 Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm in a residential road in the Oxfordshire village of Nettle Bed It may look like just a normal residential road, but there's something rather unusual in the middle of it There's a brick kiln An old brick kiln. This village up here at Nettle Bed was Where there was a brickworks. In today's video We're going to have a little look at some of Nettle Bed We're also going to go down to find the lost village of Bix, but I thought we'd start here This brick kiln because it's quite unusual, you know houses Brick kiln. Now there's actually a railway line from here ran off in that direction A quarter of a mile or so up to the clay pits So I didn't intend this to be a walk about old railways, but I've just discovered that there was an old railway Let's just have a little look at the kiln. We can't go in. We can have a look see through the door Well, you can't really see much of it. Yeah, so that's the kiln Nettle Bed is a village on the road from Henley up towards Oxford and Wallingford and It's main industry here was the brick making the bricks would have been used for building such as Wotlington Town Hall, which I know is on a different road and also later stone a house estate the home Which I'd really like to visit and I believe going back a lot earlier Wallingford Castle the bricks for Wallingford Castle were made here So we leave the brick kiln in the residential road come towards the village center. So The main road is just here. It's quite pleasant up here even on a drizzly day like today It's all sort of all from weather really but quite nice and atmospheric to that way looking towards Oxford And then that way about a quarter of a mile. No, sorry four miles Down because down to Henley Quite nice. There's a mosaic here on the bus shelter metal bed There's a couple of things around here. Just like to quickly show you there's these pudding stones They're probably about 50 million years old. They're a bit like natural concrete all sort of stones all kind of mixed together and There are a bit of a mystery is to why they're here, but they're possibly an old way of marking, you know the route And possibly that the other place I know where there is some is another village to leave in Buckinghamshire So down here, it's not a huge amount in the town center to show you it's got a lot of sort of Georgian Building, so we'll just have a quick look at the town center and then I'm gonna head down We're gonna go and find the village of Bix now Bix is a bit of an unusual place. There is another village called Bix A couple of miles or so that way, but that's not the village of Bix We're going to see there was the village of Bix Bottom which is down. It's almost like in a very sort of hidden valley You know I have been there about 10 years ago, and it feels so sort of Far away, so we're gonna walk down there, and we're gonna go and find the old ruined church of Bix So there you are. Just let you have a look that is metal bed town center I'm now gonna go off for a walk down to Bix As you can see I've now left the village of metal bed up into the woods the lame metal bed Literally come from that there were a lot of nettles lots of stinging nettles There's no sort of you know, nothing else. That's what it is lots that there were lots of stinging nettles But doesn't seem to be much of a problem for me on today's walk as I said back at the brick kill needs to be a railway line I don't know much about it whether it you know what gauge it was I assume it probably didn't even have any locomotives But it might done if you know better do tell me I imagine it's probably just a horse drawn You know horse draw maybe even just men push them wagons along but they come out this way That's been a fairly steep gradient But as we come down to here into the woods you can see this must be where they would have dug The clay that the soil feels like it's got a lot of clay in it And you've only got to have a look which can pass these oak trees here You can see how one they've really been digging a lot in the past See how undulating the land is in quite an unnatural way So tripping over so this is the this will be the old clay pits where They don't declare from to make the bricks So what I'm gonna do now is continue down through these woods oak trees there That's all beech trees represent woodland and we go down towards the old the loss That's a lost valley but feels a bit like that. You'll see what I mean We get down there to where the old village of Bix used to be Well now down in the valley. He's very nice and peaceful here Can't hear much other than my footsteps if I just stand still I can hear his like bird singing I can just hear an airplane but other than that just the natural sounds Probably a sort of place you could expect to see deer and that I've seen you know a few squirrels running around It's a very very pleasant path down here and yeah, it's just a very relaxing Peaceful walk So what I'm gonna do I'm just gonna continue on down towards We'll eventually come to what's known as the Warburg nature reserve. We get to the Warburg nature reserve I believe there's a visitor center and that will have a look there And that's another alternative place you can park if you want to do this walk Now we're gonna continue on following the valley once we get away from the the wooded part of the valley Becomes more fields again, and we'll eventually end up at the Old church at Bix. Also, it does the moment feels a bit like walking along an old railway Might look like I'm walking along an old railway back. I'm sure you've never been a railway here I know there was once one up at a nettle bed, but this is not an old rail It's just a nice peaceful path through the valley. I'm gonna continue on now I've now walked on past the Warburg nature reserve where there is a car park as you can see the road has now become Potamac Road, so if you wanted to drive here, you can park up there But it's a very quiet road. I've been walking along this road three course of a mile now I've not seen a single car. There were one or two cars in the car park. Now as we get to here It's behind these oak trees. This is the exciting bit of the walk This is what I've been walking towards all this time since we started up at nettle bed This is where the old church is. So this is a very very ancient road You know people for years and years, you know really go back a long time I've been walking or taking horse and carts along this road But now you can only actually get a vehicle to the car park for the Warburg nature reserve So there's been there's still a few houses about but the actual Bix village moved up the hill Near to nettle bed about a mile towards Henley, but the old church is we just go through here And here it is In front of us there. This is the old church at Bix. So it's a ruin now And there is another church at Bix at the new village, which is a Victorian church But we can have a look at a few things. It's still got quite a lot of character despite being a ruin It's obviously had some restoration work. Look at that the herringbone flint work You can often see herringbone brickwork on buildings But it's quite impressive to see herringbone flint work. It's called herringbone because it's literally like a herringbone laid one way laid the other way So that zigzag pattern is repeated. So it's a bit like, you know, the bones of herring Now let's have a look There's a gothic window there. That one's been bricked up But despite not having a roof, you know It's fairly obvious. It's a church. What's quite interesting before we go inside if you have a look here See these big buttresses now these were added in the 1700s because there was some concern Of the churches, you know Wasn't in the best of states So these two buttresses were added to stop the tower from collapsing and They obviously helped, you know prolong its deterioration But then what happened was Although they obviously did their job because they're still here But the tower isn't By 1874 it was decided, you know with the dwindling congregation, the village had sort of all moved on The the church should be closed. The roof was unsafe And um, you know, they were worried it could potentially The roof could push down and cause it to collapse cause the wall to collapse so The roof was taken off and this is what we're left with But you know, it's now It's obviously had some work It has had restoration work on it and it's looked after so it survives As a ruin church. Interesting is a bit of a A hill here so that's probably where A lot of the masonry from the collapsed tower is buried. Look here Look up the nave Go through into the chancel And you see this wall But this arch here This stonework has clearly Been replaced And then that that was that what outside was a very very narrow Bricked up window. It's quite wide. So I suppose it was one of those windows you quite often see them in churches Slanting So it kind of opens out so the light come can shine in but on the outside So basically uses less glass but more light can come in That's the main window. Well, actually I'm standing there explaining it That's probably what it looked like that one that hasn't been wrecked up So you can see I mean small window But let's would let the light in because obviously now would light comes from the sky as there's no roof Would have let the light in so yeah, it would have been a bigger one of that It's very small though. I mean this this chancel area So it would have been, you know a very small church We are talking, you know for probably only about 50 or 60 people Would have been regulars here more herringbone Flint work there Let's go out here Go out whether there would have been another door. There might have been a little porch as well Possibly on that door that door there. I'm not entirely sure but I don't know if there even wouldn't spotted away Come out to here. There's the remains of the other buttress See this side of the church I think now it's going to be time for me to continue on my walk back up to nettle bed and um Yeah, it's been it's been a very interesting walk and it's been so quiet. Okay. Yes. It's a an awesome day It's a very mild awesome day but you know you can See it's awesome by the leaves on the trees, but they're just I've seen hardly any people I've passed like two people on this walk the whole time So for me it's been a really pleasant very relaxing quiet walk. I've already enjoyed it So, you know, if you do want to come and do this walk then like I say you can either park up the nettle bed and walk down here Or if you wanted to see the warburg nature reserve have a look at this church. There is a car park up there Just don't all come on the same day because we want to keep it nice and Quiet I'm now on my way home I just thought I'd stop at the new village of bicks to see what there is to see here because I understand some parts of the Old church are in the new church. So That Is the new church for bicks Also called st. James the ruin church we saw down In the valley that was st. James's church a bit. So it's not a very big place the new village the main road Which we started out is just over there. That's the old school We're going to go through here And here is the new church So little Victorian church got quite a long building and I understand there's some windows and the old font from the church inside So let's just go in have a look So there we go nice to find it's open So this is the new church Interestingly, it was flint on the outside brick on the inside That's the font but that Is the font From the old church, which we've just been to And then if we have a look in here Walking down the knave. I do really like this brickwork the very colors of the brickwork. I think that's really quite cool Um, yeah through here. So I want to show you here. There's a stained glass window this one Okay, the camera's not picking it out right along and do I'll um take a picture of this one and insert it into the video now and then And There's this one They came out of the old church, but they were originally in a monastery in France They made their way over to oxford. She got put in the old church and now they're here in a new church There've been two three different churches in their life. I think it's quite nice. So yeah, this is Inside the church the new church of bicks. What I'm going to do now Um, I'm going to go down probably to Marlowe Henley have a wander around there, but that's not part with you and I'm just going to go outside the church. We'll have a look at the common and that'll probably conclude this video of the old and the new villages of bicks. We've come from the lost village Up to this village. So come out here The church here. Let's go we'll go out Out here onto the common. So it's a very pleasant place. So like I said, um So yeah, I will point out. I didn't walk from old bicks to new bicks You probably could if you wanted to but um, this was all I drove up here Rather than include that in part of the walk by the nice four mile walk from nettle bed four and a half mile walk And I just thought come here but this maybe another day could come for a walk here that there's footpath signs everywhere so From the new village of bicks outside the new st. James church Even it's not actually that new but you know what I mean Thank you very much for watching. Please do feel free to like subscribe and comment. Goodbye