Hurley - Thames Path - Frogmill - Black Boys Inn - Dewdrop Inn - Honey Lane - Prospect Hill

17 Dec 2005

• Total distance : just over 5 miles.
• Start point : Car park in Hurley village, SU 826839.
• Weather : Bright, gentle breeze.
• Temperature at start 8C.
• Muddiness rating ** (*=dry, *****=awful)
• People passed : A couple of ramblers on the Thames Path, and one jogger.
• Step counter : 11486.
• Camera : Olympus C-5060W. Images taken before deletions = 71.

Crikey....I've just realised that it's almost a year since I started this series of pages. At the time I'd thought I'd produce twenty by the end of 2005. I'd better get a move on or I'll end up having to do two long hikes on Christmas Day.

Happily the day dawned dry and bright, so after a leisurely breakfast - spent leafing through the Saturday paper and its twenty ad-filled sections aspirationally titled Travel , Property, Gardens and so on, I resisted the temptation to invest in a new BMW, a stairlift or even a Spanish property with two - two! - Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses and drove to Hurley instead.

As days went, it was a cracker. An azure sky, with wisps of cloud and a low golden sun ensured that all the elements of the landscape were shown to their best effect. Few people intruded: a clutch of canoeists paddled over to the weir, and I was slowly overhauled by an elderly jogger in such apparently atrocious physical shape he made me feel like Paula Radcliffe.

We forget how are lucky we are to have such countryside near at hand. In "Three Men in a Boat" Jerome K Jerome wrote "By Hurley Weir....I have often thought that I could stay a month without having sufficient time to drink in all the beauty of the scene." The path along the river is firm and rarely muddy, despite the fact that in several places it seems to be lower than the surface of the water alongside. Half a mile west of Hurley, on the opposite bank, lies Danesfield, an upmarket hotel since 1991 but taking its name from fortifications established there by the Danes in the 9th century. It's astonishing to think that for over two hundred years the Danes regularly used the Thames to raid and sack communities up as far as Gloucestershire. The raids continued until 1013.

More recently, Danesfield House was requisitioned in WW2 by the Air Ministry for the RAF to set up the Joint Service Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) Unit. Danesfield House was to IMINT, what Bletchley Park was to Signals Intelligence.

At Frogmill, worried that at any moment I might encounter the jogger again and have to carry him back to Hurley, I turned away from the river and passed The Black Boys pub. Its sign nowadays shows two sooty young chimneysweeps, but in 2000 it was still The Black Boy (singular) and much earlier it was known as The Little Black Boy, and was one of several safehouses set up for Charles II (1630-1685) to aid his return from France.

And say what you like about the man, it's good to see that Michael Shanley is keeping the area's strong historic associations alive through the use of traditional materials in the gates around his new manor (see left).

The path eventually becomes Hodgedale Lane, but I turned left at the little nature reserve which encompasses a disused chalk quarry. The track east from there towards the Dew Drop Inn (see large picture at the top) is a favourite spot of mine, but these days I'm expecting to come across a yellow planning notice round every corner. The map shows the wood to the right, mainly young ashes, carries the strange name of Channers.

Near the Dew Drop is Ladye Place, the home of the Lovelaces from 1545. Richard Lovelace sailed with Sir Francis Drake and greatly improved his house with his share of the Spanish booty. I'm not sure where Linda fits in.

As usual the sun was setting as I turned for home, walking down Honey Lane past Top Farm (renamed from Home Farm for some reason). At the foot of Prospect Hill lies the derelict Grasslands Research Institute, empty since 1992, its windows broken and its structure decaying, presumably awaiting the day when it too is festooned with little yellow markers.

Click here for map > HurleyMap

Choose another walk > TheWalks

David Nash Ford's Berkshire History index of towns & villages > http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/index.html

-- RodBird - 27 Dec 2005