| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Group email: | Walks Short group |
| When: | Monthly on Wednesday mornings 2nd Wed Monthly 10.00 a.m. from January 2025 |
A Walking Group holiday is planned for October 2025 to the Isle of Wight. For details, click on this link: Isle of Wight Holiday
Short Walks Group
The Short Walks Group are a happy, chatty, group who welcome new members. We walk on the second Wednesday of every month except December. In December we enjoy a Christmas Lunch.
If you would like to join the Short Walks Group, click on this link and complete the application form.
Being the ‘Short Walks’ Group, the walks are fairly easy –about three miles, no steep hills, not many stiles or other obstacles, and hopefully not much mud!!! However, if you are unsure of your ability to walk up to three miles at a normal person's pace, or would have trouble getting over stiles, please take a more able-bodied person with you to help you back to the start of the walk if you have a problem.
Walks are led by members, usually based on their own experience, and we have enjoyed some really expert leaders. But that’s not necessary, and there’s no reason why you can’t learn as you lead.
We avoid difficult conditions in the winter months, and we try to ensure that we don’t travel too far to the start. There is a WhatsApp group where we can share offers and requests for lifts. To join use https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ea8RduSvlIFF6eDsS9Zuch
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Jill and Simon will be giving up leading our group at the end of 2025 (i.e. after the Christmas Lunch Wednesday 10 December).
Hopefully, one (or more) of the group will step up to take on this very enjoyable role. We will happily pass on the archive of walks together with hints and tips. It’s not especially onerous, and it’s a very happy group with several established leaders of walks. If you wish to discuss this wonderful opportunity, do please contact us or Karin Dawson Smith.
Jill Bloxham and Simon Thorpe 07939 304229
The next walk is on Wednesday August 13th:
Meet at the Flower Pot Hotel, Aston, Henley-on-Thames RG9 3DG around 10:15am for a 10:30 start. (Allow about 45 mins for the drive)
As this is on the south bank of the Thames, it means crossing the river at either Henley or Marlow on the A404, and Aston is down a lane from the A4130. Please note that it is single track at some points and the road surface is rather poor in some places (not something that anyone living in Oxon is unused to!). Please park towards the top end of the Flower Pot Hotel car park - we have informed the staff at the pub and they look forward to welcoming us to enjoy some refreshments after our walk!
We will walk from there down to Hambleden Mill End Lock (about 20mins), then walk across the iconic weir which has featured in many TV serials to take in the sights of the river and then back again. Subject to time, we may walk from the Lock up stream towards Remenham / Henley for a short while, before turning round to head back along the Thames path downstream, through a field until we reach another lane which heads back up to Aston and the pub. Please note that there may be cows in this field which were no bother, but those who don't like them can bypass this section and head straight back up the same lane to the pub that we came down. We will aim to be back at the pub around 12 noon.
The Flower Pot does some nice bar snacks if you fancy some lunch, although full meals we thought were a bit pricey. There is a very nice pub garden, or there is quite a lot of room to sit inside if it is raining. The Flower Pot famously has a large collection of stuffed prize fish in cases on the walls, and was the location for a TV adaption of Agatha Christie's Marple "The Sittaford Mystery" in 2006!
You are required to remember your ICE (in case of emergency) card and to have it in an accessible place (not just on your mobile phones). Please let us know if you need a new U3A ICE card.
We are required to maintain a register for each walk. It makes it a lot easier for us if you contact us beforehand so we can add you to the list of walkers.
The programme for the rest of this year:
September - Karin Dawson-Smith
October - Annette Dearmun
November - Volunteer leader needed
December 10 - Christmas Lunch
Our previous walk was on:
Wednesday 9 July, The Pound, Cookham Moor, Cookham SL6 9SB.
In July, Peter Hetherington led a happy group of 14 walkers in a 2.8-mile ramble round Sir Stanley Spencer’s Cookham. It was stile free, along pavements and country and riverside paths. We pondered the species of an interesting tree, were entertained by a family of swans with five cygnets, and contemplated an ice-cream back at the Pound. All most enjoyable, with grateful thanks to Peter.
(Stanley Spencer was one of the most influential painters of the 20th Century. He thought Cookham was ‘Heaven on Earth’ and featured the village in much of his work. The walk was one that Stanley Spencer did regularly, passing to the side of a golf course, offering views of Cliveden, and returned along the Thames River bank. It then reached the Church before entering the High Street and passing the house where he lived for much of his life.)
Peter Hetherington (rphetherington@aol.com)
Dates and leaders for the rest of 2025 are below. Start locations and start times will be decided by the walk leaders.
| April | Andrew and Debbie Montgomery |
| May | Jan Crompton |
| June | Gill Taylor |
| July | Peter Hetherington |
| August | Volunteer leader needed |
| September | Karin Dawson-Smith |
| October | Annette Dearmun |
| November | Andrew and Debbie Montgomery |
| December | Christmas Lunch |
Please could we have volunteers for the unallocated dates.
We ask all walkers to note the following points:
- We are required to maintain a register for each walk. It makes it a lot easier for us if you contact us beforehand so we can add you to the list of walkers.
- Please wear suitable footwear, preferably walking boots, and be prepared for rain.
- Please share cars whenever you can. This is a good way to get to know other walkers in the group.
- Please telephone the walk leader in advance if we need to wait for anyone (we won’t normally wait more than 10 minutes).
- Similarly, for those without a computer, please phone before a walk to make sure no details have changed e.g. the start time of the walk. (We usually notify people of changes by Email.)
- If the weather is inclement on the day of the walk, we will try to notify people of cancellation in time by email before the walk. If the weather is bad just when we turn up for the walk, we decide between us whether or not to continue. Normally the walk leader(s) and the group co-ordinator (or her deputy) will turn up.
- The post code and grid reference for the start of the walk are fairly accurate but are sometimes approximated (in the case of post code, for example, if we meet at a car park).
- We will usually take a photograph of the group during the walk – this is purely for use in our Chinnor u3a twice-yearly “Contact” magazine.
- Please note, although the walk leaders and the group co-ordinator try to ensure that the walks are as safe as possible, please be careful not to trip on exposed tree roots (or other obstacles) or to slip on mud, and take care climbing over stiles. Keep clear of animals in fields (particularly if they have young) and be especially careful when walking along or crossing roads on the walk.
- With this in mind, your safety is ultimately your responsibility – the walk leaders and group co-ordinator have done their best to make the walks safe.
- It’s Chinnor u3a current policy to not allow dogs on our walks.
We would be most grateful for volunteers to occasionally lead a short walk. Perhaps you have a favourite walk you’d like to share. If not, there are plenty of books that describe a variety of short walks available to help you.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have organised and led walks in the past.
| Jill Bloxham | Simon Thorpe |
| 01844 698718 | 01844 281730 |
| 07795 396112 | 07939 304229 |
| jillnbloxham@gmail.com | simon@simon-thorpe.com |