Pirbright woodland walk

Friday produced yet another perfect day for our Walkfest walk in the Pirbright area. This walk started at the Royal Oak and cut across Cobettshill Common before joining a short section of the Fox Way through the Leapingbar Copse towards Henley Park House. The Fox Way is a 39-mile circular walk through the beautiful and varied countryside around Guildford devised by RichardFox – it can be completed in 7 easy stages and more detail can be found here

This was a delightful woodland walk taking in some beautifully maintained ancient deciduous woodland, where we admired an old oak that is thought to be nearly four hundred years old. 

We then crossed to the statuesque pine forest, managed by the Forestry Commission, that borders Henley Park Lake.  The glittering sunshine showed off the lake to its best advantage and our walkers were fascinated to hear about the history of Henley Park that dates back to 727 AD and Baron Lord Pirbright, a conservative MP in the late 19th century, who was a great benefactor to the local village and leased Henley Park House as a country retreat. 

Gordon Jackson