Circular Walk

Parish Footpath Wardens

Jane Archer, Mary Hewett and Karen Curtis are voluntary footpath wardens.

Jane can be contacted at this address walkingjane@googlemail.com

Mary can be contacted at this address hewitttm64@gmail.com

Karen can be contacted at this address gandkcurtis@yahoo.co.uk

More Shrivenham Circular Walks

The countryside can be a daunting experience, now, thanks to a series of leaflets prepared by local walking enthusiast, Jane Archer, you can discover a variety of easy and enjoyable routes based on Shrivenham.

All the walks are circular, from 1.5 to 3 miles, using tracks, public rights of way and permissive paths.  There may be stiles to cross and some footpaths are muddy after rain.  In the introduction to each walk there is a brief description giving the distance, number of stiles and particular cautions to take. All the walks have been tried and tested by people, who, without using a map, referred only to the clear instructions.  However, Ordnance Survey maps do give useful extra detail.   

Always dress appropriately for the weather and wear sensible footwear.

Enjoy your walks! 

For more information or to report any issues please contact our voluntary footpath warden Jane Archer at walkingjane@googlemail.com

Other information can be found via:

www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/walksandrides

www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/countryside

1st Annual Shrivenham Circular Walk August 2000

 
"I can't remember when the furore of the Millennium celebrations first made itself known, but the concept of a circular walk around the area where I lived, always appealed. No matter where I attempted to grow my roots, be it in a Swindon suburb or a rural town in Northamptonshire, I would always seek out some kind of walk. It really didn't matter how long the walk would be, but preferably, it had to be circular and long enough to put the world to rights.

"I felt that it was always a personal thing, but when people were looking for something to celebrate the dawning of a new Millennium, and all the hope that it promises, I decided to share this thought. So okay, it's not a monument and it's not an event; but a circular walk around a place, that has a certain something that I cannot begin to describe, that allows you to think and wonder in the beauty of the scenery, could be identified and shared with the rest of the community. This idea was seized upon, not out of desperation, but as something positive, different and coalescent.

"The Shrivenham Circular Walk evolved over 2 years, and although it looks like a few sign posts stuck in the middle of a few fields, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes. Thanks has to go to Shrivenham Fete Walkers Sub-committee that engineered and made the project happen; to the Vale of The White Horse District Council for providing the funding; to the Wilts and Berks Canal Amenity Group whose help and support has been invaluable; to the landowners who gave their kind permission to allow us to share the countryside, and lastly to those people who turned up at 18:30 on Fete Day, 26th August 2000, to launch the first Shrivenham Circular Walk. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you continue to enjoy it. However, after all the heartache and hard work, it would be nice for everyone (visitors and locals) to enjoy the Shrivenham Walk in perpetuity, as a remembrance of the changing Millennium. Please, when you visit Shrivenham next, allow an extra hour, pick up a Shrivenham Circular Walk leaflet and enjoy the peace and quite of a small Oxfordshire village in the Vale of the White Horse."

Derek Skelt (without whom, we would still be using the car to circumnavigate the village)

SHRIVENHAM CLIPPERS

The “Clippers” Group was formed in 2013 to support the scheme devised by OCC and the Oxfordshire branch of the Ramblers Association to assist in the monitoring of Oxfordshire’s Rights of Way. Volunteers were trained to become Volunteer Parish Footpath Wardens with the aim of
walking all the Rights of Way in their Parish at least twice a year, keeping them open for walkers and reporting to the Countryside Access Teams any problems that they could not resolve themselves. Jane Archer took the training course in 2012, applied to Shrivenham Parish Council for permission to act as Volunteer Parish Footpath and was accepted in October 2012. Initially helped by WI members Jenny Gorley,
Margaret West, Sandy Gipps the WI group “Clippers” was formed in 2013 and has always been well supported with 15 members at present. Mary Hewitt and Karen Curtis took the training course in 2017 and the working parties are now led either by Jane, Mary or Karen. In addition we have had sterling help from Ted, Mary’s husband, Alistair Ritchie, Barbara’s husband, Ian Pembroke and Steve Hart.
The Parish has 17 Rights of Way, some of them never need any work as they are right in the middle of the village and are looked after by the council, but there are several needing regular attention, such as cutting back brambles, thistles and blackthorn, which are well used by villagers.
There are also a few further afield which we walk less frequently.
In 2021 we had approximately 28 working parties. It is very hard to be accurate about how much time was spent, working parties vary in numbers and walking a path is not the same as working on a path. Karen has worked out that about 30 hours has been spent over the year by parties
varying in size from 2 people to 6. Although not part of the original aim we also pick up litter.
Our most interesting sessions this year have been-
1. Solving the Case of the Mysterious Wedged Gate. Some unknown person had regularly been wedging shut one of the kissing gates off Station Road. It was reported to me 4 times and also to the Parish Council. Every time I went to look it worked perfectly. It was eventually solved by
making it impossible to wedge shut.
2. Liaising with SPGC to improve signage on the Rights of Way crossing the course, involving the Rights of Way Officer who provided posts and signs and accompanying the volunteer working party who did all the hard work. The valuable advice and assistance of our Warden Co-ordinator,
Dave Cavanagh, got this project underway.
3. Improvements to the Right of Way off Charlbury Road have been agreed by the Rights of Way Officer after complaints to me by residents whose garden is being encroached upon. Not yet carried out, watch this space!
Legal and General Estate: It is reassuring to see Rights of Way being restored and new footpaths being added. Shrivenham Parish Council have been instrumental in getting chippings laid at the junction of one of these paths and have also recently had chippings laid on the muddy part
of the Right of Way across the Rec. Thank you, very much.
Jane Archer March 2022