Spewok one

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Spencers Wood to Wokingham (Spewok 1) review.

Note: I walked from Wokingham to Spencers Wood.

There’s an urban walk from Wokingham Station to the turning onto a byway towards Arborfield Cross.

My walk was a couple of days after a heat wave (July 2022); but even so the byway was muddy in places (Photo 1).

Arborfield Cross has The Bull Inn (Photo 2). As can be seen from the photo, it was temporarily closed at the time. There’s a convenience store enroute; by the footpath out of the village.

I took a detour south to the horse statues on Biggs Lane commemorating the Arborfield Remount Depot (Photo 3).

The Slow Way takes footpaths to a stretch of the Reading Road; which has a pavement.

The route then follows Church Lane and a footpath (Photo 4). It passes the Old Churchyard with its heavily overgrown church ruins; well worth a look around. It continues by a Reading University farm and crosses the River Loddon (Photo 5).

There’s a rough footpath (Photo 6) by the river and across fields to reach the main road into Shinfield. There are amenities south of the roundabout.

The housing project west of Shinfield has much advanced since I was last there (see Spewoo 1). The extended Beke Avenue (west exit from the roundabout) will be the direct route towards Spencers Wood. For now, Spewok 2 gives a route around the construction site.

The walk into Spencers Wood is via back streets and a byway.

I enjoyed this walk. Regarding the previous review, however, there is the important caveat that this is a Slow Way for dry conditions.

I started at Wokingham station in the direction of Spencers Wood. The first section of the route leads along a relatively busy Barkham road up to Barkham. Even though I'm not fully familiar with that area, I'm confident that a quieter route could be found out of Wokingham. A forest route to Arborfield Cross can have large pools of water and it may not be passable without soaking one's shoes. The main issue I have with this route, however, is the section between Arborfield and Shinfield. The area around the river Loddon was under water to such an extent that I had to make a big detour and return to the center of Shinfield later. The remaining part of the route is mainly through a built-up area but even then I couldn't follow it exactly because a building site cut across it at the edge of Shinfield. A better route should probably be suggested when the new estate at Shinfield is completed.

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