NCN 4 Windsor to Great Bedwyn
The Kennet and Avon Canal
Along the Kennet and Avon
It all begins outside the Royal fortress of Windsor castle with its Royal Standard flying from the Round Tower and the marching bands heralding your departure. The day finishes in the quintessential English village of Great Bedwyn, where jackdaws caw from the trees and hedge sparrows alert the neighbourhood of your arrival. Between the two, is an almost entirely traffic-free ride as you pedal through the soft and gentle countryside of Berkshire using river paths, quiet country lanes and a canal tow path. There are many good pubs and cafés on the route.
Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Windsor DISTANCE: 95km TOTAL ASCENT: 577m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Traffic-free throughout other than a couple of short sections through Maidenhead and along the quiet country lanes beyond Hungerford. The tow paths can be a little bumpy and muddy after rain so the route is best suited to 28mm tyres RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS; Newbury; The Tiny Cafe, Great Bedwyn; The Old Post Office CAMPING; Grafton; Wildcampingwiltshire, Pewsey; The Bruce Arms NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Windsor, Reading, Thatcham, Newbury, Hungerford, Great Bedwyn LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: London to Windsor, NCN 5
Ride Notes
To go to stage 1 of the NCN 4, click here
Once across the river at Windsor, it’s a pleasant and easy pedal on the Thames’ north bank to Maidenhead. Keep your navigational wits about you as you negotiate the not-always-well-signed route through the back streets. There is little in Maidenhead to delay you, and once out, you follow off-road routes which are usually well maintained gravel paths but sometimes rougher and muddier woodland tracks to the outskirts of Reading.
Late twentieth century town planners have done their level best to ruin a noble town with a mesh of traffic-clogged roads and edifices lacking any style or human scale. Pedestrians and cyclists are corralled into the windiest, plant-less and block paved sections of town. Still surviving from the Victorian age, is a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry housed in the Reading Museum. (The copy of the Tapestry is a faithful one, other than the naked bodies of battlefield casualties which have been clothed). Nearby are the ruins of one of Europe’s largest Royal Abbeys.
Once through the blot of Reading, the way becomes evermore lovely. The riding alongside the canalised Kennet is a tranquil dream. Not that it was always so as from 1723 until the coming of the railway it was a major transport route for flour, timber and malt going up to London and for coal, iron tabbaco and spirits coming down from the capital.
The cycleway leaves the canal to ride along the undistinguished backstreets of Thatcham, which claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in England - a fact disputed by others such as Amesbury, Abindon, Colchester and Ipswich. Into Newbury, a noble old coaching town, and where the town planners have altered turned the once fume-filled high street back into a delightful pedestrian area filled with stalls, music and happy people.
From Newbury, you ride near to one of the most decisive Civil War battle sites and back onto the canal.
As well as the now familiar willows, poplars and coots, there are at regular intervals the remains of WWII pill-boxes. In 1940, with ‘Britain on the brink’, General Sir Edmund Ironside as Commander in Chief of Britain’s Home Forces created a series of ‘stop-lines’ across the country, using geographical features such as railways and canals. One such line used the Kennet and Avon Canal. Pill boxes were set up along its length so that any invasion force could be harried and their invasion timetable seriously compromised.
At Hampstead lock, you may decide that the call of the Red House, a pub less than half a kilometre from the canal, is just the place for lunch, or you may decided to continue on the quiet meandering lanes of Berkshire through Kintbury (where there’s another Berkshire treasure, the Dundas Arms) and onto Hungerford.
Hungerford, sometimes referred to as the ‘Crossroad of England’, has yet to adopt the Newbury approach to moving traffic away from its high street, so unless you’re staying at The Bear (where William III negotiated his accession to the throne in 1688), continue on the delectable Berkshire lanes to the day’s end at Great Bedwyn. There are two good campsites locally, as well as a pub and an old school village shop, full of tempting local produce.
To go to stage 1 of the NCN 4, click here
To go to stage 3 of the NCN 4, click here
All the details given on this route are given in good faith. However, situations on the ground can change, so if you know of any access issues, closures, or have any thoughts and feedback on the route, please include them in the comments section below.