Rural Wandering: a cycle along the old Newbury to Winchester railway

With just a short period of time on my hands before I had to drive off to a family birthday party yesterday, I decided to take myself off on a more modest bike ride than my 57 mile epic of last week, and head out to the disused Newbury to Winchester railway for both some cycling and some rural wandering. Closed to passengers and then freight in the 1960's, much of this old railway has now been used to for the Newbury bypass, but there are some sections remaining which have been converted into footpaths and cycle paths, and fortunately some of these sections are close to where I live. This set of photos comes from the section of the line between Burghclere and Old Burghclere.

 

Approaching Old Burghclere station from the north

Platform at Old Burghclere station

 Looking north through Old Burghclere station

In this shot the platforms can still both be clearly seen, and the station building itself, now converted into a house. As I cycled past I caught a glimpse of people, presumably the owners, sitting at a table on what once was the platform, having a coffee.

Old Burghclere station

Just to the south of Old Burghclere station is an abandoned signal box. When I've cycled along here previously, the signal box has largely been obscured by bags of some sort of farm produce, but today these had been cleared away, giving a near perfect view. This signal box would presumably have been used to ensure safe movement of trains through the station and also into and out of the goods yard.

Abandoned signal box just south of Old Burghclere station

Abandoned signal box just south of Old Burghclere station

I even managed to sneak inside briefly.

Abandoned signal box just south of Old Burghclere station

This next picture is again of Old Burghclere station itself, but this time from the front.

The front of Old Burghclere station

 

And further along the bike ride, we have the somewhat confusingly named Highclere station, which is actually in Burghclere. This is also a private residence now and only the front can be seen from the road. A great place to live I should imagine.

The front of Highclere station

    

Bicycles, books and music

My Christmas man-flu is unbelievably still lingering but at least it's nowhere near as bad as it was. Going back to work on Tuesday was a huge shock to the system, but fortunately I worked the first 2 days from home, before working in London for 2 days at the end of the week. Whilst in London I had intended to go CD shopping one evening after work but alas I ended up working late and by the time I got back to my hotel I needed food, and after that I had more work to do. However, I'm up in London again next week so hopefully will have another opportunity. I've also got a list of other places to visit this year but need to wait until the evenings are lighter for most of them.

I managed another modest 12 mile bike ride today, but this time on my own. I followed pretty much the same route as the one I did last week with my daughter, but added on a small loop around Highclere Church before heading home.

Decision point

I wasn't in the mood for the uphill trek to Ashmansworth so opted for the route to East End instead, where I was rewarded with my first sighting of a fox this year. Interesting over the last year I think I have seen more foxes in London that I have out in the country where I live. I guess the dustbins of the rich and famous are the star attraction.

Last night we watched the Inspector Morse prequel, Endeavour, which I though was well written and superbly acted. I'm hoping there will be a series based on the success of this. I also caught an hour or so of the Old Grey Whistle Test last night, featuring some brilliant 70's music from the quirkiness of Captain Beefheart to the pre-punk sounds of Patti Smith playing a track from here 1975 debut album Horses, and Dr Feelgood, and through to the post-punk/new wave era with The Talking Heads performing their seminal Psycho Killer, The Jam, Blondie and The Specials.

My reading is, as always, very slow and I'm still working my way through David Byrne's excellent Bicycle Diaries. In the book, he's now in San Francisco which, fingers-crossed, will be this year's summer holiday destination.

    

First bike ride of the New Year

I have been suffering with man-flu since before Christmas, and today was the first day I have really felt like doing anything vaguely energetic. And apart from the illness, December has not really seen me doing much other than eating and drinking, so it was high time to address that. The weather was cold and crisp as I set off with my 11 year old daughter on an 11 miler around West Berkshire/Hampshire border, taking in West Woodhay, East Woodhay, East End and Highclere (home of TV's Downton Abbey). The bird life was wonderful and we saw a nuthatch, buzzard and various tits and finches. We stuck to the roads as the bridleways were very muddy and wet, but fortunately there was hardly any traffic around, so all-in-all the perfect day for a ride, and hopefully a sign of rides to come later in the year.

Looking towards West Woodhay

West Woodhay Church