Tuddingway (2)

The Tuddingway took us past Littlestoke Manor (601850) next, where ladies of quality used to watch the traffic pass from their gazebo (#1) – perhaps they were delighted by the sight of people who had to work – then continues as a footpath to South Stoke. 


A quick right & left in the village, then hey presto: a marvellous stretch lay before us.  #2 shows Chris making an intelligent observation which I probably ignored or failed to understand while #3 is the sort of picture I cannot resist.

(It’s at this point I realise that we have been walking on the Ridgeway, the “Oldest Road in England”.  I can see that it would have passed through Goring, an easy Thames crossing-point, but what was so important about Overton Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon, the start and finish of the route, all those years ago?)

After our stop-off in Goring we left the town via Manor Rd, with Ferry Lane on our right, and were met with hilly countryside (#4) – it was getting better and better.  Every hill (I suppose) has a combe/coomb/coombe somewhere near it and we had a Coombe Park as well.  The path was level through Hartslock Wood, then started climbing (#5).  The hedges are full of buckthorn, maple & dogwood; Pat Preece has counted seven species in a 30-yard stretch, which makes the hedge over 700 years old, according to the theory of hedge-age propounded by Max Hooper.

Packhorses and drovers would have zigzagged up the steep eastern side of the combe until they passed the Park…