Culham - Abingdon - Sutton Courtenay - Culham. The walk is around 14kms long
and apart from a short section of undulating track is pretty much flat all the
way. It is necessary to be aware of weather conditions before taking this walk -
as you leave the lock at Culham you can see the fields across the Thames - if they are
badly flooded then it's likely that the River Thames has gone over it's banks and you
may not be able to get into Abingdon itself without diverting onto the road.
Equally once you arrive back at Sutton Courtenay instead of following our
instructions which cross the weirs you will need to follow Appleford Road and
then Abingdon Road to get back to Culham Lock with dry feet.
Do not forget to take a bag of bread for the ducks by the way (poor starving
little fat things that they are).
Culham Lock is situated a little way off the A415 Abingdon to Clifton Hampden
Road - there is a fairly large and amazingly still free car park at Culham Lock -
leastways as of April 2008 it is free to park. Leave the car park and walk over
to the River Thames a few yards away - turn right and follow the towpath as it
passes the large lock. There is no difficulty in following this walk - just keep
on the Thames Path as it follows the River sometimes walking between high hedgerows and
other times with open fields on the right. The whole area is really nice to walk
through - there are always plenty of ducks, swans, moorhens and coots messing
about on the river and many varieties of other birds in the hedgerows and
vegetation - depending on the time of year you will see lots of wild flowers,
dogroses, hawthorn and so on.
The path eventually takes a large sweep right and ends up at hedgrow where there
is a signed pointing you to go left onto a wooden bridge. If you walk onto the
bridge you will get an excellent view of the old Culham bridge - this beautiful
old stone bridge has a bit of history attached to it: it was built in 1416 and
was the site of a Civil War skirmish in January 1645. Having admired the old
bridge there is no doubt that you will need to walk over it so go back through
the hedgerow, turn left and walk just past the house and immediately take the
gravel path on the left onto the bridge. From here continue across the bridge
and go left and head back down to the Thames Path next to the river. (The water
meadows here can be flooded - if they look really wet it may be best to go back
to just before the old bridge and take the woodland path on the left which takes
you to the Abingdon Road. Cross the -busy- road and go left into Abingdon using
the old raised path instead).
Otherwise with Abingdon now well in view - particularly the high steeple of St
Helen's Church just follow the river on into the old town to arrive at it's
really nice old bridge (this was also originally built in 1416 by wool traders)
- there are several seats here plus guess what? loads of hungry ducks and swans.
Cross the bridge using the bridge's only walkway which is on the far side and walk up through the town passing the old jail on the left - incidentally there are several riverside public houses just along here if you fancy a beer etc. Go past the well-named Turnagain Lane and take East St Helens Street on the left. Follow this down to St Helen's beautiful church - apart from admiring this old church you might enjoy taking a look at the Alms Houses as well.
To the right of the church you will see a sign pointing to "The Ock River Valley Walk" - take this well surfaced path as it follows the River Ock for a while and then keep straight on across a small grassy area to arrive at a main road. Cross over this usually busy road and go ahead into a large grass area - bear half right and walk over to the River Ock. Follow the river to eventually reach and cross a small concrete bridge on the right. Turn left and continue following the river (Now on your left) to then reach a wooden bridge - having crossed this turn left and again continue alongside the river.
The path emerges onto more open ground and follows more or less alongside the River as
it meanders it's way to a large wooden footbridge - cross the bridge and on
reaching a small lane turn right up to the end of the lane - passing an old mill house on
the way.
Take the track on the left - now simply follow this undulating and
sometimes muddy green track between high hedgerows to eventually arrive at the
road just outside of Drayton. Cross the road and almost immediately go left again along Sutton Wick Lane - passing some really nice old
barns and also a fairly small duck pond. Confusingly the road splits and both
roads are named Sutton Wick Lane - take the left hand version - passing houses
and continue to where the road ends. Do not take the footpaths on the left -
instead go straight ahead between hedgerow and fence to arrive at Church Lane.
Bear left going up Church Lane to arrive at St Peter's nice little church -
where you will find several wooden benches if you fancy a five minute break.
Walk on through the graveyard and on through gates at the end - continue ahead
down a grassy track to reach a path and open fields. Turn right and shortly
arrive at a road (the B4016). Go across the road and continue on another path
staying in the same direction - to eventually arrive at a small concrete lane
(Drayton East Way).
Turn left and continue on to reach a tarmac road - cross
this then passing by a lawn mower maintenance
workshop (where incidentally they have several nice old Rolls Royces parked) -
keep ahead and follow the wide grassy path - this soon changes into a
fairly narrow high hedge lined path - if the weather has been wet this path for
a while can be extremely muddy and slippery. The path ends at the outskirts of
Sutton Courtenay - there is an old water mill on the right but unfortunately the
grounds behind it have been saturated by some horrible red brick houses. Follow
the now surfaced Mill Lane to arrive at the High Street - turn left and follow
this down to reach a road junction (Brook Street and Church Street).
Turn right and walk along Church Street - there are some really interesting old buildings as well as
the village's splendid church to look at on the way. At the bottom of this road
where it turns sharp right you will find on the left hand side a footpath which
will take you to the variety of weirs (note that if you had noticed the fields
were flooded when originally starting this walk you need to return to the road
and continue along it (now Appleford Street) - after a while turn left onto
Abingdon Road which will get you back to your start point.
The weirs are really
nice to wander around - often lots of wild birds to be seen, lovely trees and so on.
Follow the main path eventually crossing the main weir and keep ahead to reach a
footbridge at the River Thames. Once over turn right and take the short walk
back to the lock at Culham.
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