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DISCOVERY TRAIL Wantage

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DISCOVERY TRAIL Wantage Help look after the brook Letcombe Brook Project Please don’t feed the ducks The Letcombe Brook Project works with local people and Many people enjoy feeding ducks but this is harmful to organisations to enhance and protect the natural beauty of ducks and the environment. Feeding can cause: the brook and to help people appreciate the environment. The project undertakes work to encourage native wildlife, DISCOVERY TRAIL • Poor nutrition improve the landscape, remove rubbish and alleviate future • Overcrowding and spread of disease flooding along the brook. You can learn more by coming Wantage amongst ducks on a guided walk or joining a conservation task. Schools • Unnatural behaviour can come river dipping as part of their local river study. • Pollution and environmental damage • Increase in rats If you care about the ducks then please do not feed them – allow them to return to their natural habits. Save water Lifestyle choices, population growth and climate change are placing increasing demands on our water supplies. When we turn on the tap in this area we take water from local aquifers that supply the Letcombe Brook. To ensure that there is enough School group measuring the brook water for both us and wildlife in years to come please use water wisely. Letcombe Brook Project Contact Thames Water 0845 9200 800 C/o Vale and Downland Museum www.thameswater.co.uk/waterwise for free Church Street leaflets on saving water. Wantage OXON OX12 8BL Local information 01235 771447 [email protected] Wantage – www.wantage.com Volunteers Wantage Town Council – 01235 763459 Vale and Downland Museum – 01235 771447 Partnership www.wantage-museum.com Environment Agency Vale of White Horse District Council – Wantage Town Council 01235 520202, www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk Grove Parish Council Letcombe Regis Parish Council Environment Agency – For pollution and flood defence Vale of White Horse District Council A 3 mile (4.8km) walk, 1½ hours return, matters call 24-hour emergency hotline 0800 80 70 60. Leaflet sponsored by exploring the brook through the town and nature reserve k Discovery Trail Letcombe Brook Broo Childrey The Letcombe Brook flows through the small historic The brook is a chalk stream and these are globally rare. N market town of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse in It is fed from groundwater held in the chalk in the hills Oxfordshire. The trail leads you through the town and above Letcombe Regis and Letcombe Bassett. When it natural areas such as Willow Walk Nature Reserve. rains the chalk or aquifer, acts like a sponge and soaks up and holds water. Water emerges at ground level in The name Wantage historically means intermittent stream. the form of springs which feed the brook. Regular winter Long ago people chose to settle along the brook as it rainfall is needed to recharge the aquifer to keep the provided a clean and plentiful supply of fresh water. brook flowing throughout the year. East Hanney The character of the brook has been shaped and changed Chalk streams are a naturally rich habitat, and support by centuries of human endeavour as it was used for water many different plants and animals including some of the collection, farming and industry. The trail helps you explore UK’s most endangered species. The brook is home to A338 and discover the brook as it weaves its way through the bullhead and wild brown trout feeding on invertebrates tcombe Brook town often hidden from view. It highlights natural, historic such as mayfly larvae and freshwater shrimps. Kingfishers Le and other interesting features along the route. and bats can be seen above the waters, and water voles and otters have returned to the brook. Distance and time: The trail starts at the Vale and Downland Museum and finishes in Willow Walk Nature The brook flows for 7½ miles (12km) through the Vale Reserve. From here you retrace your steps back to the of White Horse where it meets the Childrey Brook, which museum. It is a linear route, 3 miles (4.8km) return and flows into the River Ock and on into the River Thames. Grove takes approximately 1½ hours. Kingfisher Accessibility: The walk is mostly on level pavements until An expert angler, its diet it passes through Willow Walk Nature Reserve (point K), consists of small fish such as where it is on uneven grass. A417 minnows, sticklebacks and bullheads as well as insects. Wantage is a great place to visit with plenty of places to eat and drink and a good range of shops. For more information visit the Vale and Downland Museum 01235 771447 or go to www.wantage.com WANTAGE Long stay parking and toilets in Wantage Portway k o Letcombe Brook o Letcombe car park. r Discovery Trails B Water vole Regis e b More information can be found about the brook on the Once a common sight but now m o c boards in Mill Street and Willow Walk. Britain’s most endangered t 0 2 km e mammal due to loss of habitat L and predation by mink. Letcombe Bassett A338 0 1 mile Our local place names reflect the presence of the brook in the com G ket or cops lede be ro – thic e E nd of water Le e - ermittent strea ve ast – isla fow tcomb Wantage – int m Hanney l Discover the Letcombe Brook, Wantage control the water for a sheep dip Follow the brook along the footpath. Pass between to clean fleeces and cloth. The pool two red brick mills to Mill Street. Vale and Downland Museum was also used for baptisms. In the features displays on the local late 19th century Lord Wantage G Wessex Mill – A mill landscape, history and people. VC bought the area and had it has probably occupied this Here you can find local landscaped as a fern garden. In site since Saxon times. The information, a cafe serving drinks, 1921 a descendant, Arthur Thomas oldest part which straddles snacks and meals along with Loyd, presented the area to the town brook was converted from displays of arts and crafts from of Wantage. water to steam power in local artists. 1860. In 1910 the new At the crossroads turn right across the bridge, and mill was built, steam power With your back to the Vale and Downland Museum, follow the leat to a seat by the brook. replaced by gas and then electricity. turn left and follow the road round into Priory Road. E You are approaching a mill. Look G Mill pool – Look for the wild brown B Priory Road used to be known out for various structures such as the trout that enjoy the deeper waters here. as Tanner Street when these houses leat and sluice. In the past these were occupied by workers of the were used to divert the brook to Option: Turn right up to Wantage’s historic market square tanneries. Tanning is the process of build up a head of water to power with King Alfred’s statue, shops and lots of places serving making leather from animal skins. the mill. refreshments. This industry brought wealth to Wantage. It required huge amounts Follow the brook to the iron bridge H King Alfred the Great - The Saxon King of water from the brook. Look for on the right. The main entrance to was born in Wantage A.D 849. The statue the blue plaque on house no. 22. Betjeman Millennium Park is on was carved in 1877 out of Sicilian marble the left. by a nephew of Queen Victoria. It was Continue until you come to Locks Lane on your right paid for by Colonel Robert Loyd Lindsay and take this road down the hill to the ford. Options: a) Visit Betjeman (later Lord Wantage). Millennium Park. b) To return to C Mill, formerly Willoughbys Mill which in the past the Vale and Downland Museum Cross the road and follow the cycle ground grist – maize, corn, barley, and produced poultry go across the iron bridge and up way with the brook on your right. feed for farmers and was used to clean and full woollen Betjeman Lane. cloth. In 1086 there were 10 mills recorded on the brook. I The Wharf - The Wantage branch of the Wilts & F Betjeman Millennium Park celebrates the life and Berks Canal once terminated near here. Agricultural At the ford go across the footbridge, turn right and works of Sir John Betjeman with a poetry sculpture trail and products, coal, timber, iron and stone were transported follow the footpath. information boards. The poet laureate lived in Wantage from and traded along the canal. Flour ground by the mills 1946 until 1972. The brook features in Betjeman’s poems, here was shipped out to other parts of the country. Option: Short diversion up to Alfred’s Well. Bear left uphill ‘On leaving Wantage’ and ‘Wantage Bells’. for a short distance. Just before you reach the end of the The Sack House dates back road take the unsurfaced path on the right which is just F Groynes – The brook here flows in a wide channel to the early 19th century and before a house named Edgemead. Retrace your steps down constructed to serve the mill, when it was in use. Bundles of has an enamel sign which reads to the footbridge, turn left and follow the footpath. willows have been placed in the brook to make the channel ‘The West of England Sack narrower. This speeds up the flow of water in the main Hiring Company Ltd’. It served D Alfred’s Well is a dell containing natural springs which channel and clears the river bed of silt.
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