TVN Historic Pathways Project

This project involved U3A members across the Thames Valley Network, researching local footpaths and their history, to be followed by guided walks along the paths. The idea was that the research should be done during the winter months and the walks in the nicer weather.

The Berkshire Record Office gave guidance on how to use the maps and other material which they hold. Some people might want to do research and lead the walks; some might want to do one or the other.

• A study day was held at Henley on 14th March 2013, at the River and Rowing Museum.. There were two guided local walks in the afternoon (one is described here).
  

• On 17th July 2013 Peter Hetherington led a walk from Aston Rowant.
  

• On 29th July 2013 the Wombwells led a walk from Finchampstead. Chris French retraced the route in September and collected a few photos of the same route.
  

• On 31st July 2013 Ian Clarkson led a walk from Uffington. These are some photos taken on the day.
  

• A study day was held at Shillingford on 25th September 2013, at the Hotel. There were several talks in the morning. There were two guided local walks in the afternoon and these are a few photos of the Wittenham Clumps walk.
  

• On October 18th 2013, Chris French led a walk round Broadmoor. In a pre-walk talk he gave out a route map, a comparison of the area in 1830 and 1910 and some notes on the history of the area, all of which can be found on the Broadmoor page which includes updates made in 2016.
  
  If you want to DIY, there's also a set of directions, which references an associated annotated map small version
  Some photographs of the route are available to tempt those who couldn't make it on the day.
  A repeat trip was scheduled for March 2014.
  

• Chris French researched another walk around Shiplake and another round Hurst

The TVN project finished in October 2015, but continued as a Wokingham group activity.

There was an archive of all the TVN walk details and maps of the project on a separate website. Chris French contributed many of the maps to this collection. This site has now unfortunately been archived, because the subscription to use OS Maps, which TVN contributed, had expired.