It never ceases to amaze me how, after over 35 years living in Reading, I am discovering new things about it. In this case, I wasn’t certain that I wanted to highlight this publicly, as it’s a perfect spot, and I don’t want others to find it!
To the Dump
The Fobney Island Wetland Nature Reserve, which is a bit of a mouthful so will henceforth be known as Fobney, is well hidden. I have passed the entrance to it on numerous occasions on the way to the dump, or as it is now known, The Smallmead Recycling Centre, and I don’t think I had ever noticed it before.
At the end of a single-track lane is a tiny car park with space for only about eight cars. Just 100 yards from the car park is Fobney Lock which stands on the Kennet and Avon Canal and a quiet attractive vista. You wouldn’t know that this is sat between the dump and an industrial estate.
Nature Reserve
The nature reserve itself is sited roughly within the loop shown in the map below. It isn’t very big, to walk the circumference is less than a mile and a half, but is very attractive nevertheless. Given just how dry it has been over the summer it was surprising but welcome to find it quite green and teaming with bulrushes. There is a path around the edge but I can imagine it getting quite wet when (if?) it rains again.
At the far end there is a structure in the river the likes of which I have never seen before. It looks a little bit like a weir but is made of a series of V shaped blocks over which the water flows (there’s a picture of it below). With plants growing in the V cracks it was very attractive. From here we walked back down the other side of the reserve, past the old landfill site, now covered over, with Green Park in the distance.
It was a lovely, peaceful walk and one that we will certainly be doing again.
