This walk was submitted specifically to pay homage to the cooling towers of Didcot A Power Station which were due to be demolished in a weeks time. For those, like me, who have lived in Berkshire all there lives and even those who haven’t but have frequented many of our South Oxfordshire walks over the years, they have stood out on the skyline numerous times and in a funny kind of way, I think we will miss them. For me, whenever I headed north as a youngster I always knew we were nearing home on the return journey as soon as we could see these towers. A bit like the water tower in Tilehurst when returning from a westward bound journey.
As soon as I heard about the imminient demise of these towers I thought it only apt to repeat a walk I did several years with the group, only altering the route slightly so that we could get closer to the towers.
A week or so before, we were approached for the second time this year by the Oxfordshire 20-30’s group to make this a joint walk with them in order to help assist in filling there programme. I was delighted to do so although most of the group today was made up of Berkshire Walkers with just one solitary person representing the Oxon group. It was also nice to welcome a member of the Berkshire Weekend Walkers who wanted to have a final view of the Towers. We even had one person who was on the previous time I had led this walk.
Fourteen of us gathered in the car park opposite Didcot station with a few making use of the excellent train service from Reading and others drove. I was not as organised as I should have been and took my car rather than use the public transport. The walk took us past the housing estate to the north of the town, with the towers in almost constant view to our left. Stopping briefly to look at some wildlife on a pond and then waiting for a member of the group to make use of a local grocery store, we made steady progress through some long grass after Hopkins Bridge and then past Ladygrove Farm, leaving Didcot behind us and, for a while the cooling towers as well.
I was not certain where we would be stopping to have our sarnies. Ideally, I wanted to make it to the viewpoint at Wittenham Clumps but I was not sure if that may have been too soon (I always aim for at least midday before we sit down). However, we got to the summit in perfect time although one person noted it was two minutes early! We sat down enjoying the panoramic view of South Oxfordshire countryside including those cooling towers – how many times am I going to mention them in this blog?!.
After lunch we walked through the peaceful village of Little Wittenham and across Neptune Wood which is managed by Earth Trust who also look after the clumps where we had our lunch. Moving along on reasonably easy terrain we arrived at Long Wittenham for a quick stop at the pub to take on liquid refreshment. Unexpectantly, a music festival was being held here which meant we had to take on board our liquids from a plastic pint glass, a probably first for me with the group. A few of us tried to escape the humid air and stay inside while the others settled down to enjoy the music for the 30 minutes that we were there.
We left the pub to make our return journey back to the start, going past Pendon Museum which houses a number of miniature railway sets and featured in James May’s Toy Stories in 2010. It wasn’t long before those cooling towers were back on the horizon again. I made sure we stopped a view times during the walk so that those that wished could stop and take a picture.
The last bit of the walk, after navigating a small tunnel and then a footbridge over the railway line just south of the A4130, was soon completed having gone past an Industrial Park and a Sewage Treatment Works. Soon after, I asked the group to see if they wanted to get a closer look of the towers that, at time of writing, were due to be demolished in a weeks time. A few headed off but most came with me to say farewells to the towers that have stood since the late 1960’s.