Bowood House

Bowood House in Wiltshire made another interesting stop on my whirlwind tour of "local" historic houses. The house itself is in fact only the remaining part of what was once a larger property but reduced to the "Little House" after wartime and subsequent delapidation. It is the home of the Earls of Lansdowne the first of whom negotiated peace terms after the American War of Independence. (I had lunch at the "Lansdowne Monument" on my Ridgeway walk back in the Spring) Interior scenes....Grounds are extensive, designed by "Capabililty" Brown

Straight on to Streatley (and going to Goring too!)

I am feeling bereft. A whole day's walk on the Ridgeway path and not a hill fort to be seen!!!
Quite shocking!! (heehee). But here's what did occur......

Standard issue Bank Holiday weather: Order Cancelled. Replace usual items with lovely sun shine, mix in with a bit of cloud and gentle breeze for cooling effects.... in other words, lets make it a perfect day for a walk. Nice!!!
Setting out early from home I arrived at Scatchamer Knob carpark area and was walking by 9.15am

Some lovely flowers lined my way....

To my left: wheatfields being harvested, powerstation keeping the wheels of home and industry aturning, and wide views over the upper Thames valley inc. Wittenham clumps near Dorchester

In passing under the A34 on Ashdown one learns of its historic connection: hereabouts Alfred the Great and his brother Ethelred led the West Saxons against the Danes and won (just about).

Alfred became King Alfred soon after the battle (8th January 871AD). Shame its only commemorated with a mural on an underpass though!!

After a long downhill slope, and for the first time on the Ridgeway since Avesbury, civilisation!!

Steatley!!

and then the Thames.....

and so to Goring!! Hurray! This feels like the half way point on the Ridgeway. It certainly was half way for today....as now I had to walk back to my car again!!
But, to vary things a little I follwed the Thames path up river for a time, stopping for lunch at a point on the river bank where I lunched 5 years ago when doing the Thames path, and had enjoyed watching my second and third ever views of Red Kites. None around today however.

Lunch over, I walked on passed some interesting riverside properties, like this Egyptian themed one....

or this with a WW2 pill-box worked in as a garden feature...

From Mouslford I followed a bye-way through a quiet valley full of pheasants...

and rejoined the Ridgeway, whence back to my car and home.

Sore muscles,

sore ankles,

but happy soul!

Sparsholt Firs to Scutchamer Knob

At last I was able to return to my Ridgeway walking. Today's starting point was the car park at Sparsholt Firs. Maybe it was the malign influence of the Devil's Punchbowl nearby but I was very disorientated at first. I nearly started heading off westwards for goodness sake!
The best bit about today's walk came early on. If you look VERY carefully in this shot
you may spot one of the four red kites that graced the air hereabouts. Wonderful birds!

Further onwards I reached yet another Iron Age hillfort, Segesbury Camp which seemed
bigger than earlier ones, although less generally evocative in its location (not on a significant hilly out look for example). Probably jolly nice folk who lived in it and all that, its just abit "run of the mill" as a feature. Nice wildflowers fill it now,

The other feature of todays walk that gave me some small pleasure was being able to figure out

some of the features in the distant views. Didcot power station was quite easy (!) but I also recognised the Wittenham clumps near Dorchester-on-Thames and spotted Brize Norton

over in the blue haze. Hurrah.

What's in the blue haze here, however I cannot say. I like the green stripes don't you?

I ended my walk today with a lateish lunch atop Scutchamer Knob (with a convenient car park nearby for starting the next section from!!) about which I knew nothing but you can, like me read all about it HERE
Walking thence, back to the car gave me a total of 14 miles for the day, a respectable achievement.

Just Popped in to see King Alfred....

Wantage, birthplace to King Alfred the " cakeburner" Great.

A nice place to spend some time on a grotty wet summer's day

when you'd rather not get soaked and blasted on the Ridgeway.

It has a splendid little "Downland and Vale" Museum. There I got

educated about Lord and Lady Wantage and what good Victorian eggs

they were. Maybe not as Great as, well......Alfred.......though.

It also has a splendid second-hand book shop where I bought lots of books

to educate myself about other subjects that fascinate...."as you do".

And on the literary theme......the area was also home to John Betjamin (Uffington, Wantage) Pam Ayres (Standford in the Vale), and the author of "Tom Brown's School Days" Thomas Hughes (also Uffington).

On my drive homewards I stopped by to have another look at the White Horse, from afar.

(Oh and by the way, speaking of things equestrine Lester Piggot....he was from Wantage!)

( random information gathered courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wantage !!!)

Fox, Horse, Hare.....its all here!

A new day, a new section of the Ridgeway path. My car having been left
in a handy pub car park I climbed, in a slight drizzle at first,
up the slope onto Fox Hill (with the radio mast.
This is a "whence I have come" shot with the Marlborough Downs and the
various clumps of trees on the furthest ridge and Liddington castle just near
to the little tuft of trees in the middle!) .

Once again the pathway was pleasingly edged with thick hedgerow
and this good days walk was one to have plenty of wildlife, and flora.

Campion

Viper's buglose

a plethora of species.

Of bird life, their were lots of whitethroats (above)with their scratchy songs, yellowhammers,

a bullfinch (which is the first one I have seen for some time!), goldfinches, corn buntings, sky larks (of course), meadow pipits, blue and great tits, lapwings and red-legged partridges. There were also buzzards, a kestrel and (rather surprisingly I thought)

herring gulls (I couldn't help thinking of Keehar in "Watership Down" with his German "Yah!Yah!" in the animated version....heehee!) . As for mammals...well one dear, one (very quick glimpse ) bank vole, and rabbits. Domestically, of course, there were also sheep a-grazing, pigs a-squealing...And then, of course, there was an occasional curious heifer.

This one stopped by to help me located myself on the map. (I was interested in the abrupt occurance of the little dry valley in the background.)

Todays big features, however, were further ancient ones. First of all
I reached Wayland's Smithy, a large long barrow burial site dating back

to ahout 3000bc.

Wayland (oe Weland) the Smith was an Anglo-Saxon god/elf who (they supposed)

would re-shoe your horse for you here overnight, if your left the horse and a coin

here. More information here:

http://www.stonepages.com/england/waylandssmithy.html

Well, there were no horses to be seen here, So Weland was having a quiet

rest no doubt. I, however, had to be on my way once more.

the next site of interest was approached soon after a throng of school children

and accompanying adults passed me by, on their way to the Smithy, no doubt.

"I timed that well" I thought to myself!

So "Where to next?" you ask

Yes. Another hill fort on the horizon....

White horse??

Yes!!

White horse indeed!

The White horse of Uffington
Oldest and biggest of the lot.

The horse is gracefully sprawling on a (relatively) gentle slope of the scarp face, and tantilisingly impossible to view fully at close range, except from the air.

see this LINK for clearer views and more detail!!

http://www.hows.org.uk/personal/hillfigs/uff/uffing.htm

At the foot of the slope is the odd little lump of Dragon Hill

and to the west of it some weird little chalky crinkles, apparently known as

"the manger"

So Fox Hill

White Horse Hill.

so next "Hare Hill"?
No. A live one!

Hare here....

Go on! From Og....

Ogbourne St. George formed the starting point for today's

walk. I was much relieved to find, on reaching the Ridgeway path,

that today's section had the propect of being much less spartan

in nature.

Green hedges bedecked with may blossom were

much in evidence. The weather too was kinder on me.

Gone was the forceful wind, and the bright sunshine
was moderated by cloud. Gone too was the bright yellow

of oilseed rape flowers. Whew!

From my Ogbourne start point the pathway

heads northwards back along towards the

head of the Og valley, where, lo and behold...

another hill fort, Liddington Castle

"stands guard", again affording

a place for a lunchtime stop. It also allows

for a wide panoramic veiw, whether towards

Marborough, across towards Barbury castle,

beyond the sprall of Swindon to the Cotswold hills,
or even over towards Oxford.

Another feature (like Swindon, worth trying to ignore

for aesthetic reasons, even if its jolly handy

for getting places....!) nearby is the M4 whose

traffic forms a little aural backdrop to the scene

as it clambers over a little lip onto the chalklands

before dashing onwards to the east.

On the plus side, at least the mtorway

is not TOO glaringly obvious, its embedded into

the downs that roll around it....

you may have clouds to spot above.....

and there are always things near at hand, like

poppies splashing red, or corn buntings jangling

their keys in the hedges alongside.

On the far side of the motorway stands Fox Hill, awaiting me tomorrow.

Berwick Bassett figure of 8

Today was a bright but breezy day, and time to be
getting on with my Ridgeway project!
So a bit of a drive (....frustratingly finding myself
touching on bits of Swindon on the way, which I had
no desire to do! Grrrrr!) brought me eventually
to the village of Berwick Bassett, where I left my car.
From here I more or less followed the course of a stream
towards Winterbourne Bassett
(not a hound in sight by the way!)
and then out towards Windmill Hill,
the last of the prehistoric features in the vicinity
of Avebury.
This site is a "classic Neolithic 'causewayed enclosure'"
apparently. More about it here: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba67/feat3.shtml

I must admit to not being very excited about
this spot, but anyhow at least now
I know what it's like....
Whilst enjoying a skylark singing I enjoyed a view
towards "yonder hills" onto which I then progressed
via Avebury....



and onto the.....



As I mentioned, it was a windy day and I walked
for the most part with the wind buffeting me from
off to my right. The bright blue sky, with the bright
yellow of flowering oil-seed rape, the bright chalky
whiteness of the path ahead and the grassy pastures
gave me something of a feeling between sensory overload
and sensory deprivation (if that makes any sense).
Anyway, here is an artst's impression (without the wind!)!!!


The spartan landscape at this point is relieved by
the three clumps of beach trees (as seen afar off in tyhe
topmost photo). I also passed close to another white houre
at Hackpen Hill, but I failed to spot it. It is not a tremendously
old one anyway (1830's)


Then with lunchtime approaching, I ascended a small slope
to Badbury castle (hill fort) which stands as if guarding
the westward entrance to a small valley running down towards
Marlborough. As another welcome role its "ramparts" gave me
temporary relief from the wind, to unwind listening to skylarks
once more, eat some lunch....


and admire the wildflowers that also sheltered here,
away from the ravages of high intensity agriculture.

A speedwell



Another attractive little blue flower.....
any suggestions????



Ah! These I know...cowslips!




Kidney vetch?

Time to move on.....

Leaving Barbury Castle behind I headed out

along Smeathe's Ridge where a stretch of open

access land is being grazed in ways to return it

to old-style chalk-land - with a reasonably full assembly

of wildflowers and wildlife one hopes. Not much in

that way evident at the moment, however.

The ridge took me down eventually, and to my relief,

out of the wind and into some blessed shade from trees

and hedges in the small valley I refered to earlier.

This valley was formed, it seems by the gentle

erosion of the river Og, a tributary stream to the Kennet,

and thence to the Thames

the valley has a cluster of villages named by it...

Ogbourne St. George, Ogbourne St. Andrew,

and Ogbourne Maizey. They are olde style villages

of the thatch cottage ilk.

I had had thoughts of walking through each of these

(leaving the Ridgeway path for today)

downstream into Marlborough and along the canal

for some scenic contrast. But time and wearines
now constrained me and I took a more direct path

which took me passed Barton Down Gallops and

across Fyfield Down.

This latter spot is a a National Nature Reserve

and is, in essence the quarry site for Avebury

and (most of) Stonehenge. Before doing a little

research on this stone formation I thought

the rocks strewn across the landscape

had been dragged there by labourers on the

stone circle from some other far off place.

This notion arose partly from memories of

visiting the Presselli mountains where the rest

of Stone Henge was quarried, and partly from

geological ignorance of any solid rocks which could

have overlain chalk (which I think is an excusable error!)

Apparently greywether stone is formed from sandstone

glued together ("indurated") with silica in the Tertiary period.

The overlying softer sandstone has largely gone but these more

solid chunks remained and have been shuffled about on the surface

during glacial episodes. In places they form a "river of rocks"

as they slither down into chalky valleys.

Like shown here:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=3671

The grey wethers are also significant, apparently,

for the communities of lichens that grow on them.

Like these, I guess! (shrugs shoulders)

In another part of the reserve the grey wethers

create a natural rock garden amidst the trees.

Leaving Fyfield Down I followed a path back onto

the ridgeway path briefly before descending the

slope near Berwick Bassett clump, then along a

slighty uncomfortable bit of busy road finally to bring me

back to my car. 8 well figured!