Thatcham Station Circular via River Enborne, Greenham Common & Kennet & Avon Canal.

This walk which 9.6 miles long starts & finishes at Thatcham Railway Station, the red blob on the map.I used OS Map 158 Newbury & Hungerford and Viewranger on my phone to see where I was.

We go out of the station up Crookham Road, over the canal & River Kennet, then left along Chamberhouse Mill Lane passing Thatcham Football Ground.

There is a farm entrance on the right which we ignore, and pass the Mill, go right and where the road goes left, there is a signpost pointing the way along a bridleway.

This bridleway is marked on the map above and below as a green stepped line.

The bridleway goes through a farm metal gate, then along a track and up a hill.

Soon we come to where there is an entrance to a field and the track goes past it & up a steep hill.

 The map suggests that at this point the green stepped line, the bridleway goes right then through some woodland & rejoins the track further up the hill but I couldn't find any signposts to indicate this route, so just went up the gravelled track to the top of the hill

At the top of the hill the track continues a bit more level, and reaches a gate, when the path narrows and goes alongside a fence to come to a farm gate & track.

The now firm track soon meets the road between Crookham Lane & Brimpton, with a footpath post pointing the way across the road.

So across the road we go and along another firm track which is a footpath, but looks more like a driveway to George's Farmhouse as the map states, as the road divides a sign points the way to the right.

 A sign in a tree states it is a footpath, and a gate across the driveway stops unwanted traffic.

As you can see our path is now in a very good condition, but soon we come to a few signs pointing the way to the left, not down a track to the right which goes to a private house.

So off the track we go and walk down a track with the woods on the right and a field on the left

At the bottom of the field on the right hand side of a hedge is another footpath arrow pointing the way across a field.

So across the field I walked and arrived at a wooden footbridge with footpath sign posts.

Looking back the way I had just come I could see the path across the field a bit clearer and the sign post also indicated another path to the right as shown on the map up to Crookham.

So the map above shows our route from here-we are at a junction of red dots and a wiggly blue line between Mill Green at Crookham on the map with the words Folly Fm on the left. 

So over the wooden footbridge we go, looking down at the River Enborne which we are going to follow to a Ford near the base of Greenham Common.

Then passing a sign on the left, which indicates a path to the left  and straight forward we go right.

We come to a gate with a sign on it from the owner of the land we are passing through now on this public footpath.

The next piece of the path sometimes follows the course of the River Enborne as it twists and turns along the bottom of the fields. Within these bends are patches of grass lands and plants which the owner called Headlands and requests that as walkers we do not enter them but follow the footpath. In many places there is a firm sort of pathway that follows the field edge taking a short cut across the bend with wooden signs and notices thereon saying 'no public right of way'. I walked next to the river as and photographed some of the features of the pathway here.

Eventually the path goes through another similar gate as before and onto a short piece of road which leads to a ford across the Enborne with a bridge for walkers on the left hand side.

So over the bridge we go and wave bye bye to the River Enborne, walk up the hill, around the side of a gate to a main road with fast traffic on it going right to Crookham Road & left to the A339 Newbury to Basingstoke Road. 

Here we turn left, walk along the verge to cross over the road and walk up old Thornford Road.

It's quite a climb up this road, passing a couple of houses on the way and soon we reach where the road goes right & next to the road is a gate onto Greenham Common.

We go through the gate, and to start with I went straight ahead to  a cross roads of good stony tracks, 

but then went back again & down a little grassy path and then right along another with brambles all around

-if you want to take the stony path in stead then please do so and the two paths will meet.

Into the woodland I went going right down a hill, across a concrete sort of dam and up a wooden boardwalk.

Soon we come to  a junction of paths, I went to the left but the paths meet each other at the top of the hill.

Now we are going to be following a walk with wooden signs of a tree upon them

We are now walking along the edge of Greenham Common so if you know this area there is no need to follow this description from now on, but we are going to make our way to the old Control tower & leave byway of the car park to the road.

Our path soon turns left & goes down past a little pond then across a boardwalk, up some steps, into and out of woodland with the signs showing the way.

Now we walk along a path again to emerge onto the common area again, with numerous stony paths and some old buildings on the left.

We walk along the stony path, looking at cattle in the area and the old control tower and there is a place where the old runways used to meet. 

I decided to make my way across to the old control tower crossing the heathland and gorse bushes and stony paths. If you want walk a longer walk then continue around the perimeter of the old air field, walking past some ponds towards the old control tower.

Soon I ended up at a gateway before the old control tower where there is a cafe now.

I went into the cafe and got my self a snack and then continued the walk out of the car park and at a roundabout turned right & walked along the grass verge at the side of the road.

This is where we are now: 

So along the grass verge goes the walk from here and goes left around the corner, down a slope with a deep hole on the right hand side and soon a track goes off to the left with signs indicating it's a footpath.

Looking back the way you have come you will see this road.

So off I went along this track which went downhill passing a farm/house on the way with lovely views ahead of the hills and valley.

Soon I could see a golf course on the left hand side and a metal gate across the track indicating I was on a footpath not a road.

Then the came to a metal gate with a stile alongside it & signs for us pedestrians. A man with a tractor was cutting a lovely beech hedge on the pathway ahead.

This path with a ditch alongside it came close to Newbury racecourse as this sign stated.

The path came out onto a track which joined a minor road and went under the railway line from Reading to Newbury next to the canal. 

Under the bridge I went, and walked along the road until I came to a gap in the hedge with a vehicle in it hiding a swing bridge over the canal.

I walked towards the vehicle & found a path running alongside the canal next to a drainage ditch.

I was looking for a way across the canal as the map appeared to indicated there was such a feature.

At the end of the path it crossed over the lock known as Bulls Head Lock.

So now I crossed over the canal on this little bridge onto the towpath of the canal, turned right and started to walk alongside the canal over the River Kennet and under the railway line.

Then along the towpath I walked and saw where the overflow of the water from the canal left it and went into the River again.

Then I came to a path going off to the left leading to Thatcham Discovery park.

Then I came to Widmead lock with the Canal & River trust working on the lock.

From this lock until the next lock the canal looked like it at low tide with the sides of the canal visible

the walk along the canal passes the swing bridge that carries a bridleway to Greenham Common.

As I drew closer to the next lock called Monkey Marsh Lock, the amount of water in the canal was much lower

I decided to have a look at the sluice gate

Because the water level was low I could get down onto the concrete shelf and was able to look into the space below the canal and see water escaping into a water channel.

Getting up onto the towpath again I could look down onto the same channel

 looking at the canal beyond Monkey Marsh Lock which was shut, the water was at the normal level, so clearly the men working on Widmead Lock in order to reduce the amount of water in the lock to make it easier to work in it had raised the sluice gate and empties the canal of water.

So that was the end of the walk, crossing the traffic on Crookham Road to the Railway station again.