Binfield Heath and Crowsley Park - Hound of the Baskervilles!

Start: Binfield Heath Playground, Arch Hill, Binfield Heath, RG9 4DU. OS Grid Ref: SU 746 785

Note: If you choose to start/finish the walk from the Bottle and Glass Inn, start from Waypoint (1) - this will reduce the walk distance by 1 mile.

(S/E) From the playground, walk down Arch Hill to cross a small stream (known locally as the River Bin) and bear right along Common Lane. Continue for 600m to reach the T junction by the Bottle and Glass Inn (A).

(1) Cross onto Bones Lane (public bridleway - signposted ‘Chiltern Way’) passing the pub on your right. Continue to the path junction and bear left into Bones Wood (B). Continue along the Chiltern Way, following the waymarked path (white arrows on trees) through the wood. The path dips down hill, then up hill through the wood to level out and turn sharp right along the railings of Crowsley Park. Ignore all other paths to left and right.

Continue, passing North Lodge, and ahead down to the lane (beware traffic!).

[To shorten the walk by 1.5 miles – and avoid the stiles - DO NOT go onto the lane. Turn left – signposted ‘Chiltern Way Berkshire Loop’ – and go through the kissing gate into Crowsley Park. Continue the walk from waypoint 4]

(2) Bear right across the lane and go through the kissing gate [if sheep are present, dogs must be on lead]. Follow the path up across the fields passing through two more gates to the lane. Continue ahead for 350m. Go through the hedge and turn left. After 100m go left back through the hedge, over a stile and along the fenced paddock path. Cross another stile to pass in front of Upper House Farm (C). Continue along the track (equestrian centre on right) to the gate and over the stile onto Kings Farm Lane (Chiltern Way Extension).

(3) Turn left down Kings Farm Lane to Old Place and the road junction with Devil’s Hill.

Cross the lane and turn left (beware traffic!). After about 30m, go right up the bank and through the iron kissing gate into Crowsley Park.

(4) In the park follow the waymark posts uphill. As the path levels out, cross a grass track to a path fork by a waymark post. This is a good place to view Crowsley Park and the BBC satellite dishes (D).

(5) Fork right by the post and continue (on the Chiltern Way) across the park and through a kissing gate to reach Crowsley Park House (E). With the house on your left, continue through two green metal gates. Turn left in front of the house and follow the drive to the gate lodge. Go through the left gate onto Sonning Common Road. Note the ‘hell hounds’ on the gateposts.

(6) Go left along the road for some 300m (beware traffic!), then take the brick steps on the left up through the kissing gate back into Crowsley Park. Keep the boundary fence on your left to reach a waymark post. Take the right fork diagonally through the park (ignore other paths to left and right) to cross an avenue of trees and eventually back down towards Old Place where you had entered the park (at waypoint 4).

Leave through the kissing gate and take the path on the immediate right, signposted Binfield Heath. Head up through the woods retracing your steps to just a few paces beyond North Lodge.

[If you prefer, from waypoint (7) you can simply retrace your steps through Bones Wood and continue from waypoint (9). This will shorten the walk by 0.5 mile.]

(7) Take the small woodland path on the left, through the gap in the fence. At the tarmac drive turn right and follow this down Red Hill to Crowsley Park Lodge (on the left).

(8) Opposite the lodge house, take the waymarked path on the right through the gap in the fence. Continue up through the woods. At the T-junction keep left, then right, on the waymarked path to the top of the wood. The path levels out along the wood edge to rejoin Bones Lane (fields on the left).

(9) Continue along Bones Lane to the Bottle and Glass Inn (perhaps take a break for some well-earned refreshment!). Cross the lane and return, along Common Lane, to the village playground (S/E).

END

We hope you enjoyed your walk. If you experienced any issues with the route description or the paths on this walk, please do let us know.

Start : Binfield Heath village playground, Arch Hill, Binfield Heath, RG9 4DU. OS Grid Ref: SU 746 785

Parking : available by the playground - village carpark off Kings Common Close or roadside on Arch Hill (please park responsibly). Please only park at the Bottle and Glass Inn if you intend taking refreshment there.

Need to Know !

• This moderate undulating route follows rural paths, tracks, and lanes through woods, fields and parkland - some paths may be rough or muddy in part.
• Rural lanes that feature in the walk do not have footways. They are regularly used by walkers and horse riders but please do take care!
• There are often horses in Crowsley Park.
• You may encounter sheep in the fields near Old Place - keep dogs on short lead!
• There are 3 stiles near Upper House Farm. These can be avoided by omitting the Upper House Farm loop between waypoints 2 and 4.

Refreshments :

• The Bottle and Glass Inn is on the route at the end of Bones Lane approximately 0.5mile from the start/finish.
• Village Shop next to playground.

Public transport :
Bus: Reading Bus Aqua 28 (Reading - Henley via Caversham and Shiplake - limited timetable).

(A) The Bottle and Glass Inn: A welcoming 17th century thatched country Inn.

(B) Crowsley Park Woods (Bones Wood) : Look out for deer, ravens and buzzards. The wood is managed by the Forestry Commission. Over time, non-native plantation tree species are being removed to create mixed broadleaf woodland.

(C) Upper House Farm: A splendid collection of brick and weatherboarded timber-framed buildings dating from the 16th century with later additions. Note the small timber-framed granary on staddle stones.

(D) Crowsley Park: A former deer park of about 160 acres with tree avenues radiating out from the house [see (E) below]. There are some magnificent trees within the park, many adorned with mistletoe.

The large satellite dishes within the park are part of the BBC Receiving Station, established in 1942. The station monitors TV and radio transmissions from around the world. The park was previously covered in many towers of radio antennae, but the station has now shifted to dish operation and by 2014 all the towers had been removed. Now the large satellite dishes watch on as you walk through the park. In 1980, an episode of the BBC sci-fi drama series Doctor Who was filmed among the radio towers in Crowsley Park.

(E) Crowsley Park House: The current House (Grade II Listed), with its embattled parapet and square towers, is an early 18th century brick building with later alterations.

The Baskerville Legacy – In the mid-1800s Crowsley Park was occupied by Henry Baskerville, once a high sheriff of Oxfordshire. He was also known to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, hence an associated with Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (pub. 1901-02) in which "Sir Henry Baskerville" is a leading character. Look for the statues of ‘hell hounds’ with spears through their mouths which sit atop the front of Crowsley Park House and on the stone gateposts at the entrance to the park.

In more recent times, the house has been the home of fashion designer, Jeff Banks.