Wednesday Group

This group arranges weekly walks led by experienced members, the distances vary between 4 and 8 miles.

We use public transport when possible but also have a central pick-up point for car lifts.

Walks are enjoyed in the Chilterns and surrounding Berkshire countryside, including river banks and canals.

London walks are very popular, taking in parks and gardens, North and South Bank of the Thames, exploring places of interest en route, for example, City Hall and Somerset House.

An annual coach trip is arranged for visits to places of interest further afield. For example, we have been to Leeds Castle, Stowe Gardens and Beaulieu in the New Forest finishing with a riverside walk to Bucklers Hard.

Our year always finishes with a sociable walk and a great Christmas pub lunch.

Wonderful Wisley

The club’s mid-week summer outing this year on July 18 was to the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Wisley. We mustered a group of 46 on the day, including several friends and associates. Stewarts of Mortimer did us proud with a virtually brand-new coach and a friendly and helpful driver, Mark, who provided smooth and uneventful journeys there and back.

On arrival at Wisley a few free spirits set out on their own, but the majority of us divided into two parties for hour-and-a-half long guided tours. These proved excellent value at £1 per person, being instructive and, so far as time permitted, comprehensive. The rose garden and the two Mixed Borders were in especially fine form. I myself found all of the introductions to the various sections of the gardens we were shown both interesting and enlightening, though I was not so enthusiastic about the sample ‘engineered’ city gardens, with their decking, paving and gravel. Call me old-fashioned.

The day was generally benign - warm and sunny without being overpowering. But the end of the tours coincided with the one exception, a heavy downpour lasting about 10 minutes, leading us to seek the nearest shelter. The end of my party’s tour also brought us to the new lake and Glasshouse, the current main attraction. This, with its dry temperate, moist temperate and tropical zones, constitutes a sort of compact Eden Centre, though the architecture is also in some respects reminiscent of the great Victorian hothouse at Kew. In addition to the already well-maturing plants on view, it was encouraging to see that extensive education facilities have been provided, so that new generations will be able to learn from the collection at first hand.

We will each have our own particular memories of this visit. For myself I always enjoy the fruit and vegetable gardens and the orchards, as well as the alpine gardens and rockeries. This time, in addition, I especially enjoyed climbing the rebuilt fruit observation tower, with its interlinked spiral paths permitting continuous traffic up and down; a leisurely stroll through the wild garden and past the lakes; and finally a long walk through Seven Acres, with time to enjoy the heather collection, something I have neglected on previous visits. Thanks are due to all who helped make the trip a success, but especially to our Wednesday co-ordinator, Edith Elmy, for her hard work, organising skills, and infectious enthusiasm.

Charles Cotgreave

To find out more on the forthcoming walks and events of the Wednesday Group please look at our Walks Programme.