Pootler

  GPX File of the Route :   High Chilterns & Horrible Henrys  This route covers some of the upland villages in the Southern Chilterns.It heads out of Goring using the Icknield Way and climbs along the open country on the east side of the Thames Valley and onwards to picturesque Ewelme. Thence onwards, ascending the Chiltern Hills circling clockwise past the manors of Stonor and Grey’s Court, then through Stoke Row on the return to Goring. It is almost entirely based on quiet and minor roads and although there are quite a few climbs, none are steep. For more detail see the Route Tips below. Zoom In Highlights are: Goring itself, check the view from the bridge. Views across the Goring Gap from the valley side. Historic Ewelme & Alice Chaucer Beautiful deciduous ‘ancient’ woodlands Stonor Park Grey’s Court, an Elizabethan Manor The Maharajah’s Well. Odd enough to get into Atlas Obscura! I confess...

   Link to GPX File of the Route  This is ‘figure of eight’ tour of the Western end of the Wessex Downs and includes famous neolithic sites. It starts from Hungerford on the River Kennet and heads over the interfluve between that and the River Lambourn before heading up the chalk hills towards the scarp. South of the Lambourn, the landscape is more wooded and mixed farming predominates. North of it there are open vistas; the few trees you see were probably planted as windbreaks. Going right back to the Neolithic, this used to be sheep country. In King Alfred’s time it was ‘West Wales’. Now, the dominant land use now is probably race horse training gallops. Most of the route is on minor roads with several long but not steep climbs. The exception is where it follows the Ridgeway along the hilltops so there is the alternative of a lower route which avoids the Ridgeway but is longer.  Zoom In The Highlights Hungerford. Charles II effectively negotiated his surre...

  Link to GPX File of the Route This ride takes you from Newbury into the green valley of the River Lambourn, a classic chalk stream, which starts near Lambourn village and joins the Kennet in Newbury. At Great Shefford it turns north and climbs towards the open, arable, upland of the North Wessex Downs. You then have a 7 mile roller coaster ride along the hilltops with great views, before returning downhill back to Newbury, passing through villages set in the more wooded terrain of the lower lower eastern slopes. This peaceful countryside has been settled for millennia and vestiges of the inhabitants and their farming, from the bronze age through medieval times to the Victorians, can still be found. It is all on roads which, outside of busy Newbury, are small and quiet. Highlights are: The watermills and (probably!) medieval water meadows of the Lambourn, a classic chalk country stream. Creating and maintaining these is more complicated than you might imagine. ...