Thames Path Part Eleven: Shillingford to Abingdon, 11 miles, moderate

PLEASE NOTE START TIME CHANGE TO 9AM

The Thames Path is a 182 mile National Trail stretching from London to Gloucestershire. This year, the group will aim to cover the whole trail from start to finish! Following the success of our London and Berkshire legs, the following 3 walks in this series will take us through Oxfordshire from Goring to Oxford!

**To add some fun to our adventure, you are encouraged to purchase the Thames Passport where we will collect stamps at over 30 stamping stations along the Path. Collect stamps at all the various stations and you can receive a Certificate of Completion for doing the whole trail from start to finish! The link to purchase the passport is here: https://walkthethames.co.uk/thames-path-passport/**

Part 11 of our Thames Adventure sees us encounter several Oxfordshire villages, some with big history!
Setting out from Shillingford, we will have a brief stretch of road walking along the A4074 before we turn off and arrive in Dorchester-on-Thames, a historical Roman village with its Abbey and the Wittenham Clumps nearby. We will head to the Abbey to collect another passport stamp here. After returning to the river and passing through Day’s Lock, we will walk through grazing meadows before arriving at Clifton Hampden. Here near the church, we will see a glimpse of Clifton Hampden Manor owned by music legend Kate Bush. We will have our first pub stop here to collect another passport stamp at the Barley and Mow.

After Clifton Lock, we will start heading through the Clifton Cut and under Appleford Railway Bridge with views of the remains of Didcot Power Station. Here we will have our lunch stop.

Once refuelled, we will head onwards to Culham and if people are willing, we will divert away from the official Thames Path route and follow the previous old route into Sutton Courtenay to have a pub/café stop. George Orwell’s grave is in the village church. Otherwise we will head along Culham Reach and then meadows with a view of Abingdon School Boathouse (Europe’s oldest oak building) and St Helens Church in Abingdon on the other side.

Finally we will reach Abingdon Bridge to arrive at the historical market town of Abingdon, once the centre of Berkshire before Reading, and celebrate concluding another section of the Path at the Riverside Café, with another chance to collect another stamp for the passports.

Start time: 9:00 am
Estimated finish time: 3:30 pm
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 17.7km / 11.0mi

To get to the start point at Shillingford from Reading, please get the X40 bus leaving Station Road in Reading Town Centre (Stop SB) leaving at 7:44, arriving at Shillingford at 8:46. To get back to Reading from Abingdon, you will either need to get the bus either to Oxford or Didcot Parkway, then the train back to Reading.

If driving, parking is available at Shillingford Bridge Hotel in Shillingford all day where it is £4 for up to 24 hours. If you have parked in Shillingford, you will need to get the bus back from Abingdon to collect your car.