{"id":7153,"date":"2024-11-20T11:25:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/?p=7153"},"modified":"2025-10-08T16:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:28:39","slug":"pangbourne-20-november-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/pangbourne-20-november-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Pangbourne – 20 November 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rob Stallard led a circular walk round Pangbourne, starting from the George Hotel, on Wednesday 20 November. It was a cold morning, with blue sky and sunshine, following the first hard frost of the autumn. Before starting out, Rob gave the group a brief introduction to the history of Pangbourne. The George Hotel was first established as a coaching inn in the early 1600s. There used to be a ferry across the Thames at the end of the adjacent road. Until the coming of the railway, the centre of habitation was across the river at Whitchurch on Thames, while Pangbourne consisted of isolated houses on drier patches of land amongst the surrounding marshland. The group then set off, turning right out of the hotel car park, crossing the busy A329, then walking back along the other side of the road. Pausing at the bridge over the River Pang, Rob pointed out the site of the former water mill which is shown on 19th century maps and is likely also to be on the site of a mill mentioned in the Domesday Book.  Turning right, the walk continued along The Moors, where flowers were seen on Purple Toadfax and Wood Avens, and other sightings included Petty Spurge, a Polypody fern and Jelly Ear on a log. A mix of footpaths and quiet residential streets led to the Pangbourne allotments and beyond to the meadows. These lie on a mixture of gravel terraces and lower-lying wetter channels. The route led to a gravel area where there were a number of big clumps of Dwarf Gorse in flower. There followed a brief and fruitless search for Petty Whin. Many years ago, it was reported from near here, but has not been seen since. The walk continued across the meadows and back to the River Pang. Flowers of Water Forget-me-not could be seen at the water\u2019s edge. This stretch of the river was formally classified as being in \u2018Good\u2019 condition, but it has recently been down-graded to \u2018Poor\u2019 and the mats of Water-crowfoot have disappeared. After crossing the bridge over the Pang, the next footpath followed the river bank southwards towards Tidmarsh. There were several specimens of Wrinkled Peach on a small fallen branch. This fungus favours Elm and there were many Elms on either side of the path. Most were small, but there were a few surprisingly large specimens which appeared to be resisting Dutch Elm Disease. Spindle bushes next to the path were covered in pink berries, a Herb Robert plant and Black Horehound were in flower and Nail galls were found on the leaves of a Lime. The path led to a grassy meadow which was wet under foot. During the pre-walk on the previous Friday, the river had remained within its banks. But now it had over-flowed and a fast current was pouring into the adjacent field. Crossing it involved wading through the shallower margin, then jumping over the fast-flowing channel.  Continuing southwards, the path was narrow, muddy and slippery in places.  Specimens of Cushion Bracket were found on a fallen branch of what appeared to be a Prunus species. The path led to Tidmarsh, emerging on the east side of the busy A340 which runs through the village. The group turned left and headed to the Greyhound Inn, which has a thatched roof with an ornamental greyhound on the roof. Rob pointed out that the pub building was a fine example of 12th century cruck construction. This little thatched cottage became a wayside public house in 1625.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After crossing the busy A340, the walk continued a short distance along Tidmarsh Lane, before following a footpath which led off to the right.  A heap of dung next to the path was home to a cup fungus of genus Peziza <\/em>and many inkcaps Coprinopsis. <\/em>In contrast to the damp and muddy river valley, the ground underfoot was dry, as the footpath climbed up over the Chalk which lines the sides of the Pang valley.  A hedge which bordered the path contained many Wayfaring-tree bushes. Further on, clumps of Butcher\u2019s-broom were spotted at the side of the path. They sported both bright red berries and greenish-white flowers. The footpath emerged on Bere Court Road, which is bordered by large and expensive properties. In medieval times, Bere Court was the home of the Abbot of Reading. Along the lane, Green Alkanet was in flower. Turning right, the route led to Pangbourne Hill.  Nearby, Round-spored Oysterling Crepidotus cesatii <\/em>wasspotted on a twig. Near the bottom of the hill, Rob paused to tell the group a little about the local history. The church of St James the Less was originally built some time before 1175, but has been rebuilt twice. Next to the church is Church Cottage where Kenneth Grahame, author of \u2018The Wind in the Willows\u2019, lived for the last 8 years of his life, from 1924. He wrote the book before this, while he was living at Cookham Deane, but it is thought that the illustrator, E.H.Shepherd, took his inspiration for many of his pictures from the Rivers Thames and Pang here. Looking from the road, the old village lock-up, a round red brick building with a conical roof, can be seen in the garden of Church Cottage. The walkers then returned to the George Hotel for lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Dwarf Gorse (Ulex minor)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Water Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cup fungus (Peziza sp.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pangbourne village lock-up (Church Cottage) the weather cock has text ‘Vigilante’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Round-spored Oysterling (Crepidotus cesatii)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Spindleberry (Euonymus europaeus)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Stallard led a circular walk round Pangbourne, starting from the George Hotel, on Wednesday 20 November. It was a cold morning, with blue sky…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wednesday-walks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7169,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions\/7169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}