Walk Report

THAMES VALLEY CELEBRATE THE CORONATION WITH A CREAM TEA!

Thames Valley group decided at its AGM in January, to spend its bank balance on 'treats' for the members who had earned the money marshalling on challenge walks. Most popular amongst the options considered, particularly our female members, were subsidised stops at churches for tea and cakes, for which we now have a budget of four times per year. A request was also received to run an event to celebrate the Coronation, with suitable British food. Well, overseas visitors I have hosted, while generally unimpressed with our food, rate one British staple well above others, and that is a Cream Tea!

So a converted pub at Bradenham in the Chilterns was found that served this, was booked for the day after the Coronation, and while it didn't have enough parking for us all, a route was found that passed the tea room two miles from the start and end of the walk at West Wycombe. Notifications were sent to all primary and affiliate members (note everyone, the advantage in affiliating to another group) and resulted in a doubling of our normal attendance, with 28 hungry eaters, sorry - walkers! A specific invitation had been sent to new members who had joined this year and many of them turned up and were made welcome. As well as our own primary members, we had visitors from London, Berks Bucks and Northants, Wiltshire and South Wales groups. Even the NEC had heard of the event and had mysteriously decided to hold their quarterly meeting the day before in our area, adding also visitors from Norfolk and Suffolk, Northumbria and even Julie from the North of Scotland!

Instructions were to wear red, white and blue, and there were a number of colourful outfits, such as Linda Ashwell in a crown and Richard May bedecked in a Union Jack. But the prize has to go to Peter Lamont, who produced his embossed invitation to Westminster Abbey the previous day! We were therefore an after-thought on his way home to Wiltshire, though he did admit afterwards that he'd enjoyed 5 hours with us in the Chilterns more than that time waiting for King Charles to turn up!

We had to arrive exactly at 3pm or the tea room would either still be busy or be closed, which meant careful planning by the leader, Duncan Macgregor. Duncan thus warned the group that he had several variations of the route planned and that if they walked too fast, he would add on extra bits. He need not have worried as the three hill climbs and multiple stiles slowed down such a large group so we ended up on the shortest variant. We had chosen the day perfectly: after the downpours of Coronation Day, the sun shone on us and the colder conditions in previous weeks had delayed, until now, the displays of wild flowers (bluebells, wild garlic, cowslips etc.) that the area is known for.

Lunch also turned out to be suitably patriotic as we found that the Loosley Row villagers who manage their windmill had bedecked it in bunting. The curator said we would have to wait till 2pm for us to visit the inside of the windmill (and we had of course a more pressing appointment!) but more importantly, he kindly opened the toilets for us! So on we went, with Duncan managing time perfectly by giving two geology talks examining the Pudding and Sarsen Stones of the area, the latter being what most of Stonehenge is built from (though not from here!). So we duly arrived at the Red Lion tea room at 2.59!

Instructions were to mix up the various LDWA groups present and were obeyed, so a good time was had by all, and the scones were almost as good as those in Cornwall and Devon! Our budget was busted but no-one cared! Then it was off into the afternoon sunshine to balance the calorie intake with a final ascent of Bradenham Hill and a walk along the ridge to the cars, happy in the knowledge that we had all obeyed Buckingham Palace's invitation to have a good time that day.

Photo Credits : Joyce Glasser, Karen Pickersgill, Duncan Macgregor.
Text by Duncan Macgregor.

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