The Vale Path Volunteer group was formed to help clear and improve footpaths in the Vale area. They have undertaken two projects so far.
The second project was undertaken on 13th March 2012 and involved a footpath that starts near the electricity substation between Maberley Close and Nash Drive.
A month ago the path was full of vegetation but now it is an easy walk over woodchip between garden fences. The path follows the path of the old Wilts and Berks canal and so has historical if not aesthetic interest.
The path has been completely blocked for a good ten or twelve years and along one section people have extended their gardens – that is until the Vale Path Volunteer group hacked their way through the trees and undergrowth to re-establish the footpath – which they call Abingdon No 1 Footpath.
At one point the filled in remains of Drayton Lock (corrected thanks to Martin) has been partially built over with garden staging. At that point you can no longer follow round on the original path but must either clamber over the concrete base, using the unofficial steps, or go round through gardens.
A little further on – beyond the houses and lap fences – is a more complete WWII bunker. The floor is covered with ashes from bundles of free newspapers that never got delivered back in the early 1990s. They were subsequently set alight.
The final stretch of this eccentric little footpath, following the path of the old canal, ends up half way along Mill Road. The final section is the most picturesque but will very soon get clogged up by brambles and nettles as May and June follow April.
Most dog walkers just walk through the field alongside, which has become quite permissive over recent years, with it’s own path by the River Ock, but I will walk along Footpath Number 1 once in a while to help keep the path clear. It may not be the most beautiful footpath in Abingdon but it is the strangest. Thanks to the Vale Path Volunteer group for their herculean effort in clearing what I thought had been lost for ever.
Just to be clear, I believe at least part of the first bunker is in the garden of the household to the left as shown in the picture, but the Right of Way does ‘dog-leg’ through the garden which is why it is kept clear, albeit blocked at one time but opened up again at the insistence of the county council. There is absolutely no need to risk clambering over the bunker and, for that matter, there is no ‘ladder’ the other side. Abingdon Footpath 1 actually start at the Drayton Road, just near the pedestrian lights just south of the roundabout with Caldecott Road (finger post missing), but starts to go between houses at Francis Little Drive.
When I was a kid that bunker was the place of choice to find abandoned porn magazines
This blog, and the things it can tell you about…are truely amazing! I can’t wait to take the kids and go explore these lost footpaths.
Very many thanks to The Vale Path Volunteer Group and a most timely action. As stated this is the original towpath of the Wilts & Berks Canal. At the last Wilts & Berks Canal Trust Council of Management meeting a five-year project was announced to reinstate, where possible, the whole 62 miles of the towpath through to Semmington near Trowbridge and to Cricklade via Swindon. There is only a very small number of us at the Abingdon end so what the Group has done for us is an enormous help.
The ‘bunker foundations’ are in fact the filled -n remains of Drayton Lock. This can be seen on the old map at:
http://wantagewaterway.gentle-highway.info/Maps%20c1880/1875%20maps/28045061.pdf
The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust website is:
http://www.wbct.org.uk
which will bring you up-to-date on the project to eventually restore the whole canal back to navigation.
The pill box further on is part of the defences along the disused canal in the Second World War in the event of an invasion. The ‘dragons teeth’ further on by the footpath to Tesco is another part of the line.
We just tried to do a walk that included going through a stile to get to the footpath to Drayton near Ann Hatheway’s cottage. We couldn’t find it even with backtracking and checking the instructions. Any idea if this is a grown over or no longer used entry? Thanks.