 It's known as the Fairground. It will eventually flow into the River Thames. It looks like these trees were once used as a gate post. Hello, thank you for joining me on this winter's day. You can see where I am. I'm at Mortimer Railway Station. This is on the railway line from Reading Down to Basin Stoke. Very nice Italian-made station building. Today is another episode of Classic Villages of England. What we're going to do, we're going to explore the village of Stratfield, Mortimer and Mortimer Common. This station opened on the 1st of November, 1848. When this station opened, the church over there wasn't there. That's where we're going to go to next. Sorry, I'm behind the other line. So the station opened 1848. I'll say it's just a line from Reading to Basin Stoke. So that way it's looking towards Reading. The other way is going towards Basin Stoke. I really like this station. Very nice and Italian-made. I think the other similar one on the network is at Chepstow, which I remember going to as a child and watching trains there. So it's got this Italian-made style. If you look at the arches and that, it does also remind me of Taplow, but Taplow is on a larger scale. So it may well be the same architect. So I'm going to make my way out the station. I'm going to walk up to Stratfield, Mortimer, where the church is. Oh, look, nice to see the GWR benches, wooden benches. Especially on a cold day up to that. It's just nicer to sit on. It's warmer. You sit on the metal bench. It's freezing now. As I sit here, I just look at that. That's one of the nicest station buildings we've ever seen. Almost symmetrical except for the chimneys. One other thing I want to show you. It looks as though there's going to be some engineering work taking place here this weekend because the car park is full of various diggers with rail wheels. I'm wondering also, I mean, this station doesn't have lifts at the moment. Oh, look at that. That old way out. That's the old First Great Western style way outside. So I'm wondering if at some point they're going to replace the footbridge because this is the only way in and out the station. So bear that in mind if, you know, you would need to use lifts. There's the road bridge. So here we are up on the bridge. Get a nice view of the station. I haven't been on this line many times. I went on it once on a class 47 when they still ran 47s to Bournemouth. Last year I travelled on this line and fly in Scotsman. And if you want to see the next station up the line, have a look at Lincoln's screen now. It's Redding Green Park. And it opened last year before we leave the station. I'm going to show you that because it's a bit different. Look, there's all the equipment for some engineering work that's going to happen. So you can see like there's a digger and that's like a flat wagon that the digger will turn along. So I don't think there's going to be any trains here at the weekend. Anyway, I'm now going to walk up to the church. So walk up the road this way from the railway station. I'm heading towards the church. If you're thinking, did he come by train? The answer is no. I drove here. There's my larder. Here's the church. Now this church, as I mentioned back at the station, it's new in the station. It opened or it's built rather in 1869 by someone called Richard Armstrong. Now I understand it's replacing an earlier church on the site. It's not the original church, but it's a really nice big Victorian Gothic church. Look at that. It's one of my favourite type of buildings. It's listed building. I don't know if we're going to be able to go inside. I will try if we can and maybe we can come back another day. I reckon you went up there. It hasn't really got balcony up on that tower, but you must get an amazing view. I don't think it's any good for watching trains, because the railway is just over there. Well, you know what it is because we can see the church spire from the railway station. There's the stairs in there. Looks like another little stair tower in the main tower. So there's the entrance. I'm going to take my hat off just in case the church is open, and I'm not supposed to wear hats in church. Sorry about the hat there. Yeah, this is open. I'm not going to get too excited. I don't know if they'll be locked. Okay, yeah, it's locked. Well, maybe another time we can come back. What I'm going to do now though, I'm going to get in my car, and we're going to drive up to Mortimer Common. I've arrived at Mortimer Common now in my larder. This area here looks like a common sort of ground. You might call it the village green. It's known as the Fairground. There is no fairground here today. That name comes from, they used to hold horse fairs here, and occasionally Welsh cattle fairs. So that's why it's called the fairground. I suspect what you'd think of a fairground with rides and games and that is potentially auto-held here. Over there is the other church. That's St John's Church. Now that was built in 1881, so that's even newer. So it started at the railway station, went to a newer church in the railway station, and that was because when the village up here grew, people had quite a long walk down the hill to the church. It's about at least a mile down to the church, so another mile and a quarter or so down to the railway station. So it's potential you can walk down to the station if you live up here. That's St John's Church. And just down there is where the shops and cafes are. There's a pub over there called the Horsingroom. I'm going to head out across the fairground that way, and we're going to go down into the countryside. So I'm going to walk across the fairground. I'm now in a completely different landscape in this woodland of mainly, seems to be mainly, holly and silver birches. I understand the name Mortimer comes from the Mortimer family. They came from Weekenmore Castle in Herefordshire. That's the one I'd like to visit one day. So I say this area is Mortimer. This is Mortimer Common. There's also Stratfield Mortimer. Lots of choices of, you know, different parts to walk along. First recreational groups. I'm just doing a circular, really. And then that will take me back to the fairground at Mortimer Common. So having now walked through the little woodland, I'm out into open fields. And there's quite a few horses over there. We're quite high up over there. I can just sort of see down towards the valley. If I was to continue down there, I'd come to Redding. And there's a horse standing here. Hello. Hello. It's always nice when you go up a countryside walk and you see a horse. It's a bit shy. You're a bit shy. I'll leave the horse to enjoy the nice weather. Hello. You're on YouTube. You are. That's it. Yeah. You allow on YouTube. You're going to be viewed by people on YouTube. I'm going to leave the horse now in peace and continue on my walk. I now feel like I'm really out in the countryside. I can see a long way, miles, in that direction. Over there. Come to another point. You can just see some whiteness. There's some buildings in Redding. Where we were previously was just the other side of that farm. Over there where those horses were. You might also just be able to see that white building there. That's Wokefield Park. It's now a conference centre. It was a boar stall at one point, but now it's usually a conference centre. Also on the horizon again, I don't think the camera's going to pick out. I can see a line of well and Tonya trees. That's over a three mile cross. I did a walk there once and I remember it was all a lot more built up than I expected to be. They've built a lot of houses in that area. Maybe one day we can go down. I'm going to follow this path around the fields and the oak trees down to the stream at the valley. I'm now at the bottom of the hill. I said when I was at the top of the hill I thought there might be a stream down here. Underneath this oak tree is a little bridge. That's going to take us over the stream. This is the Lochrum Brook. It's called Flows Off down there. It will eventually flow into the River Thames. It must come from a spring somewhere further up the hill. And then, as I say, Flows Off down there, down there. And possibly into the River Lodden first, then into the Thames. I'm not too sure. Anyway, it goes in that direction. I'm going to go in that direction up towards the oak tree and find my way back to Mortimer Common. The character of this walk has changed yet again. We're now on the edge of a pine woodland. I'm just following my way down this... It's a drive to some houses but it's also mainly a public footpath and right away. I'm going to go down into Stavale Woods. There's the other woodland. There now, something quite interesting here. The path we're going to take is between two trees. Unfortunately the sun is right in the way but have a look close up. It looks like these trees. See that? And that. And that. Looks like these trees were once used as a gate post, or was there a gate post and it's just been absorbed, the trees growing around it. I'm not sure. Maybe if you've lived in the area for a long time and you're watching, if you remember the gate on here, do let me know. It'd be interesting to know what it looked like. I'm going to walk off down there now to Stavale Woods. I'm back at the fairground now. That was a really pleasant walk. It was about three and a half miles. So a nice, circular walk. Interesting varied scenery. Different types of woodlands, crossing a stream out through open fields. And now common land. There's children's parks. I'm going on to see those horses. I haven't seen one those for a long time but I can remember the park near where my grandmother lived. Used to enjoy playing on the horse. This is a really pleasant village, Mortimer. Well, this is Mortimer Common and then there's Stratfield Mortimer down at the railway station. So it's something if you wanted to come and visit this village, you could quite easily do it. You could drive up here as I did, or you could come by train. If you come by train, just bear in mind, it's a fairly long walk up to the hill to the village. But it's been a nice winter's day walk. It's a shame none of the churches are open but it's understandable. They can't always be open. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you very much for watching. It seems to be standing on a basketball court at the moment. I don't know why I'm rushing to get off it as long as I'm having to go. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video. Please do feel free to like, share, comment and subscribe. It all really helps the channel. So thank you very much. And from Mortimer Common in Barkshire. Goodbye.