Letcombe Regis to the brook
From the village hall we make for St Andrew’s church. By the porch there is a small obelisk to George King Hipango, a young Māori chief who died here in 1871. Letcombe Regis is a spring-line village. It grew up where water breaks out at the foot of the chalk, and the Letcombe Brook rises in gardens here and at Letcombe Bassett, a mile upstream. We make our way through the village and pick up the path that runs south beside the brook, past the grounds of the retirement village. The residents and parish council campaigned for this path to be opened.
Letcombe Valley nature reserve
Through a gate we enter Letcombe Valley, a small reserve looked after by the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust. The brook here is a true chalk stream: clear, cold water over clean gravel. The Letcombe Brook Project points out that about 85% of the world’s chalk streams are in England, which makes this a rare kind of place. We follow the grass path upstream past a lake that was dammed around 1900 for an early hydroelectric scheme. The new channel beside it lets fish get past. Further on, steps climb to a terrace that was once the road between the two villages and a drove road for bringing sheep off the downs. It is a good place to stop and look back down the valley.
Letcombe Bassett
The path ends at Letcombe Bassett, where the brook runs past the old watercress beds. ‘Bassett cress’ was once sold in London’s Covent Garden market. Thomas Hardy used the village as Cresscombe in Jude the Obscure, and a thatched cottage by the water is said to be Arabella’s. We walk up the lane, with no pavement, to St Michael and All Angels. Beside its door is a bale tomb whose curved top looks like bound bales of cloth. From the churchyard the Devil’s Punchbowl is visible to the south-west, a deep coombe cut into the downs.
Over the fields on Green Road
From the village a bridleway strikes north-west across Letcombe Bassett Field. It is an open climb with wide views over the Vale, and it meets Green Road, an old byway running along the slope. We turn right and follow it east. The surface can be rutted where vehicles have used it, but the hedges are good for birds. At the junction with the next byway we turn right and drop back into Letcombe Regis, arriving at the top of the village near the hall.
What to look out for
The wildlife trust has recorded well over a hundred bird species at Letcombe Valley. Kingfishers, grey herons and little grebes use the brook and lake, and little egrets have become regular in winter. Water voles live along the banks. Look for their neat round burrows and nibbled stems rather than the animals. Brown trout, bullhead and brook lamprey are in the stream. From April to June the wet ground has marsh marigolds, yellow iris and southern marsh-orchids; the grassy bank is managed for chalk flowers. On Green Road listen for yellowhammers in summer and look for red kites, which hunt over these slopes all year.
Before you go
Wear boots from autumn to spring: the brook path and the byway both get muddy. OS Explorer 170 covers the route. The reserve is small and popular, so please keep to the paths and keep dogs out of the water, which disturbs the fish and the water voles. The Greyhound is a short walk from the hall if you want lunch afterwards.
Make it longer or shorter
For a shorter, flatter outing, walk from the hall to the far end of the nature reserve and come back the same way, about 2 miles. For a longer day, climb from Letcombe Bassett up Gramp’s Hill to the Ridgeway and follow our Devil’s Punchbowl walk, or start in Wantage and add the surfaced field path each way (about 2½ miles more).
