Reading Station to Theale Station via Thames River Path to Pangbourne & the "Pill Box Way" from there to Theale.

Map of our walk today

The walk goes along the Thames Path marked on the map above with a series of red dots near the river. It goes close to the river near Tilehurst Station, then at a PH leave the river & goes through Purley on Thames, then back to the riverside again from Mapledurham Lock to Pangbourne. The walk is 12.15 miles long, but if you don't want to walk this far then other options are available.
For example, if you just want to walk from Purley on Thames to Pangbourne which is about 3 miles, or to Theale, which is about 8 miles, then from Reading Station, walk along Station Road to Friar Street & opposite where the 2 streets meet in Bus stop FE, where the blue 16 bus goes to Purley on Thames. Alight from the bus at New Hill, just before the bridge over the railway, then walk along Mapledurham Lane to  the River Thames.
More details about this walk.

From Pangbourne to Theale, which is about 5 miles, which I have suggested is called the Pill Box Way because of the number of Pill Boxes to view & explore, the map below shows a collection of paths. There is a car park in Pangbourne near the Thames, access to Pangbourne from Reading can be done by bus & train.
We go along the Pang River Valley to Tidmarsh, then across the valley to near Sulham Church.  The map below shows the second half in more detail.  Firstly Pangbourne to Tidmarsh, note the pub sign and the path reading Berkshire Circular Routes, because that's the path we are going to walk along from Tidmarsh to Theale Station.

Now the next part of the walk from Tidmarsh to Theale Station.

Then next to a wood(a green area on the map), to end up near Nunhide Farm, then over the M4, into Theale village, then to Theale Railway Station, the red blob on the map, below a thick red line, which is the A4.

This walk starts outside Reading Railway Station close to the main entrance as can be seen from this photograph.

Look for a flight of steps and at the foot of them is a sign pointing to a subway under the railway and station.

Here's the subway-and sign saying River Thames & Caversham.

So under the subway & out and walk towards Vastern Road, the A329, cross it following the blue sign

Christchurch Meadows & Caversham.

Then walk along Norman Place

Follow signs to River, and end up beside the Thames with a bridge over it in front of you called Christchurch Meadows Bridge.

Now we start to walk along the riverside, not going over the bridge which is used by cyclists to cycle to Wallingford along National Cycle Route 5.

Soon Caversham Bridge is in the distance which we are walking towards and going underneath.

Just on the other side of the bridge is a signpost showing where we are going and how far it is.

So off we go walking along the wide tarmac path with a large field to the left, the river to the right, with houses, rowing and canoeing clubs.

It was raining hard when I did this walk, soon I came to the more rural area of the walk.

More stoney & narrow, with fence on the left

Then a larger field & railway line not far away

The walk continues until it meets the railway line & Tilehurst Station with loads of swans & water birds all around. The path goes past an island in the river called Poplar Island

The railway line is right next to our path

The path gets very narrow, with an embankment wall close by and the river to the right.

Soon the nature of the walk changes as instead of being a flat river walk, we start to climb up a flight of steps, over the railway line, onto a pavement beside the A329 next to the Roebuck, then turn right along the pavement towards Purley on Thames, going into West Berkshire.

Up the steps we go

 Several flights of stairs to climb

 The railway line London to Bristol

building by the A329

 Then suddenly I saw this building next to the road side

Yes it's an old pill box, with slits in the sides.

Soon there is a sign pointing our direction off the road side.

Through the gate we go, along a woodland trail

Onto Skerrit Way

Along this road, we go with pavements on both sides of the road, ignore paths to the left they will only go back to the A329,  climbing up to meet Hazel Road

Up the hill we go again, & then downhill again to New Hill

Here we turn right, cross over the railway line again on a brick-sided bridge, then down the hill, & look for a road to Mapledurham Lock & Lock Cafe with a No Entry sign.There is also a street sign saying Mapledurham Lane.

I took the number 16 blue bus from Station Road/Friar Street to New Hill yesterday and walked to Theale Station from there.

So that's our way now along this lane through a metal gateway, passing a recreation ground, until we meet a metal kissing gate with a path to Mapledurham Lock & waterfalls in the distance.

Walk through the gate & approach the Thames again with the lock to the left.

Take the path through a gate alongside the lock-there is a cafe here as well which is open sometimes.

Now the nature of the walk changes again as the path is part of a open field sometimes filled with cattle, but with splendid views and boats moored beside the river.

At the end of this field is a gate & the nature of the walk changes again with a metal fence on the left hand side.

At the end of this stretch of the walk there is a footpath to the left, but we go right, through a gate, along a boardwalk with the sponsors name on and into another field.

At the end of this next field the path crosses another short bridge & enters Pangbourne Meadow.

Soon Whitchurch Toll Bridge is in sight, the Thames Path crosses this bridge and continues on the other side of the Thames.

We are going to walk past the car park, & along a road towards Pangbourne town. there is a footpath to the right which goes to Pangbourne Railway Station should you want to go back to Reading or elsewhere.

Railway Station footpath

Our route under the London Bristol railway line.

This is a map of our walk from here to Tidmarsh, along a green stepped line near some houses, then next to the River Pang, over it, next to Further Moor Copse, to emerge onto a red road, the A340 near a pub sign.

We walk straight on past a cafe on the left towards an alleyway next to W H Smith.

This small road is called "the Moors"

A footpath sign on the left confirms we are on the right way.

There are houses on both sides of the road & at the end is a path way & an orchard;take the left hand path way.

The path goes between some hedges

It emerges onto an open field with paths going off to the left, but we walk beside the River Pang towards a small bridge over it.

Crossing the bridge a path goes straight on and one goes left, with a sign post giving the choice of routes.

We go left, walking beside the little river

We come to a gate leading to a path across a field, but before we reach the gate, I could see a structure between 2 wooden pylons which I recognised as an old pill box.

I did wonder at the time the reason for the siting of such a sort of modern little castle, and during this next part of the walk I saw a number of other such structures. So through the gate I walked, across a field, and turned left as the sign indicated.

The path was now a tarmac track which ended at a footpath sign showing the route to the right.

The path went beside a field

Then through some woodland

Crossing an access drive, into some more woodland, next to a wooden fence & eventually out next to a road, the A340 in Tidmarsh.

We walk along the pavement on the left hand side of the road to approach the "Greyhound" public house, where we turn left along a lane.

The lane goes past a mill on the right and goes over a bridge over the Pang; there is a footpath sign on the left hand side pointing to a bridge over the stream.

So this is the map showing the next part of our walk, from Tidmarsh to Theale station. The thick blue line is the M4, the route goes to Sulham, across the valley, & down a yellow road to Sulham village, then on a green dotted line with green blobs on alongside Moor Copse, then Horsemoor Wood to meet Nunhide Lane, then close to M4, over it, and along a minor road into & out of Theale, under A4 and to Theale railway station.

We go over the stream, through a metal kissing gate & into a field, following arrows across the field. The photo below shows our way straight across the field with a hedgerow on the right.

Then I saw this structure on the right, another modern little castle with a large window at the front suggesting it was made that way for a big gun to be fired from it to the left of me the walker.

There was a sort of depression in the field, as I turned and looked away from this pill box on my right hand side.

Then I followed the footpath across the field to the next stile and there were another couple of these structures. 

There was another across the field, on the other side of the depression.

I have done this path a few times now & have done some research into how these pill boxes came to be present on this walk. Apparently they were erected between June & August 1940, to protect London from an invasion by the German army by building a tank trap for the length of this valley from the Kennet to the Thames, and protecting the trap with these pill boxes.

This article on line has plenty of information about these pill boxes.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Spudukas-Pillbox-log-The-Sulham-Valley

Also  here: http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MWB5670&resourceID=1030

And also here too:

http://rexurbex.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-sulham-gap-to-tidmarsh.html

I walked from these pill boxes, across the field to a gate & footbridge, and onto a road, where I turned right and walked towards Sulham Lane.

Our route soon meets another road that is going to Tidmarsh from Tilehurst. If you went left, and up a hill, then right along Nunhide lane, you would pass Sulham Parish Church. On the road you have just come along we have passed the old rectory

Standing at the junction, I looked to the right & saw the stile & footpath sign for the next part of our walk.

So passing the phone box, I walked to the gate & crossed over the stile into a field and walked across the field to another gate & wooden footbridge.

Before I reached the gate way I looked across the field to my right and thought I could see another pill box

Yes there it was, covered with brambles on the other side of a little stream which flows into the Thames.

Then I walked to the gate between the fields and saw another pill box on the left

The footpath goes at an angle to the corner of the field, on another day, when there were no cattle in the field I went a bit closer to this pill box and saw it had 2 large windows at the front so  a gun could be pointed to the right & left.

This made me think that the tank trap, which was 55 feet wide, would have been between these 2 pill boxes. Then I went to the stile and crossed it to walk close to the woodlands & stream on the right.

The path approaches the line of some electric pylons with wooden poles. On one of these poles is an arrow pointing the way forward.

So keep the woods & hedge to your right & soon the path goes to the left

-there is another path to the right that goes over a wooden footbridge but that isn't our route

We go through a gap in the hedge, and straight on with the hedge to our right again.

Yes there is a path to the left, which goes along the edge of a field, but that goes to Sulham House as this map shows where we are just now.

We continue along the path next to Horsemoor Wood and soon come to where another path from Malpas Farm crosses  our path to Nunhide Lane.

Now we have a choice of routes depending if you are interested in seeing another pill box. You can go straight on along the field edge to meet Nunhide Lane or turn left & walk along the field edge towards a house which is on Nunhide Lane.

When I first walked this route I walked on the route straight on with the hedge to the right and thought I could see another pill box right across the field. 

So the second time I did the this path, I went left at the junction and walked towards Nunhide lane and a house and too my surprise came across another pill box in the hedge line.

Looking from it to the right I could see the pill box on Nunhide Lane and another in a field towards Sulham.

Towards Nunhide Lane pill box & tower

Towards Sulham

The path goes to Nunhide Lane, where there is another cross roads of paths

We go right here & follow Nunhide Lane which is a good bridleway track which goes past a house, then goes around a bend and soon another pill box is on the left overlooking the lane.

From it you can see the other pill box we have just passed

So now we continue along Nunhide Lane and soon we see the other footpath coming from the right

So now we walk past Nunhide Farm, and some houses both to the right & left, and a path towards that brick tower which on the map is marked as a Dovecot.

This is Wilder's Folly-information and photographs about it are here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilder%27s_Folly

and here too

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186363-d1833688-r490986458-Pincents_Hill-Reading_Berkshire_England.html

As you walk along the Nunhide Lane, the noise from the M4 gets louder, and see if you can spot another pill box base. Soon the lane reaches closer to the M4-I was overtaken by a runner.

Then to my surprise on my first walk along this path I came out onto a minor road & saw this building.

Yes it's Ikea and a blue bus which goes every 15 minutes to Reading. There was a sign on the right  hand side showing the way to Theale Railway station.

So up the path  I went and over the M4 motorway on a concrete footbridge and down onto a minor road complete with pavement

I walked along this pavement and into Theale village passing a sign about this place.

Then walked along the left hand side of the road & turned left at a mini-roundabout, to pass under the A4, to a roundabout & a sign pointing to Theale Railway Station.

When I first walked this route I went left as the sign stated, but then realised that the path to the station was straight up Station Road towards the bridge over the Railway line. That is the way for us to go not motorcars.

At the top of the bridge are two flights of steps to the railway station, the first one for travellers to Reading & the second one for travellers to Newbury. As we are going back to Reading we take the first flight.

Then we are welcomed at the station by this sign.

So that's the end of the walk, either 12.15 miles from Reading station, or 8 miles from Mapledurham Lane at Purley on Thames of 5 miles from Pangbourne.