This walk starts on the south bank of the Thames at Tilehurst. If coming from Tilehurst railway station you have to walk back along the main road towards Reading and then turn left at Scours Lane to be able to walk under the railway and down to the river. Scours Lane is rather industrial and the path isn’t signposted but it’s obvious where to walk. Shortly after you’ve got going along the Thames Path, you have to leave it to cross the railway, this time from above. From here you walk through a small private wood and then through the very smart residential streets of Purley-on-Thames. All very well signposted and eventually you reach Mapledurham Lock and the start proper of the walk.

 

From Mapledurham Lock the walk takes you to Pangbourne Meadow and Whitchurch Bridge – one of two toll bridges along the Thames Path ( Swinford Bridge is the other; the QEII Bridge being on the England Coast Path). The walk crosses the bridge from Berkshire into Oxfordshire and the Chilterns at which point the Thames Path leaves the river and continues to climb up through the ever so pretty village of Whitchurch. At the top of Whitchurch the path takes a left and heads for Hartslock Wood. There are glimpses of the river as you walk through the wood and eventually you end up back at ground level near Gatehampton Railway Bridge. The walk then continues alongside the river into Goring where you cross the bridge into Streatley. From Streatley the walk follows the riverside as far as the Beetle & Wedge at Moulsford, where it leaves the river and takes to the streets of Moulsford as far as the playing fields of Moulsford Preparatory School. You then rejoin the river at Moulsford Railway Bridge and continue through Cholsey Marsh Nature Reserve and then on into Wallingford where the walk ends. The official distance covered is 15 miles.

 

Having described where this walk goes there isn’t a great deal to say. I travelled from Huntingdon to Tilehurst, again using the newly opened section of the Elizabeth Line to get to Paddington. I’d been to London the day before for the first day of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations – Thursday June 2nd. So, for my walk the next day, wherever I went, there was bunting galore on buildings, bridges and boats; what a great atmosphere there was. The only other thing of note was that there was a short diversion off the Thames Path as I approached Goring whilst resurfacing work was being carried out. I arrived at Wallingford at about 17:00, a good 5 hour walk. From there I got a bus to Didcot Parkway Station and then trains back to London & home.

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