(A) Once a Victorian country estate, the original 1855 house at Ambarrow Court has since been demolished. What remains is a 21 acres Nature Reserve and Wildlife Heritage site, open to access, with a nature trail. Ancient woodland includes coppiced birch and hazel, and there are marshes, ponds and a meadow on the lower slopes of Ambarrow Hill. Notable plants include bluebells, cuckoo flower and yellow rattle, plus mature trees such as Cedar and Douglas Fir; and some large specimen trees and yew hedges are leftover remnants of the Victorian era.
[1] Leave the Ambarrow Court car park and with care cross the road (A321 Wokingham Road).
On the other side, follow the footpath through the woods with a wooden fence on the right. On reaching a road, go ahead for ten yards and then left next to a post and rail fence and a public footpath sign. Go through a kissing gate, then follow the path through three kissing gates and then cross the road and continue on the path opposite. The path goes through kissing gates, alongside a lake on the right, past a water-sports centre and then through the woods for a short distance before reaching the River Blackwater at a sign for the Hartley Wintney Angling Club.
[2] Turn right and follow the path along the river. At the path junction at the end of Moor Green Lake Nature Reserve at the information board for the Horseshoe Lakes, take the right-hand path still following the river. Further on where the footpath turns right go straight on over a footbridge. Proceed along the footpath beside the river, over the gravel conveyor belt, and then take a right fork around the sewage works to reach a kissing gate and then the road (B3016).
[3] Cross the road and take the stile slightly to the right on the opposite side. Over the stile, turn left and follow the Blackwater Valley Path. Follow the footpath until you reach a kissing gate where the path turns right leading to a bridge over the gravel works conveyor belt then cross the footbridge over a stream. At a signed footpath, with stile visible, turn left and cross the stile onto the footpath which passes between an earth bank on the left and woods on the right. Go through a farm gate to a track. Veer right on to the farm track keeping the paddocks on the left. Follow this track until you reach a gate with a stile on the right which leads to a farmyard. Go through the farmyard on to a tarmac lane (Fleet Lane). At the end of Fleet Lane turn left at the T-junction on to the grass verge alongside the road (Fleet Hill, B3348). Continue along the grass verge until you reach the junction with the A327 at the “Tally Ho” pub.
[4] Cross the A327 with care and turn left on to the pavement and over the bridge that crosses the Blackwater River. Keep on the pavement for 300 yards and look for a footpath on the right (Blackwater Valley Path) just past a house called “Bakers Farm”. Take this path between the buildings and continue through a gate into a fenced path between fields (this path can be muddy in parts). The path crosses a small road and continues to some wooden planks across a small stream with a kissing gate on the other side. Pass through the kissing gate and head for the gates on the other side of the field still following the Blackwater Valley Path. Pass through two sets of gates and continue through a field with an equestrian centre on your left until you reach a kissing gate at the far end that leads into a grassed enclosure with another kissing gate at the far end. Go through the kissing gate to a small lane with a ford on the right. Turn left and with your back to the ford take the right hand fork leading past a house called The Old Chapel. This short road leads to the Bramshill Plantation.
When you reach the gate across the road, pass through the gap at the side of the gate and turn right to take the path that leads through the woods over two wooden footbridges and a plank across a ditch to a bridleway. At the bridleway, turn right and follow it, ignoring all turnings to the left, until you get to a galvanised metal swing gate at the point where the bridleway bears left. Walk through the gap to the
right of the swing gate and turn left on to the road.
If you wish to walk the next section of the Way, the route continues by heading left on the road for 100 yards, then turning right to take a path over stile by Well House Farm.