[1] From car park, cross the road and turn right along the pavement. Cross to right hand pavement and go round to the right at the road junction. Cross the A4155 with care as visibility is poor at this point to signed footpath between houses. Go ahead then turn diagonally right to follow enclosed tarmac path to weir. Cross weir and lock and turn left onto Thames path.
Where the metalled road bends to the right go straight ahead following the river bank. At the far end of the meadow turn right (Ferry Lane) and continue to the Flower Pot Hotel on the right. From Ferry Lane bear slightly to your left and after 80 yards turn left into the drive to Culham Court following the Thames path. Keep straight ahead, ignoring drive to the right to reach the grass path that passes Culham Court on your right.
(A) Culham Court is a Georgian house completed in the early 1770’s. It stands on the Berkshire bank of the Thames overlooking a 180-degree panorama of the Thames Valley. George III visited the house. Viscount Hambleden, grandson of the second W H Smith, bought the 650 acre Culham Estate in 1895 and later gave protective covenants over land on both sides of the river to The National Trust.
Since then the property has had some notable owners including the newspaper magnate Cecil King and Felicity Behrens, wife of banker Michael Behrens. In 2007 the estate was bought for £35m (£10m over the asking price!) by Urs Schwarzenbach, a Swiss born financier who made his fortune from founding Interexchange, the largest foreign exchange dealership in Switzerland. He has been UK based since the 1980’s and owns many other properties including the nearby village of Hambleden on the Buckinghamshire bank of the Thames, and a 10,000 acre estate in Scotland. A long programme of improvements to the Culham Court Estate continues, including the creation of a maze containing 20,000 mature yew bushes and the extension of a 90 acre deer park.
A hundred yards after the house, go through a kissing gate into a deer park where you may see a large herd. Follow the well signed and defined path to leave the deer park down a slope and through a kissing gate. Continue across the meadow to rejoin the river bank. Follow the river bank passing Medmenham Abbey on the opposite bank. Ignore all right turns until you are opposite a large island in the river.
(B) A Cistercian abbey was founded in Medmenham in the 12th century under the ownership of Woburn Abbey. In 1547 on the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbey was given to the Moore family and was then sold privately to the Duffields. In 1755 Sir Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer, acquired the ruins of the Abbey from the Duffields and it became infamous as the location of The Hellfire Club, formerly called the Monks of Medmenham, where “persons of quality” participated in immoral acts from around 1749 possibly up to 1766. The Club’s motto was ‘Fais ce que tu voudrais’ (do what thou wilt)!
[2] Turn right to face the flinted property (River Barn). Bear right around the property, following the public access road serving Frogmill Court. Continue to main road (A4130) and turn left in front of the Black Boys Inn. With extreme care looking for fast moving traffic, cross the road to enter a bridleway (Hodgedale Lane). Keep straight ahead on the bridleway ignoring side paths. After an initial rise the track levels out and then as it begins to rise again look for a stone waymark on the right pointing to Rose Lane. Turn right here and go ahead through 3 squeeze gaps to go up path with trees on the right and paddock on the left and where hedge starts, pass to the right. At the top of the path, continue on the same line along a wide grass flanked drive and turn right in front of Juddmonte Stud buildings. Pass to the right of the horse corral and then turn immediately left. Follow the enclosed grassed footpath with hedge on left and fence on right and exit through a squeeze gap and a kissing gate onto Rose Lane.
[3] Turn left up Rose Lane and go over crossroads to continue along road until reaching the rather grand double pillared entrance to Cayton Park. Now turn immediately left up the restricted byway where the sign shows the way to Bowsey Hill. Follow this tarmac byway as it ascends to Bowsey Hill and where the tarmac ends at another set of ornate gates on the right, go ahead for about 150 yards and take the restricted byway to the left, marked Knowl Hill and Warren Row. Follow this lovely tree lined byway as it gradually descends past the old quarry (just visible through the trees) of the once thriving Star brickworks. When the byway reaches a T-junction with a field visible ahead through the hedgerow, turn right following signs for Knowl Hill Bridleway Circuit. Go past the houses and emerge on to Star Lane and reach the lay-by on the left.
If you wish to continue with the next section of the Wokingham Way, the route continues from the lay-by by crossing the A4 and turning right on opposite pavement.