The Elizabethan house at Ufton Court overlooks the Kennet Valley: it is a reminder of the most picturesque of Elizabethan times in Berkshire. The mansion we see today was built around an even older house in about 1570. It has nineteen gables, each with a massive chimney and traceried window: three priest holes were secreted around its interior. The house boasts of literary links with poets like Alexander Pope, whose poem The Rape of the Lock is about beautiful Arabella Fermor, who lived at Ufton Court in 1712.

Our walk starts from the railway station at nearby Aldermaston Wharf. We will climb gently out of the Kennet Valley, along paths through grassy fields to Ufton Court. At Ufton Court, you can opt to take a short route back to Aldermaston, dropping back into the valley via Padworth, or you can continue on to the small villages of Ufton Nervet and Ufton Green. Both options will return to Aldermaston via the Kennet
and Avon Canal, and each will have its own leader.