Walking Our Green Fields
Saturday and Sunday 5th /6th January.
People gathered at Grazeley Village Hall to walk around the Grazeley area to the west of the A33 Swallowfield Bypass.
The walk was conducted on local public footpaths, bridleways, bye ways and quiet country lanes and was in two parts. Initially the walk took the footpath north across Grazeley Green Road and then on to Kybes Lane. The group returned south along Kybes Lane to Pound Green for the second part of the walk. We went under the railway bridge along Goring Lane to follow the bridleway parallel to the Reading – Basingstoke railway line.
We crossed the railway at the foot crossing by Lambs Wood Hall Farm and followed the footpaths along the edge of Shinfield Parish to Brook Farm and at Reid’s Bridge turned onto the Bye way which runs alongside the A33.
The group recognized three key points along the walk. Firstly, north of Grazeley Green Road it was easy to identify the M4, A33 and Railway line as the boundaries of the proposed Grazeley Garden community with the new railway station over the M4 at Green Park and the possibilities of high-density development adjacent to the business park on either side of the M4. Secondly it was clear that the railway represents a hard barrier between the development area and the AWE Burghfield site. And thirdly walking through Brook Farm it was clear that the Grazeley Garden community would facilitate full infilling of the area between the Basingstoke Rd in Spencer’s Wood and the A33.
Whilst everybody enjoyed the walk, as we all learn’t a lot about the parish, the vast scale of the proposed development come as a shock to many, having not realised that pretty much every countryside view they had seen could become a housing development.
We all agreed to ensure that we tell our neighbours and looked forward to the walks around Spencer’s Wood and Three Mile Cross on 12/13th January.