It’s the time of year once again for the Reading Walks Festival. This year we are booked on to four walks which was the most that interested us and that we could make. There is some repitition from previous years and walks that we had already done which limited our choices.
Two Rivers (and a Brook)
Most walks that we have booked for this year are what are described as “more talking, less walking”; however, the first walk we did, entitled “Walking the historic Holybrook”, was definitely “more walking than talking” at seven miles. Given that my calves were still hurting from the steep climb up the Worcestershire Beacon a couple of days ago, I wasn’t looking forward to punishing them more but at least this walk promised to be flat.
Reading is known for its two rivers: the Thames and the Kennet (much of which is a canal running through the town), but there is also a third waterway which is equally as historically significant – the Holy Brook. It was the course of this that the walk followed based on a book, The Holy Brook, or the Granator’s Tale, published by the appropriately named Two Rivers Press.
We were starting at close to the (presumed) source of the Holy Brook, the less than picturesque Theale Station. The Holy Brook runs (probably) from a place called Arrowhead as a branch of the Kennet for about seven miles until it rejoins the Kennet by the Abbey in Reading. Somewhat surprisingly, the first six miles of the walk, to the very outskirts of Reading, were very rural.
As the path wends its way towards the town centre it passes by some interesting points including a couple of threatening looking pillboxes, larger than usual because of the strategic position at the junction of the canal and the Thames, the first level crossing reached on the line from Paddington and a most unusual double-decked bridge. According to the book the bridge was “heightened in 1847, when the adjacent Hungerford branch railway line was built”.
Into Town and Out of Sight
The first sign of the town are the blocks of flats that sit beside the A4, looking across to Prospect Park. Shortly after that is probably the most disappointing stretch – a nettle-strewn narrow path with the brook on one side and a high metal fence to the other side that runs along Rose Kiln Lane. Fortunately, at the end of this, you turn into possibly the most interesting stretch – The Holy Brook Nook.
How can I have missed a place so close to the centre of town that is so peaceful and rural-looking? Running like a secret cutting, it passes from Rose Kiln Lane past the back of the Almshouses and emerges into the flats off Bridge Street. A place transformed and includes a community garden as well as a pleasant path.
After the Nook, the Holy Brook becomes more elusive, disappearing underground only to reemerge firstly at the back of the Oracle before once more going out of sight to pop back up just in front of what is now the old library. From here, you can follow it out to the abbey and here, on Chesnut Walk, it rejoins the Kennet.
It was an interesting walk, and there are parts of it I would definitely do again. I might also consider taking the grandchildren to Linear Park, which includes three decent play areas. But if I am ever looking for some calm away from the town, the Holy Brook Nook would be top of the list.
