A 20s and 30s Ramblers group.
This is another brand new walk from me – this walk starts from the new Reading Green Park station. We will head down some footpaths that I have never walked before! This 9-mile walk with give you glimpses of Reading you may not have seen before.
Advance booking is not required, but if you plan on attending this walk, please indicate this on Meetup if you can (see Website link), so others can see that there will be plenty of people going.
Pace: gentle.
Walk details
This new walk will start with us leaving Reading Green Park station and heading out through the Green Park village and walking the board walk across the lake, continuing on and passing the Reading dump (hopefully it wont smell too much!) and onto the Kennet and Avon Canal. We have walk along the canal many times but we are crossing over and heading to the disused railway line in Reading – did you know we had a disused railway line?
This is the old Coley Branch Line – also known as the Coley Good Branch which went to a Good Depot near the town centre. A single track line which ran for 1.76 miles which opened in 1908 and closed in 1983.
We will then continue onto the outskirts of Southcote and join up with Linear Park. We will continue along Linear Park until we reach Calcot. At some point on our route through Linear Park we will stop for lunch, before crossing over the railway line (we will keep an eye out for trains!) We will cross over another favourite of the group – the Kennet and Avon Canal.
The next part of the walk will lead us along the the side of the M4 (hopefully it’s not too noisy) for us to join up with the canal for a stretch. We have the option of a drink stop at The Cunning Man near Burghfield.
After the pub we will divert off from the canal and follow a footpath along the River Kennet (one of the new paths that I hadn’t walked along before the recce). The last part of the walk crosses open farmers fields with Reading back in sight and the new flats near our start point. We will head up Cottage Lane and back to our start point at Reading Green Park station.
Travel details
By public transport
If you are coming from Reading, take the 10.37am train from Reading arriving at Reading Green Park station for 10.43am.
If you are coming from Basingstoke, take the 10.06am train from Basingstoke arriving at Reading Green Park station at 10.24am.
By car
Reading Green Park has two car parks – payment is via the RingGo app.
When I did the recce for this walk, there were no signs up directing you to the new station, so if you are unsure where it is I would recommend researching into it beforehand otherwise you may get lost trying to find it.
Notes
Reading Green Park Station
