Graham Pearcey

The route:

• Park at The Five Bells pub, Stanwell Road, Horton, SL3 9PA. Food is served until 2:30 PM and again from 6:00 PM Mon-Sat. Food is served until 3:00 PM Sun.
• With your back to the pub, turn left, pass St. Michael’s Church and enter Horton. At the archetypal English village green (which boasts a war memorial, general store, pub and quaint cottages) turn left into Park Lane. The lane gets increasingly dirty but, at the very end, turn right onto a clearly marked Footpath. The route initially crosses a footbridge to follow a grassy path with a stream on its left and a lake to its right, which eventually emerges onto a service track. Bear left as though to pass through an open gate, but don’t. Instead, locate a narrow footpath between two wire fences which proceeds parallel to the service track, and across a bridge, until at the end you see a stile ahead of you to your right. Take this and a second stile to (carefully) cross the railway tracks, and then continue on the path until it crosses a metal stile and becomes Douglas Way.
• At the T-junction you can clearly see the Baptist Church (with spire) to your right. Turn in this direction and cross Station Road but, almost opposite the Baptist Church, go through a squeeze stile onto a signed path on your left. Follow this without digression, keeping the backs of houses and gardens to your left, to the weatherboard barns by Tithe Farm. Turn left into Tithe Lane and right when the Lane takes you back to Station Road. Wraysbury station is ahead.
• As there is no pavement here, bear right into the Wraysbury station approach road. Take the steps back up to the road, turn right, and then take the next steps back down into the car park on the other side of the railway line. At the far end of that car park, cross the road to the bus stop sign and turn right to cross over Colne Brook by a bridge, as you do so noting a very photogenic cottage sitting beyond the Brook and trees to your left. Immediately after this bridge, take a Public Footpath indicated with yellow waymarks on your right.
• The path, occasionally overgrown with nettles in places, initially crosses a bridge to follow Colne Brook before running parallel to the railway and reaching a Public Footpath sign to the right. Take this and, having carefully crossed the railway tracks by way of two stiles, bear first left and then right following the marker post and yellow arrow.
• Follow this path with the stream on your right and the lake to your left for three-quarters of a mile to reach a bench, erected by Groundwork to provide views downstream, from which you can see Wraysbury Road in the distance. Soon after the bench you pass an information board explaining about Wraysbury Lakes and leave the area by a stile opposite the M.O.T. Test Centre.
• Turn right onto Wraysbury Road but don’t cross it. Pass a post-box, the Spice Lounge restaurant, and a shop. Continue for about half a mile as the path first turns into a grass verge, and then reverts to a footpath again. After passing the gates to the British Airways Sailing Club, cross the road and take the “permitted footpath” to the right of house number 104.
• Enter Ankerwycke parkland and follow a path. Just before the River Thames is reached, go through a kissing gate and then turn right. Keep on the riverside path for some time, ignoring all side paths on your right, until you are walking parallel to a road on the far side of the Thames. Emerge through a kissing gate into a meadow. Continue straight ahead towards another kissing gate in the corner of the field, but do NOT enter this gate. Instead, bear right to cross a stile alongside a field gate, proceeding along a shady hedge-lined path to the ruins of the 12th-century St Mary’s Priory.
• Maintain direction and just beyond, on the right, is a sign marking the Ankerwycke Yew, reputedly more than 2,000 years old and designated by the Tree Council as one of 50 Great British Trees in 2002. Circle the tree, noting the gifts left by visitors for the tree gods, and adding your own if you wish; or even stay a while and join any pagan worshippers maintaining silence there.
• When you are ready to move on, continue on the original path for about 90m, but before the path crosses a bridge follow an arrow left to a kissing gate. Enter the field and then cross the wooden bridge into the second field on your right, where there is another National Trust marker and kissing gate. Proceed to take the main track along the length of this field, aiming for houses in the distance, but first look left and upwards to see the RAF memorial.
• Leave by the gate and cross Magna Carta Lane to follow the footpath sign to the right of the houses in Mede Close, through another gate. Continually aiming for the spire of St. Andrew’s in the distance, pass through four more gates. Then enter the churchyard via an iron kissing gate. Keep the church on your left hand side as you proceed to the lych gate and emerge into St. Andrew’s Close. Walk to the end of the Close, where you turn right.
• As you pass The George Inn, note the intricate trellis-work on The Grange opposite it. Turn left into The Green. Pass - all on your right hand side - the playground, cricket pitch, tennis courts, war memorial, Wraysbury Bowls Club and finally windmill, now a private house. Pass a charming pond on your left to reach High Street. Turn left into Station Road and retrace your steps to Five Bells pub.

This route was last walked on 25 September 2008, and the directions were accurate then. Please e-mail me if you find any errors, if you would like a copy in Word format, or if you would prefer a version that starts and ends at Wraysbury station.

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