Quietly and irately observing that your bus is 20 minutes late as usual, and yet still being offensively polite to the bus driver is a peculiar quirk of British culture which is all but guaranteed on my regular country bus route, the X40. This Thames Valley (or as it’s now excitingly known, River Rapids) route takes you all the way from Reading to Oxford in only an hour and a half.
It’s worth noting here that this journey takes 20 minutes on the train, and if I lived in Reading, the bus would not be my chosen route. However I do not live in Reading, and I catch this bus from my village all the way to work in Oxford, which is an hour long journey and very pretty. Although the timetable means that I have another hour to wait between arriving and my shift starting, I don’t resent the commute at all as it is truly beautiful.
Although the latter half of this journey is very exciting, taking you past a post-apocalyptic field containing an overgrown van-cum-shack, England’s No.1 Biker café and one abandoned house, the part of the route which is truly beautiful is the first half. This stretch of the A4074 between Woodcote and Wallingford is all rolling hills and patchwork fields, the power station at Didcot adding a stark contrast in the distance. This is a truly English landscape, as beautiful in the rain as it is in the sunshine and as enchanting in the bare winter as when the rapeseed fields are in their full glorious yellow in the Spring.
While a beautiful drive in any vehicle, the very best way to enjoy this view is from the top of a double decker bus, which is where the X40 comes into it. Since I can’t recommend my lovely but somewhat uninspiring village as a place to stay or a starting point (although we do have a very nice pond), I suggest you begin your journey at the bus’ base camp at Reading Station. The bus can be caught here from early till late regularly throughout the day, and getting to Wallingford will take roughly 40 minutes and set you back around £6 for a return ticket.
The route takes you up through Caversham Heights, where there are lots of nice houses to stare at and imagine living in (I do this route at least twice a week and find it endlessly entertaining), then the main road will take you through Mapledurham golf course, some beautiful beech woods which are particularly gorgeous on a sunny day, through my village and then out onto the A4074 and towards the glorious scenery. If you’re lucky, the very front seat of the double decker will be free and you’ll have a panoramic view.
The unexpected beauty of this small patch of road makes me happy to be alive, and will set you in just the right frame of mind for all that Wallingford itself has to offer.
Wallingford is a very old town with a fascinating history – to name a few, it was a mint for the Anglo-Saxons, a royalist stronghold in the English Civil War (in fact the last royalist castle to be captured by the Roundheads), and a near casualty of World War 2. A market town since the 12th century (when it was granted a Charter Of Liberties by King Henry II), if you arrive on a Saturday between 10am and 1pm you’ll find a traditional market in the town square, selling local produce from butter to blueberries.
The castle, dating back to 1067, is a great attraction, and open to the public free of charge; although there isn’t much left, what remains is impressive and the site is dotted with information points to tell you all about the fascinating and turbulent history of the place. Wallingford Museum holds much more information about the history of the town, and during the summer offers town history walks for those who want to explore and find out more.
Once you’ve had your fill of history, a great Mostly Harmless visit is ‘Just Trading’, a fair trade shop on St Mary’s Street adjacent to the market square. They sell everything you could think of, from loose walnuts to plastic free toothpaste, and it’s run by lovely people to boot. They also sell liquorice sticks, which I found very exciting because I didn’t know that was what liquorice looked like – but perhaps you’re wiser than I.
Another Wallingford shopping experience worth delving into is The Lamb Arcade, a sort of collective of curiosity shops set in a 14th century coaching inn which feels closer to a rabbit warren than a marketplace. There are over 40 shops inside, variously selling fossils, collectible toy cars, oriental rugs and antique porcelain to name but a few. Just don’t get lost.
After managing to navigate your way out of there you’ll need a hot beverage – luckily, less than fifty paces away on St Mary’s Street lies an independent café called Bean and Brew, which has a wonderful selection of teas and cakes (and a dog friendly room upstairs).
If that gets your tea tastebuds going, I would follow it up with a visit to Wallingford Tea and Coffee on St Martin’s street, a loose leaf tea shop that’s a true wonderland for any tea lover, and anyone that wants to feel like they’ve stepped into a period drama. I can personally recommend the Neroli Earl Grey tea – absolutely delicious. And, as the shop sells tea tins at only £2.50 a pop, it’s very easy to be plastic free too. When you’ve stocked up, The Wallingford Bookshop is hiding a few doors down, a lovely independent store with a real old- world feel where you can have a browse and choose the perfect book to read while you drink your new tea later.
If you manage to visit on one of those rare (although increasingly common, I suspect with trepidation) hot English summer days, there are also some great spots for swimming. There’s a pool to one side of the old bridge, which is great for a more supervised swim and has an attached ice cream shop, but personally I would recommend going down to the other side of the bridge where there is a small natural beach. A tiny bay of sand slopes down to the water, which is a little muddy but stays relatively shallow for quite a way out, and plenty of scrubby bank which is fantastic for scrambling on levels out into a huge field that’s great for playing Frisbee and running around. I might not recommend this for very small children as to the best of my knowledge it’s never wise to plonk them into rivers, but as long as you keep an eye on them I’d say age 6 and up would be absolutely fine. This is a popular spot amongst those in the know, and a great place for a picnic and a lovely sunny afternoon.
After all that fun and games with castles and river swimming, there are even several lovely places to go for dinner. The George is a lovely old pub which does good food, with a very locally atmosphere (which is good or bad depending on what you’re after), or if you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful slap-up meal in a relaxed atmosphere, The Boat House next to the river will answer all your prayers. If you’ve had altogether too much excitement what with all the history and labyrinthine shops, there’s even a reliable old Pizza Express.
If you’re grown-ups who like to go to even more places after dinner – or even in your early twenties pretending to be grown-ups, like myself – there’s a great bar called the Old Post Office, which is in fact inside the old post office building. They have all your regular drinks plus some pretty great cocktails – they can be a little pricey, as cocktails tend to be, but I would recommend getting one and I don’t recommend cocktails lightly.
The bus to trot you safely back to Reading will leave from the same square it dropped you off in all those years ago – but be careful not to be late, as the last one is invariably earlier than you think, and trying to get a taxi to fetch you from Wallingford is truly a Sisyphean task. The scenery is needless to say less impressive in the dark, but since you’ve had a cocktail I’m sure you won’t mind too much.
Mostly Harmless 