HAMPSTEAD NORREYS Footpaths, Bridleways and Byways The well St Mary’s church FOLLOW THE COUNTRYSIDE CODE Be safe – plan ahead and follow any signs. Leave gates and property as you find them. Protect plants and animals and take your litter home. Keep dogs under close control. Consider other people. Know your rights and responsibilities. For the full Countryside Code and information on where to go and what to do, visit www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk For more local information see the parish website www.hampsteadnorreys.org.uk Walking is recommended by the Government as a safe and health promoting form of exercise. However, it should be carried out with care and forethought. Always wear appropriate footwear and take care when walking in the town or countryside. There is a regular bus service to Hampstead Norreys. Current information can be obtained from Newbury Buses 01635 567500 No responsibility is accepted by the authors of this leaflet for the state or condition from time to time of the paths comprising these walks. Acknowledgements © Images and text by Dick Greenaway 2013. © Map compilation by Nick Hopton 2013. Hampstead Norreys Parish lies in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty HAMPSTEAD NORREYS PARISH COUNCIL Further copies of this leaflet may be downloaded from www.hampsteadnorreys.org.uk www.westberkscountryside.org.uk and www.westberks.gov.uk © Hampstead Norreys Parish Council 2013 © West Berkshire Council 2013 © West Berkshire Countryside Society 2013 HAMPSTEAD NORREYS There is an Iron Age hill fort a mile to Footpath 24 is a short length of the old the parish boundary on a map of 1761. FOOTPATHS BRIDLEWAYS AND the north of the village. Roman finds road that ran up the length of the valley The same map shows Great Ridge Copse. BYWAYS have been made around the parish and from Bucklebury to Compton. The Right This is an ancient hazel coppice. The This leaflet gives descriptions of the the place name is Saxon meaning farm of Way ends at Path 22. massive lynchets south of the wood were footpaths, bridleways, byways and settlement The ‘Norreys’ element Footpath 25 is a short link to cut the caused by centuries of plough-loosened celebrates the family which bought the corner between the B4009 Streatley Road soil moving down slope. The path crosses restricted byways in the parish of th Hampstead Norreys, West Berkshire. Manor in the 15 century. and the Yattendon Road. the hedge and follows the field edge to Hampstead Norreys village lies some The place name and the close Footpath 26 has the Job Lousley the A34. See Permitted Path below. seven miles (11km) northeast of positioning of the early church and memorial near the west end. He was a Numbers 31 – 34 are not used. Newbury, and like so much of West manor house indicate that the village member of a notable family and died in Access Paths 1 & 2 at Eling Farm were Berkshire is in the North Wessex Downs was the centre of a large Saxon Estate. 1855. The wood is a hazel coppice created as part of a Higher Level Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The In Domesday Book (1086) it was held planted on old fields. There are many Stewardship Scheme. parish lies in the valley of the River Pang. by Theodoric the Goldsmith and had badger setts. Look for World war 2 A Permitted Footpath runs inside the The parish is without a post office, but about 30 families, a church and some remains. hedge along the A34 joining paths 28, 30 has a Community shop, a pub and a woodland. Until 1840 the parish Restricted Byway 27 is a tarmac road and and 18 to the lanes at either end. included Hermitage parish to the south ran across Hampstead Norreys Common school. There are 31 paths of various Other leaflets on Hampstead classifications and many links to other and the combined area was probably the to the windmill at Little Hungerford. The area of the Saxon Estate. mill was a post mill and was moved to Norreys paths. parish networks. The paths offer walks th These can be downloaded free of charge from The common fields were enclosed in the Compton in the 18 century. the parish website and rides through differing terrains such th as ancient woods and coppices, across late 18 century. Restricted Byway 28 runs between Path www.hampsteadnorreys.org.uk fields and along ancient drove roads. 29 to the parish boundary at the A34. Its or from Paths with red titles we rate ‘difficult’ NATURAL HISTORY western half lies along the parish www.westberkscountryside.org.uk and have multiple stiles or steep hills. The underlying geology is chalk but this boundary and is shared with East Ilsley as is overlain in many places by acid clays Path EI34. It runs between banks. Double Individual walks Paths with black titles we rate ‘ordinary country paths’ but may have uneven and and sands. Chalk is an internationally banks were a common Saxon boundary • rare rock. It only occurs in southern feature so these may be a thousand years ‘Around and About muddy surfaces. Hampstead Norreys’. Paths with blue titles we rate ‘easy’. England, the northern Continent, Canada old. The area is very flower rich but may and New Zealand. Chalk streams like be difficult in summer. About 6 miles (10km) There are no obstacles and reasonably • ‘Historic Hampstead’. sound surfaces. It would be wise to check the Pang are therefore internationally Restricted Byway 29 is a ‘Green Lane’ or important for their distinctive flora and drove road along which sheep and cattle 2½miles (4km) before use with a disabled companion. • ‘The Woods of Hampstead Local people provided the route fauna. The Pang rises at two places. At were driven to East Ilsley Fair. East Ilsley East Ilsley pond and on Churn Plain was one of the most important livestock Norreys’ (For walkers information, but O.S. Explorer Map 158 interested in archaeology). (Newbury and Hungerford) will provide north of Compton. It is a bourne. This markets in Berkshire up until the 1930s. means that its upper reaches naturally The southern end has species rich hedges. 1¾ miles (2.8km) the bigger picture. THE HISTORY OF HAMPSTEAD dry up – sometimes for long periods. The area around the junction with Paths The woods consist mainly of mature 16 and 28 was one of the drovers’ camp Path networks. NORREYS deciduous trees and the remains of hazel sites. Note the large bank which was part There seem to have been people here very • ‘Haw Farm’ coppices. There are several Ancient of the parish boundary – the ditch is the early. Mesolithic and Neolithic stone Woods with rich floras. The woods are boundary. There are bluebells on the bank implements have been found and there is a • ‘The Paths in the Woods’ home to fallow, roe and muntjak deer so it was built through woodland and is scatter of Bronze Age barrows (burial The paths in Park Wood, and an increasing population of badgers. very ancient. mounds) around the village. Most of these Down Wood and Westbrook Red kites and buzzards are regularly Footpath 30 crosses the field SW from have been ploughed flat but a pristine Copse seen. Path 28 and can be hard to find. It follows example has survived in Park Wood. Bridleway 16 is shown as a road on a WALK DESCRIPTIONS the Common with it. Look for heather in map of 1761. There is a good view of (Numbers 1&2 are not used) the woods beside the path and note Perborough Iron Age Hill Fort to the ‘Common Barn’. north. Look for species rich hedges and Bridleway 3 r uns south from the B4009 at Bridleway 8 passes through Spring verges. Banterwick Barns are probably Wyld Court to join Yattendon Bridleway Plantation and marks the eastern edge of 18 th century but the wick element of their 8 at the parish boundary. the former Common. It is now a species name is Old English and indicates that Footpath 4. This short path links the poor larch plantation. the site was an isolated dairy farm a Yattendon Road at St Abbs to the B4009. Footpath 9 runs through Westbrook thousand years ago. Look for buzzards, The SW half runs along the parish Copse and the dense dog’s mercury red kites, brown hares and deer. boundary. There is a moderate hill on this indicates that the copse was once a field. Footpath 17 runs along the line of the path. The path follows the edge of the flood Wood anemones and bluebells old driveway to the former Langley Park Bridleway 5. The eastern end of this path plain. Note the steep drop into the Footpath 11 and 11a runs uphill and and south between Langley Wood and is also the parish boundary and is likely to floodplain caused by build up of plough along the crest of a steep slope falling to the A34 to join Old Street, a very ancient be over 1000 years old. Note how deeply loosened soil building up against the the north. This slope contains terraces that track. 17 can be hard to find in summer. the track is sunk into the landscape and, in boundary over many centuries. may have been formed by medieval Paths in Langley Wood are open to season, how species rich the hedges and Bridleway 10 runs up the hill between farmers ploughing along the slope. The walkers under the Eling Estate access verges are. St Abb was a 7 th century Park Wood and Down Wood and across area at the NE end is particularly rich in policy and can be used to link to Path Saxon abbess and is remembered in the field to Eling.