Final Progress Report
DONATE NOW
The twentieth and last of their walks for charity along the Ridgeway was completed by James, Margaret, Maia and Theia on Monday October 28th, when they were joined by their second son Richard, who was visiting from New York. The picture shows James and Margaret looking at the map of the Ridgeway at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon. The nineteenth walk had ended at Avebury with the two walks thus including the beginning and end of the Ridgeway whichever the direction of travel. A full report of walks 16 through 20 will follow and donations may be made, and would be very welcome, until the end of November. James ceases to be Master on October 31st and he and Margaret would like to thank the many of you who have contributed to what has been, for both of us, a highly enjoyable time.
.
| The (Immediate Past) Master and friends complete their Ridgeway Walk: walks 16 - 20 in aid of the Fuellers Charitable Trust and JDRFThis report covers the five walks undertaken by James, Margaret, Maia and Theia in October to complete the then Master’s walk for charity along the Ridgeway. Monday October 7th: Barbury Castle - Walk 3 in ‘The Ridgeway, A Dog Walker’s Guide’ by Debbie Kendall and Nigel Vile (the ‘Guide’). We began the first of our two ‘double- header walks’ (walks on consecutive days with an overnight stay in a local pub) shortly after lunch with a drive from Buckinghamshire to the Barbury Castle Country Park car park. The Castle is an Iron Age hill fort that rests high on the Malborough Downs above Swindon and provides splendid views over the flatlands of North Wiltshire, the more distant Berkshire, the Upper Thames Valley and the Vale of the White Horse. Our walk started on the Ridgeway, which borders the car park, and headed out across Smeathe’s Ridge, where the chalk and flint path, first traversed over 4,000 years ago, passes the grassy gallops now used by the many race horses stabled locally. It was a very clear day and the views were spectacular while Maia and Theia revelled in the opportunity to investigate and run free in the wonderfully open countryside. After about an hour and half we descended to the outskirts of Ogbourne St George before turning away from the ridgeway on to a bridleway that began our return to the car. After several paths and bridleways through local farms and woods we began our ascent to the car park after passing a memorial stone to Alfred Williams and Richard Jefferies, two local nature writers who were inspired by the landscape: ‘still to find and still to follow, joy in every hill and hollow, company in solitude’. We then missed a turn and found ourselves by the side of a shooting club at the bottom of the hill, with the road to the car park at the hill top a quarter of a mile away, where it then climbed steeply to our goal. A short walk was thus followed by a steep climb, after which we walked through the carpark to visit the Monument about half a mile beyond. The Monument consists of the Castle, with its two rings of banks and ditches enclosing an area of approximately 10 acres, together with an adjacent bowl barrow burial ground. Construction is estimated to have been around 700 BC with the monument in continuous use until the Roman invasion in the mid first century AD. The light was beginning to fade as we left for the short drive to The Greyhound Inn in Letcombe Regis, which we had recently visited and found extremely dog-friendly. The four of us checked into our very comfortable room with plenty of space. Margaret and I then had a very welcome and enjoyable dinner, with the two girls on the floor beside our table only interrupted by pats and strokes from other diners, before a post prandial walk and speedy descent into sleep. It had been a fine way to end what had proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable Monday! Total distance: 6.5 miles Completed milage: 93 miles |
  |
  |
Tuesday October 8th Liddington Hill – Walk 4 After a peaceful night we rose early for the customary ‘pre-breakfast’ walk, in this case around the outskirts of a village that is clearly a well-established short cut for the local commuting traffic! Maia and Theia then devoured breakfast rather speedily while Margaret and I enjoyed a leisurely bacon and eggs. We then drove back to the outskirts of Swindon and a well disguised lay-by near Albourne, recognised only because the local postman had parked his red van there while he was taking a break. Here we started and finished our seventeenth walk, which was nothing short of an absolute classic, with weather to boot! First we headed along a grassy track through Shipley Bottom which climbed steadily up to Liddington Hill, where we joined the Ridgeway. A mile later we had an excursion to tour Liddington Castle, another Iron Age hill fort in a commanding position high above the North Wiltshire countryside and in clear sight of the archetypical chalk downland, earthworks and barrows signalling the ancient burials on the nearby Sugar Hill. The Castle is where King Arthur is said to have defeated the Anglo-Saxon armies and one of the earliest hill forts, with evidence of occupation in the seventh century BC. Slightly more recently there was also a World War 2 ‘starfish decoy control bunker’ whose purpose was to create localised fires to fool enemy bombers targeting Swindon. Maia and Theia were in their element, with little interest in prehistoric or historic details but clearly enjoying the opportunity to run free along ancient tracks in ‘big sky’ country. Then the heavens opened – the first real and prolonged downpour of our now many walks. Even the girls lost some, if not all, of their enthusiasm as the rain dramatically shortened visibility, soddened clothing and turned the ground into mud. This also meant we had to deploy leads as we approached where we were due to cross the main road because the cars were detectable as much by noise as by sight! The rain then stopped, almost as dramatically as it had begun some forty five minutes earlier, leaving us drenched but at least with visibility restored. The main road duly crossed we proceeded along the valley, walking parallel with the road until we branched out to the East and began the gentle climb up to Sugar Hill. As we climbed we all admired the many sheep, fortunately (for Margaret and me) behind stock fencing, on our way to the summit and a veritable crossroads of local footpaths and bridleways. By now our car was in sight in the lay by down below and we began a steep descent, made particularly slippery by the recent rain, before crossing the main road again and returning to the car. Maia and Theia were completely drenched and so we wrapped them in their overcoats before they fell fast asleep as we began our drive back to Buckinghamshire. Once there Margaret and I enjoyed a late lunch while the girls were content with a slightly early tea and a rest in the warmth of a wood burning stove. Total distance: 5.5 miles Completed mileage: 98.5 miles |
  |
Friday October 18th Avebury – Walk 1 After a rather busy and in many ways sad, but also important and worthwhile, ten days (mentioned in my final monthly blog) we once more left Buckinghamshire for the longish drive to Avebury and the World Heritage site at the beginning of the Ridgeway. The site, in the words of UNESCO, ‘bears unique testimony to civilisations that have disappeared’, namely the peoples of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Although we parked in the visitors’ car park for the village our walk left the village and was almost entirely ‘off lead’ to the great and obvious delight of Maia and Theia! We walked along the infant River Kennet to reach Silbury Hill, one of the most important sites in the World Heritage Site. It is the largest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and was built between 4,400 and 4,300 years ago. It would have taken hundreds of people working continually over several years to build, with only stone and bone tools available: HS2 eat your heart out! We then climbed to the slightly higher peak of Waden Hill at the base of which ran the roman road to Aquae Sulis (Bath) and the prehistoric West Kennet Avenue of massive standing stones. The Saxon word Waden means heathen, although why the hill was so named remains one of Avebury’s many mysteries. After another uphill walk we reached the Ridgeway and continued until a junction with the path to Fyfield Down, a site of Special Scientific Interest whose features include the largest source of the historic sarsen stones. Our path then returned us to the village, where the local sites are many and extend well beyond the two stone circles which mark the original boundary. The combination makes Avebury unique, with the village surrounded by open chalk downland, wide open spaces, big skies and far ranging views. More importantly for Maia and Theia almost the entire walk was off lead, with field margins and copses to explore. The result was two tired and happy labradors, who slept soundly in the car as we drove back to spend the night at Helen Browning’s organic Royal Oak in Bishopstone. This was another real treat. Once more we had a splendid room with plenty of space for all four of us. Margaret and I then enjoyed a very enjoyable and tasty meal until Theia managed stealthily to chew through her lead and was seem wandering around the other tables in the restaurant. Our hostess quickly came to our aid with a replacement lead and we completed our meal as the two girls slept at our table. All four of us then returned to our room and slipped quickly into sleep, aided in Margaret and my case by some very tasty Cotswold whisky! Total distance: 5.5 miles Completed mileage: 104 miles |
  |
  |
Saturday October 19th Broad Hinton – Walk 2 The early morning dog walk started in light rain and we prepared for what looked like changeable weather, with the car park clearly showing the consequences of a wet night. The cooked breakfast proved once more an excellent start to the day and we then drove to the pretty village of Broad Hinton for our penultimate charity walk. The village boasts one of the only 15 churches in England that are dedicated to St Peter ad Vincula (St Peter in Chains), which is in honour of the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. The village is surrounded by open download and the Ridgeway provides expansive views, much the same as the two neighbouring walks but also containing one of the eight famous White Horses in Wiltshire, in this case known as the Hackpen, Broad Hinton or Winterbourne Bassett Horse. This was cut in 1838, probably to commemorate Queen Victoria’s coronation, under the supervision of Henry Eastwell, the local parish clerk, with assistance from the clientele of the local pub. Our walk reached the Ridgeway via the neighbouring village of Winterbourne Bassett and after crossing the busy main road we progressed up to join the Ridgeway. We then walked for several miles, passing Hackpen Hill before returning to Broad Hinton via a well-marked bridleway and a walk back through the village. The principal highlights of this walk were that we stayed dry throughout, with Maia and Theia again enjoying the chance to be off-lead and running, at least when we were not near the main road! Tempting as the restaurant and pub in the village looked we decided to succumb to the lure of Buckinghamshire and a late lunch before a lazy rest of the weekend. Total distance: 6 miles Completed mileage: 110 miles |
  |
  |
Monday October 28th Ivanhoe Beacon – Walk 20 – Walk 9 The following week was very busy, with Margaret and I heavily engaged on arrangements for and after a very busy (if family orientated) weekend. Richard, our second son, was visiting from New York and so we decided to conclude our walks on the following Monday so he could join us. This was always going to be the shortest of the walks, only 2.5 miles in the Guide, but it proved to be a stunning finale through the chalk grasslands of the Ivinghoe Hills Nature Reserve and Ashridge Estate. These incorporate the final leg of the Ridgeway, which ends at Ivinghoe Beacon in the north-east tip of the Chiltern Hills. Though short the walk was very much up and down and slippery because of recent rain, but we were treated to far reaching views over several counties in an area that is a site of Special Scientific Interest (‘SSSI’) and an Area of Outstanding National Beauty (‘AONB’). The beacon is the site of another Iron Age settlement and the area has been grazed by livestock since prehistoric times, though there was still plenty of space for two labradors to run off-lead. The weather soon began to worsen and after reaching the beacon the three of us toasted the end of our Ridgeway walks in sloe gin before hurrying back as best we could without slipping to the car, which we reached just as the heavens opened. |
  |
  |
| All in all we were very lucky with the weather and the four of us (and, I hope, all our occasional companions) thoroughly enjoyed following in the footsteps of our ancestors, some made as long as some 6,000 years ago. A quick calculation leads to the observation that, if that whole period was a 24 hour clock, the City of London would have been formed at about 4.30 pm and the Fuellers less than ten minutes before midnight: an interesting perspective! Thank you all for persevering with my records of our walks and particular thanks to everyone who has already sponsored us. If you are willing to join them with a contribution to the Fuellers Charitable Trust Fund and Breakthrough T1D (JDRF UK’s new name with effect from October 1st), both worthy causes we would be very grateful. Our fundraising page remained open until November 30th. Any donations may now be made through the charity websites. If you are not resident in the UK and would like to sponsor us please contact me on rjncripps@gmail.com. Breakthrough T1D is part of an international alliance of Type 1 diabetes charities and I will arrange for your local Type I diabetes charity to benefit, while also accepting donations on behalf the FCTF. I am an adviser to the FCTF and my predecessor as Master is the Treasurer. As I write I am, of course, no longer the Master Fueller after enjoying a thoroughly entertaining 12 months, with the Ridgeway walks one of many highlights. Margaret and I are already discussing whether our next dog walking adventures should be along the Chiltern Way, or simply a return to the Ridgeway, perhaps for another ‘double header’. Another possibility is Pembrokeshire when visiting our granddaughter, who lives in Penarth and whose first birthday party, on December 7th, the four of us are much looking forward. James November 2024 |
