East Garston, Lambourn Downs and Eastbury

The walk begins in the charming village of East Garston. It is spread out along the River Lambourn, which in dry weather is no more than a trickle, and sometimes even disappears altogether. The older village houses reflect the fact that good building stone is virtually non-existent in the area. Almost all cottages are timber framed, put together in a rich variety of materials which have been used to fill in the walls. Brick is a common material. Sometimes light coloured header-bricks are laid at right angles to the face of the wall so that only their heads show, and they alternate with darker stretchers to create a chequered effect, known as diaper work. Interesting effects are also created by using nobbly flints for walls, and there is a particularly attractive use of tiles on the gable end at Church Cottage, near the beginning of the walk. Thatch is widely used for roofing, sometimes sweeping in attractive curves around tiny first floor windows – there is even a whole house that boasts of such courage. One very attractive feature is the use of little footbridges across the river to link cottages on the south bank.

the road swings round towards the church and ends in a broad track that runs through the farmyard of Manor Farm. On the right is a group of stables, but although these are the first to be met along the walk, it is unlikely that you will have come this far without at least a glimpse of the horse. The village street regularly echoes to the rhythmic clip-clop of hooves, as the strings of racehorses head to and from the downs.

Once past the farm, the special nature of the download becomes apparent. The downs were once part of a great dome of chalk that stretched not just across southern England, but all the way to France. During the millions of years of geological time, the sea broke through to create the English Channel, and rivers formed valleys that split up the downs into separate regions. Over the centuries, the soft chalk weathered, gently and slowly eroding to create the smooth curves and the dips and hollows on the rounded hills that are such a feature of the region. This is a very open landscape, of wild vistas, but it is by no means an empty landscape.

At first the track runs through farmland. The soil is thin but modern agriculture, with its artificial fertilisers, have made it possible to grow crops on it. The nature of the soil is particularly evident in winter, when it has a curious white tinge, created by the chalk and the flint nodules that can be seen scattered over the ground. The path climbs gently uphill, then dips down towards Winterdown Bottom. Then the path climbs steeply again, over the last of the farmland to reach the grassland of the ridge that marks the high point of East Garston Down.

Here are the gallops marked out by a row of neat numbered white posts, which not only mark out the course, but are used by trainers for timing the horses. Here too are practise fences. If you have never seen a steeplechase fence at close quarters, you may be surprised at both the height and depth of these daunting obstacles. It is obviously essential that walkers keep well clear of horses being put through their paces.

Horses do not have the downs to themselves. In spring, in particular, this is a good place for watching hares which can sometimes be seen up on their hind legs boxing with each other, and rabbits are even more common. The skylark is a popular resident, rising above the nesting ground with its clear warbling song. Where the skylark seems a solitary bird, the lapwing is altogether more gregarious and flocks of the birds, flashing their black and white plumage in the sun, add their 'peewit' cry to the downland air.

The path continues over the grassland, rising now altogether more gently as it goes. You are in the heart of the Lambourn Downs now and it is worth pausing to looks back at the splendid views over the Lambourn Valley. At the top of the hill, the walk returns to farmland and a farm track leads on down to the farm of Eastbury Grange. The house itself sits comfortably in a little hollow, given extra shelter by a screen of trees, while the farm buildings are spread out around it. Just beyond the farm is a small copse, a narrow finger of trees, that point the way south down the hillside. It seems a meagre covering of woodland but it is enough to provide a home for the local deer population. Sometimes they are surprised by walkers and go dashing off across the field showing their distinctive white humps.

The broad track dips, then rises steeply to the high point of the downs before descending steadily to the village of Eastbury. The village itself is very similar in character to neighbouring East Garston. Again it is based on the main village street running along a former railway, as becomes abundantly clear once you a quite clear of the houses. The Lambourn Valley Railway was begun in 1898 under the Light Railway Act. This allowed for railways being built on the cheap to lower standards than those then applied to their bigger brethren. Safety factors were less stringently applied, but there was a price to be paid in slower trains and poor service. Thanks to the act however, many regions were served by railways which would otherwise have been denied them, and the little Lambourn Valley Railway was for a time a real boon to the horse racing community. It could not however compete with the motor car and the horsebox. Sadly declined, it closed in 1960. Much of the character of the line is however still clear.