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WALK 5

Blewbury and the Astons

Start/Finish	Car park at Blewbury village hall and shop (SU 530 860) along Westbrook Street, 500m north off the A417
Distance	13.7km (8½ miles)
Ascent	220m
Time	4hrs
Map	OS Explorer 170
Refreshments	The Red Lion (01235 850403) and village shop at Blewbury; The Chequers (01235 851272) at Aston Tirrold
Public transport	Bus service to Blewbury (A417) from Didcot rail station (excluding Sundays). (From the bus stop head west along the A417 and turn right along Nottingham Fee to the church and join the route here.)

This easy walk sets out from the picturesque village of Blewbury, with its historic church and wealth of thatched cottages, and passes the earthworks of a former Iron Age hill fort on Blewburton Hill before heading through the neighbouring villages of Aston Upthorpe and Aston Tirrold. The walk then heads south over the rolling Aston Upthorpe Downs before briefly meeting with the Ridgeway and then heading north past Churn Hill back down to Blewbury, with views including the Wittenham Clumps (Walk 4).

From the village hall at Blewbury head back to Westbrook Street and bear left along Church End to a junction. Fork right (straight on), shortly passing the churchyard (right). Continue along the enclosed path, cross the stream and then follow the track.

Blewbury, once home to Kenneth Grahame, best known as the author of The Wind in the Willows, who lived for a while in a house in Westbrook Street (blue plaque), has many picturesque timber-framed and thatched cottages as well as some original thatched cob walls. The village was first mentioned in a Saxon charter from King Edmund in AD944, and at the time of the Domesday Book was home to a church and four mills. St Michael’s Church, rebuilt in the 11th century, has Saxon origins. Inside are some interesting memorial brasses, including one to Dame Alice Daunce (d.1523) and her husband Sir John, Surveyor-General to Henry VIII.

Turn left along South Street for 100m and then right along Bessels Lea to a junction. Cross the road (B4016) and keep ahead along the track past Winterbrook Farm, heading east gently up towards Blewburton Hill. The hill is crowned with the remains of an Iron Age hill fort (400BC) and was later used as a Saxon cemetery (AD500). A gate on the left at SU 544 859 gives access to the hill (open access land).

The earthworks of the Iron Age hill fort on Blewburton Hill

Keep ahead and go through the third gate on the left (SU 547 859), then follow the path diagonally across the field to the far-left corner. Descend some steps and follow the track as it curves left past houses to a junction beside Thorpe Farmhouse (left) and the All Saints Church (right) in Aston Upthorpe.

The twin villages of Aston Upthorpe and Aston Tirrold are home to picturesque cottages, a pub and two interesting churches. All Saints Church in Aston Upthorpe is built on Saxon foundations and has an 11th-century nave and filled Norman doorway, while St Michael’s Church, in Aston Tirrold, dates back to 1080.

St Michael’s Church, in Aston Tirrold

Turn right along Thorpe Street, keep left at the junction, and at the next junction, beside the war memorial, go right along Baker Street in Aston Tirrold, with The Chequers pub on the left. Follow the lane as it swings right, and just before the first house on the left turn left along the enclosed path. Later keep ahead through the churchyard, passing St Michael’s Church. Leave through a gate and turn right along the village street. Keep left at the junction and head up to the A417.