Description
This is a Slow Ways route connecting Lambourn and Wantage.
Know of a better route? Share it here.
This is a Slow Ways route connecting Lambourn and Wantage.
Know of a better route? Share it here.
Status
This route has been reviewed by 2 people.
There are no issues flagged.
Photos for Lamwan one
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Information
Route status - Live
Reviews - 2
Average rating -
Is this route good enough? - Yes (2)
There are currently no problems reported with this route.
Downloads - 8
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Geography information system (GIS) data
Total length
Maximum elevation
Minimum elevation
Start and end points
Lambourn
Grid Ref
SU3263678917
Lat / Lon
51.50825° / -1.53113°
Easting / Northing
432,636E / 178,917N
What3Words
prune.boost.income
Wantage
Grid Ref
SU3982887903
Lat / Lon
51.58858° / -1.42649°
Easting / Northing
439,828E / 187,903N
What3Words
ambushed.contexts.lately
Lamwan One's land is
Lambourn | |
---|---|
Grid Ref | SU3263678917 |
Lat / Lon | 51.50825° / -1.53113° |
Easting / Northing | 432,636E / 178,917N |
What3Words | prune.boost.income |
Wantage | |
---|---|
Grid Ref | SU3982887903 |
Lat / Lon | 51.58858° / -1.42649° |
Easting / Northing | 439,828E / 187,903N |
What3Words | ambushed.contexts.lately |
Arable | 32.6% |
Pasture | 51.1% |
Urban | 16.3% |
Data: Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2018
reviews
Martin Ellis
29 Aug 2024Lambourn to Wantage 1 (Lamwan 1) review.
An enjoyable walk over the rolling North Wessex Downs; which begins along a lane out of Lambourn and becomes progressively more rural on the gradual ascent onto The Ridgeway, to then descend into Wantage.
Lambourn, famous as a centre for racehorse training, has a choice of amenities. The rolling nature of the downs is soon apparent with the ascending Sheepdrove Road out of the village (Photo 1).
Hedges block the best of the view for this stretch of the route (Photo 2), but the landscape opens up beyond an intersection of byways at Sheepdrove Organic Farm (Photo 3).
A grassy footpath continues across the rolling downs (Photos 4 & 5). This reaches an intersection with a byway heading up towards The Ridgeway. The Slow Way takes a footpath by a field. This proved overgrown and probably rarely used; I ended up following the edge of the field (Photo 6) until the turning towards The Ridgeway. An alternative would be to simply take the byway route and enjoy more of The Ridgeway.
There is a brief visit to The Ridgeway, and then a steep descent down Smith's Hill to woodland (Photo 7). I made a short detour to greet some horses (Photo 8).
A footpath (Photo 9) leads into Letcombe Basset and a break point at The Greyhound pub.
The Slow Way takes a well-maintained footpath (Photo 10) from the village into Wantage, and there is a short urban walk to finish by Alfred the Great’s statue in Market Place (Photo 11).
Ursula
27 Oct 2021This is a lovely direct route travelling through the Lambourn Downs up to the Ridgeway before descending into the Vale of the White Horse at Letcombe Regis for a flat finish to Wantage. Great views over the Lambourn Downs and then from the Ridgeway extending over Oxfordshire.
Starting in Lambourn the route heads out on Oxford Street to Sheepdrove Road. You can either turn right here (Photo 1) to walk up the road (no pavement), or, continue for a short distance to just beyond North Farm Close where a footpath on the right (Photo 2) runs parallel with the road for the first part of the hill. When the footpath re-joins the road, the route continues for just over 1km to the gates of Sheepdrove Organic Farm. It is a single track road with passing places and though generally quiet there were occasions when I had to stand into the side to let vehicles pass. Sheepdrove also has a conference centre so the traffic could be busier if there is an event on. At the gates to the farm, again, you can either continue on the road, or, take the bridleway (Photo 3) which parallels the road on the right hand side. Where the route takes a right turn at the next junction, the road continues for a while with the bridleway as a wide grassy verge on its left side (Photo 4). At around the 4.5km mark, the route becomes a wide track only as it heads towards the Ridgeway (Photos 5 & 6).
The route to the Ridgeway is quite easy to follow. The path alongside one of the fields was quite overgrown with nettles but with the crops not planted to the edge of the field, the bare field edge looked to be an alternative. At the Ridgeway, the view opens out to Oxfordshire and there is a handy bench to take a rest and admire it (Photo 7). There is only about 200m of Ridgeway to walk before the route takes a left, over a stile (Photo 8) to descend (quite steeply in places) through fields and woodland (Photos 9 & 10) to Letcombe Regis. There are several stiles on this section.
The route winds through the pretty village with its many thatched cottages including past the Greyhound pub. It then joins a tarmacked footpath (Photo 11) which takes you all the way to Wantage, just a couple of streets away from the end of the route in the market place.
If you wanted to explore the Ridgeway a bit more, the Iron Age hill fort of Segsbury Camp is situated approx. 500m further along and has an alternative path down to Letcombe Regis.
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