Warren Row – Holly Cross - Crazies Hill – Cockpole Green

29 Jun 2008

• Total distance: less than five miles
• Start point: Outside the church at Warren Row, SU 812806
• Weather: Warm, humid and windy with dark clouds, giving way to sun with scudding cumulus.
• Temperature at start: 22C.
• Muddiness rating: * (*=dry, *****=awful)
• People passed: No-one, though I had a nice chat to the landlady of The Old House in Warren Row.
• Step counter: 9966
• Camera: Sony Alpha 100. Images taken before deletions = 79.

Corrugated iron sheet is the material of choice for the construction of churches in Iceland and the Faeroes but it’s something of a rarity in rural Berkshire. Nevertheless the Mission Church in Warren Row wears its moss-green exterior proudly and holds services every fortnight. You’d never have guessed that it was designed to sit 130 folk, nor that it was bought by mail order, in 1894, for £191.

I rather like this little walk, unassuming and unremarkable as it is. Mainly because it’s close to home, but the fact it’s difficult to describe is another plus. Unlike many others you can’t easily say where you’ve been, as there’s no defining village or geographical feature around which it can be articulated. It has the feeling of being on the edge of a number of places – Henley, Hurley, Wargrave amongst them, but none really tell you where it is. Cockpole Green is probably the closest, though you’ll get vacant stares if you try it. Even people who’ve lived their whole lives in Warren Row have never heard of it. Nevertheless the walk provides a rare view west over the stretch of the Thames Valley joining Henley and Wargrave. It’s also very quiet.

The road out of Warren Row is wooded on both sides. Half of the trees are marked with fluorescent spots. Further on they have serial numbers. I’m pretty sure that if I’d gone another mile they’d have had barcodes. This seems particularly unfair on the many horse chestnut trees, which are almost all suffering from a condition called Guignardia leaf blotch, caused by a fungus. This, along with a number of other conditions like bleeding canker and climate change, are posing a real threat to the species in the south of England, and we must hope they don’t get decimated in the same way that elms were in the early 1970s.

Regrettably it’s the fashion round this parish to erect an elaborate and unfeasibly large entry gate. Those that I passed made no concession to traditional design or materials, and the main design objective seemed to be to devise an entrance which a Stretch Hummer could negotiate without slowing down, ideally using as much steel as possible. Presumably the planning authorities wouldn’t give permission for a flashing sign saying Rich People Live Here, so we’re treated to an array of these unsightly indulgences instead.

At Crazies Hill I went off-asphalt for the first time and followed a footpath north west, over arable land and another small road, to Penny’s Lane. This little track, in places completely enclosed by trees, used to be very muddy but is now much firmer and drier, possibly something to do with the new golf course built three or four years ago on the slopes to the south.

The reason I’d come this way was simply to have the opportunity to climb the little unnamed bluff at SU 788 808 (shown on the map by an asterisk), where there’s an elusive view over the Thames Valley looking west. I waited for about twenty minutes as patches of sunshine drifted by on either side, until finally one arrived, lit up the area for two minutes, and scuttled away. I did likewise.

Some Warren Row history> http://www.wargrave.net/history/jan99.html

Horse chestnuts under threat> http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/under-threat-britains-horse-chestnut-trees-413111.html

Crazies Hill > http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/sourcearchive/ns2/ns2mb1.htm

Click here for map > CockpoleGreenmap

Choose another walk > TheWalks

-- RodBird - 15 Jul 2008