Mapledurwell

It didn’t look too promising for our walk today with a rain shower following us as we drove to the church at Mapledurwell and we were tempted to stop at the garden centre cafe. But we carried on and luckily the rain stopped by the time we got there.

Walking back down the lane from the church we found the footpath sign and started our walk. About 5 minutes in I realised we’d taken the wrong footpath and weren’t following the planned route. Oh well, another uncharted adventure on the way.

We followed the path through a couple of open fields, heading towards the treeline in the distance.

Once into the woods the view completely changed. We spotted a sign, which we assume was directed at people rather than deer 🦌

And some obligatory fungi, which I had to squeeze through the trees to get the best shot.

The path was lovely and it was very peaceful.

Until we reached an obstruction. Well, we have had a lot of rain over the past week, so we’d expected a bit of mud, but… Using our sticks we tested the depth of the puddle and decided we would get rather wet trying to get through.

So a slight diversion through the trees, and we were back on the path which opened out to some beautiful views of the countryside and some lovely autumn colours.

Carrying on we reached a 5 way junction, each direction looking wet and muddy. We were on a byway, so there were signs of horses and bicycles. Looks like a fun place for a mountain bike ride, but I’m not sure I’d stay upright in all that mud.

Taking the path which headed back towards the village, we gingerly picked our way through the mud.

At one point we spotted someone walking a dog behind us. Taking no notice we carried on with our stroll and chat, until I felt a wet nose on my hand. Barney the Labrador had caught up with us and decided to say hello. He was a lovely, friendly dog and we chatted to his owner before she carried on with her walk.

A few minutes later we heard shouts of ‘Barney’ in the distance, before seeing Barney’s person coming back up the path towards us. He hadn’t come back past us, but had apparently gone through the hedge into a garden. As we carried on, out popped Barney in front of us. He ran past chasing after his person.

Finally back out onto the lane we had a quick look at the pond (muddy after all the rain) before heading back to the church.

It was a beautiful little church with an unusual wooden bell tower and it was open, so we popped in for a little look before we had a little stroll around the graveyard.

Looking at the history, there was almost certainly a place of worship here long before the earliest parts of the present building were erected in the late 12th or early 13th century. ln 1531 the Manor of Mapledurwell was granted to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the college still owns much of the land in the area. Now that I didn’t know.

A short drive to Andwell Brewery for lunch and a cup of tea.