UP! - North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

set his Wind in the Willows children’s classic along
the banks of the Thames. And Jerome K Jerome’s
Three Men in a Boat also immortalised ‘old Father
Thames.’
Meanwhile, in the far west of the North Wessex
Downs, the Avebury World Heritage Site has
featured in the television drama Children of the
Stones (1976) and the 1998 comedy Still Crazy
starring Billy Connolly and Bill Nighy.
Perhaps not strictly literary, although much has
been written about his work, artist Stanley Spencer
painted some striking murals after his experiences in
the First World War. These are viewable in the
National Trust’s Sandham Memorial Chapel at
Burghclere, south of Newbury. ■
Walk to Watership Down
Under Featured Walks at Hantsweb –
www.hants.gov.uk/walking-country
– you can find details of a 2 mile (3.2km)
circular walk from The Royal Oak in
Ecchinswell that takes in Nuthanger
Farm, as mentioned in Watership Down.
(Cango bus No.C24 from Newbury bus
station to Ecchinswell – 0845 602 4135).
Longer-distance walkers can see
Watership Down by following The
Wayfarers Walk towards Inkpen Beacon
from the car park at the top of White
Hill, west of Kingsclere on the B3051. ■
Actress Dame Maggie Smith,
star of Downton Abbey Picture courtesy of ITV
UP! On The North Wessex Downs | 15