Hiking along – from Pangbourne to Hurley

Walking from Pangbourne to Reading took us through a lot of classic English countryside – starting with a ramble through the Hardwick Estate. No, this is not the same as Hardwick Hall of Bess of Hardwick fame, that lies in Derbyshire, far, far from the Thames. For those of you who’ve never heard of Elizabeth of Hardwick, I recommend looking her up, this formidable and shrewd woman who married four times, accompanied Mary of Scots through parts of her captivity, built Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall, had several children and died at the age of 87 as one of the richest and most powerful people in England. Not that this has anything to do with our hike along the Thames…

The Hardwick Estate we walked through borders the Thames, and while the estate generously allows people to wander through multiple footpaths, the grand house is private. An hour or so later, we passed onto the Mapledurham Estate, and here I was really looking forward to visiting this magnificent Elizabethan mansion. Building work commenced in 1585 by Sir Michael Blount, and it remains in the same family to this day—a rather impressive achievement, especially when considering the Blounts were Catholic recusants, a dangerous thing to be during the 17^th century…

Mapledurham House has priest holes constructed to secret the priests who served the family. In the nearby church of St Margaret, there’s still a Catholic chancel—not in use since the reformation, still owned by the family. So yes, I was really looking forward to this visit—but it didn’t happen, as despite a website stating the house was open, it was all locked up ☹

I had to console myself with some pics of the beautiful almshouses and the house itself.

Somewhat disappointed, we marched on towards Reading, there to see the remains of Reading Abbey and the potential burial site of Henry I.  I am somewhat ambivalent to Henry I, a man with a streak of cruelty a mile wide, but also a capable administrator who managed to bring together the two disparate parts of his realm.

He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was actually born after the Conquest, possibly in England, and spent much of his reign defending his throne from older brother Robert (who, once defeated, was locked up by Henry for life) and from the French. He also sired a huge amount of illegitimate children, but only two within wedlock: Matilda and William. We touched upon Matilda in the previous post about Wallingford—the Empress was the only legitimate child to survive Henry, seeing as William drowned in 1120 in the White ship disaster.

Maybe this tragedy was what inspired Henry to found an abbey in Reading in 1121. Or maybe he was starting to worry about the hereafter—he seems to have been a very intelligent man who likely was fully aware of how ruthless and cruel he could be. Whatever the case, Reading now had an abbey—yay! Truth is, this was Reading’s second religious house, as there’d been an Anglo Saxon nunnery there since the early tenth century, but after the conquest William I deeded all that land to his new donation, Battle Abbey.  No idea what happened to the poor nuns…

Reading Abbey was to become a very wealthy abbey. The monks controlled the trade on both the Thames and the Kennet river, and the abbey drew huge crowds of pilgrims—even more so once the abbey had acquired the hand of St James ( who is the saint venerated at Santiago de Compostela) It was also a centre of learning, and it is in Reading Abbey that the first song in English is noted down (including the notes to go with it) in the 13^th century. Sumer is icumen in does not sound as modern English, but English it is, continuing with lhude sing cuccu. It makes me go all weak-kneed, that a monk in the mid 1200s sat and copied a text for a song in Middle English and that the document survives to this day!

Of the abbey as such, very little survives. The Dissolution led to the abbey buildings being torn down and reused elsewhere, and the last abbot of Reading Abbey was to suffer a horrible death in front of his abbey church. Hugh Faringdon entered Reading Abbey somewhere around 1500 an was elected abbot in 1520. He seems to have been an accommodating man in some matters—for example, he supported Henry VIII during the divorce controversy. He signed the Articles of Faith in 1536 which acknowledged the king’s supremacy over the church, and sang the requiem for Jane Seymour when she died in 1537. Supposedly, he was also accommodating when it came to surrendering his abbey to the commissioners—or was he? The surrender has not survived, so we don’t know if our Hugh signed it.

What we do know is that in 1539, Hugh Faringdon was tried for treason. So what happened? Well, it seems Hugh was beset with doubts as to the new order of things. Specifically, he was accused of aiding the northern rebels—the so called Pilgrimage of Grace. He also expressed that he did not believe the king should be the supreme head of the English Church—that role fell to the pope. Did not make him very popular with Henry… Hence, he was condemned to be “hanged on the gallows, taken down while living and laid on the ground and have his belly taken out and burned while still alive and his head cut off.” Ugh.

We enjoyed our visit to Reading, after which we set off towards Sonning where we were to stay the night. Sonning was very, very pretty. In general, many of these small villages dotted along the river are postcard-pretty. The proximity to the water helps, but it is also a consequence of being such a balanced mix of old and new. Take Sonning, as an example, where the old mill has been converted into a popular theatre and bar (the mill wheel still turns, generating a lot of the electricity used)

Today, we had a long walk ahead of us—25 km—so we started out bright and early. Once again, beautiful scenery, and after a few twisting diversions we came to St Margaret of Antioch in Harpsden. Yet another of these beautiful little churches dating back to the 12^th century, and we had a nice chat with the church warden before continuing down to Henley.

What did we know about Henley before today? Very little. We actually spent a night here while on our honey moon (in a tent, wet and cold) but this was the first time we actually took in this town that extends so elegantly along the Thames. Home to the Henley Regatta, it wasn’t exactly surprising to see multiple rowing teams doing practice runs up and down the river. Very fun to watch, actually! Best take away from Henley was the excellent cream tea at Viv’s, just by the bridge. Mmm! (Kidding… Henley is much, much more than well-presented scones)

Our approach to Hurley took us through Hambleden where we just had to walk across the weir and stare at all the frothing water. I must say, I had no idea there were so many weirs along the Thames—nor did I know it was so dotted with islands. This river twists and turns, it splits into one, two, three arms, it comes together, it flows steadily towards the sea, now and then foaming over shallows. And everywhere, it gives life.

Hurley is situated beside yet another lock/weir combo. It is another of these very old places, with a priory founded some decades after the Conquest by a Geoffrey de Mandeville. A thriving religious house, the priory boasted a guest hall which is now the Olde Bell Inn, proudly displaying it’s been taking guests since 1135. Once again, the Dissolution led to the closure of the priory, but the church became the parish church, and the Lovelace family (yup: ancestors to the Lovelace gent that married Byron’s daughter, Ada) used a lot of the priory stone to build themselves a huge mansion called Ladye Place. This is where the conspirators behind the 1688 Glorious Revolution met, but the house was demolished in the 19^th century. However, the priory’s dormitory and refectory still survives, now as a beautiful private home.

So far, we have walked 117 km. We have two more days to go before we reach Windsor. I’ll be back then with a final post!