has been used for centuries if not millenia.
Before long I reached a house hard next to the track and passing alongside it and down its gravel and stone drive I reached the road next to the canal by Fore Bridge where I had crossed many hours before.
From here it was a simple case of re-joining the canal towpath back to the lock at Little Bedwyn, the spire of St Michael’s peering out above the trees on the other side of the canal, rail and river. A footbridge over the canal and then the railway took me back to my car.
In all this route measured13.8 kms (8.6 miles). It was pan flat and easy going the whole way apart from in places along the towpath where it was a little overgrown but still passable. If you can hold your nose past the many “Private” signs on the Standen and Stype Grange estates and through the vast fields of sterile monoculture, this is a pleasant walk. On a more positive note, I saw no sign of the industrialised game bird shoots found in so much of the Wiltshire countryside. But the highlight is definitely the first half from St Michael’s, along the canal and through Freeman’s Marsh to Hungerford. The birdsong in Spring is especially wonderful.
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