Ruby Tuesday

The Ridgeway: Day 2 – Ogbourne St George to Wantage (23.5 miles)

Tuesday 14 November 2023

Rose-hips by the wayside – gleaming like gemstones, even on a grey November morning

My limited research tells me that parts of the Ridgeway have been used as a thoroughfare, and as a drovers’ path and trading route, for over five millennia, right back to Neolithic times. Along sections of wide grassy tracks (unfortunately rutted and boggy in the current season), and on the drives of smooth chalk, it is not difficult to imagine the ancients using this path: a humbling experience which becomes almost spiritual in the presence of the numerous burial mounds, tumuli and long-barrows that appear along the path. In addition the earthworks of the former castles of Barbury (on yesterday’s section), Liddington, Uffington and Segsbury on today’s walk, stand proudly on the hilltops over which they once stood guard. There are also several white horses carved into the North Wessex chalk, including those near Devizes, Alton Barnes, Cherhill, Broad Town, Hackpen Hill, Marlborough, Pewsey and Westbury. Many of these are from recent centuries, but the Uffington White Horse, on my route today, is prehistoric, and it is perhaps the finest of all, for its antiquity and design. I commend this Ridgeway walk, and an exploration of these historic landmarks, to anyone with an interest in the ancient history of our island; there is so much to see and to experience here in such a relatively small and accessible area.

I have had to alter the scale on this OS map extract to fit all of my route in today – the dark blue line shows my path northward out of Ogbourne, then crossing the M4 near Liddington, before climbing once more to Whitehorse Hill and swinging to the south of Wantage, ahead of my road-walk into the town

Back to my day, and a particularly fine breakfast greeted me at The Sanctuary this morning, which along with the early morning murk (rather than the promised rain) got my first few miles, of a long day’s trek, off to a good start. So, suitably fed, I re-traced my twilight steps of yesterday’s walk, climbing steeply back uphill to re-join the Ridgeway path. From above Ogbourne St George the route sticks to the high ground for several miles up to Liddington Hill (at 276 metres one of the highest points on the entire path), and then, after descending to cross Wanborough Plain and the M4 Motorway, the trail climbs once more up to Fox Hill and then remains on the high ground for nearly 25 miles eastwards to Streatley-on-Thames. There are no villages on this section, and so a northward detour is required, down one of the few roads that cross the Downs, in order to find sustenance and accommodation. Anyway, here is how I got on.

Ogbourne has a road bridge that carries the A346 past the village – I missed this greeting in the darkness of last night as I arrived in town

. . . that soon became steep and muddy – this would have been a skating rink but for my poles!

A better-made path on the tops, through autumn woods . . .

Towards the top of Liddington Hill the rain started – the castle earthworks are just off the route to the left

Up here in the rain, above the 250-metre contour, there is no shelter; a bleak landscape of greys and greens today . . .

. . . although, on balance, I would still rather be on the Downs than on the wet motorway

At Fox Hill my spirits were revived by this progress report . . .

. . . before another wet climb on a watery path

A dry valley, just south of Bishopstone – there are few rivers in these chalk uplands, as much of the drainage is underground

The ancient long-barrow at Wayland’s Smithy is a Neolithic burial site, now set within a copse of beech trees atop Odstone Hill – it really is a very special place, and a benefit of visiting in the rain is that I had the barrow all to myself for 15 minutes, with just a murder of crows for company; a quite memorable experience

Another short detour took me to the familiar trig point at the top of Whitehorse Hill (261 metres): I was here in August – see my post ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ of 11 August 2023, that includes photos of Uffington Castle and the ancient white horse itself

As the rain abated, a suggestion of a rainbow appeared . . .

. . . heralding some sunshine, and some far-reaching northward views over the Midlands Plain

Wet ground, but blue skies now, on Green Down

A two-mile section of ‘chalk pavement’ . . .

My final section of the Ridgeway for today, legs tiring now, on Lattin Down . . .

. . . where I encountered a tractor jam . . .

A last look to the north, before my three-mile road walk into Wantage

Tonight, showered and somewhat rested in The Bear Hotel on the Market Square in Wantage, I met my brother Tim for a catch up on our lives and on our mad world in general. Then it was time for dinner, and where better than Tim’s local curry house?

‘Ruby Tuesday’, my Blog title for today, comes from a 1967 song by Keith Richards (and co-credited to Mick Jagger) of The Rolling Stones, written about his then girlfriend Linda Keith. The number was backed with ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ on a Double A-Side disc that gave the Stones their fourth US Number One hit, whilst charting at three in the UK. Jagger has always enjoyed performing the number, ranked by Rolling Stone magazine in 2011 at 310 in their ‘500 Greatest Songs Of All Time’.

And finally . . .

Ruby Tuesday

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