Sandhurst Memorial parkrun

Sandhurst is a town and civil parish in Berkshire with a population of just over 20,000 people. The name originates from the sandy soils (Sand) and the woods (Hurst) in the area. As with many towns, Sandhurst started out as a small farming community, until in 1812 The Royal Military College, which had been based in Great Marlow and High Wycombe, moved to Sandhurst.

In 1947 it merged with the Royal Military College Woolwich and became The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; the name it retains to this day. The military own large parcels of land around the town where they frequently conduct training exercises.

The high-security psychiatric facility, Broadmoor Hospital is located nearby, as is the famous public school Wellington College. The expansion of the town really kicked off when the railway came to Sandhurst and the population grew. The town underwent a significant expansion between the 1950s to 1980s when more housing was added. A memorial park was opened in the town in 1949 and the town's existing war memorial (c.1921) was relocated here in 1984.

Sandhurst Memorial Park is home to quite a large number of clubs and organisations such as Sandhurst Town Football Club, Sandhurst Cricket Club, Sandhurst Tennis Club, Sandhurst Gardening Club, Sandhurst Camera Club, and Sandhurst Tug of War Club. Interestingly, the National Outdoor Tug of War Championships were held in the town in the years 2000 and 2013. Also Sandhurst Tug of War Club have been world champions on three occasions, something the town must be immensely proud of as you'll see it displayed on signs around the town.

The park is also home to the Sandhurst Community Hall, a Community Police Point, and Sandhurst Town Council. It has many football pitches, tennis courts, a large playground (split into two), skate park and a balancing pond which is home to the local swans.

The park is also home to Sandhurst Memorial parkrun which has been in operation since December 2019. I joined them for their event number 44 on a beautifully sunny early spring morning in March 2022.

I travelled by car and when it comes to parking, the park has it covered. There is the main Sandhurst Memorial Park Car Park in front of the community hall and council offices - this will hold just over one hundred cars. If it fills up, there is another car park just along the road called Pyes Acre Car Park which can hold about eighty vehicles. The signs say they open from 8am, but they were open when I arrived at 7.45am. The best thing is they are completely free-of-charge to use. Bear in mind that Saturday mornings are busy for the local football teams so there may be quite a lot of vehicles around.

If using public transport you can reach the town by train where you can alight at Sandhurst station. It's about a 10 minute walk to the park from the station. If taking a bus the 125 and 598 seem to stop outside the park. I don't remember seeing any official bicycle racks (I may have missed them) but there were a few fences and poles dotted around that could probably be used. Lastly, the toilets - they are located on the side of the council building right next to the car park, opposite the playground. They should be open from 8am, but when I was here they were open before then.

The meeting point for the parkrun is on the small grass area in between the two playground areas. It is here that the briefings are held. Once they are done, the participants move out onto the adjacent path and line up at the start area.

The course is flat and takes place on a mixture of different surfaces such as tarmac and other hard packed surfaces, gravel, dirt, grass and wooden planks (while going over bridges). The split is roughly 4km hard surface, 1km off-road. As far as footwear is concerned, even though the split of surfaces suggest road shoes, I'd lean more in the direction of trail shoes.

The course here has been tweaked a few times since the event started, and who knows, maybe it'll change again. Anyway, it currently consists of a start tail followed by a small lap around the balancing pond. This is then followed by two full anti-clockwise laps which go beyond the park's boundaries and into the adjacent Shepherd Meadows Site of Special Scientific Interest, home to an abundance of wildlife including over 300 species of insects.

Shepherd Meadows is named after wildlife artist and conservationist David Shepherd. The River Blackwater flows through the site and you'll run along both sides of it as you navigate your way through the meadows.

Around the course there are a few bridges to cross (five, I think) and you cross most of them multiple times. Originally this venue did not allow buggies, however this has now been amended and the advice is to speak to the team in advance of your visit. The issue largely stems from at least one of the bridge crossings which is a bit fiddly to negotiate, but of course contact the team and take their advice if you are considering taking part with a buggy.

Underfoot the paths are generally well kept but are not always perfectly smooth. They can be narrow in places and the adjacent grass can be a tad boggy. The far end of the course goes around a grass field which I'm told can be very muddy at times, and it also seems to have a selection of mole hills, so watch out. There is also a special water feature to splash through which varies in size from week to week - you'll find this on the eastern side of the balancing pond and you'll negotiate it three times.

You will of course find some lovely marshals at various points around the course. Once the two full laps are complete, you head back down the start/finish tail. through the gap in the hedge and onto the grass where the briefings were held just a short while earlier. Here you'll find the finish line and the barcode scanners. On the day I took part there were 134 finishers and the results for event 44 were online a short while later. The average number of finishers is currently 154.5.

In case my description doesn't quite give you the detail you may need, please feel free to take a look at my GPS data on Strava and also my Relive course fly-by video on youtube. After the event, refreshments can be found at Pistachios and you may even find a few other parkrunners there too.

As I was getting changed back at the car, I could here what sounded like gunshots and explosions in the distance which I'm assuming was the army in the middle of a training session, so don't be alarmed if you hear the same. Lastly, many thanks to all the volunteers that made the day's event possible.

Related links:

My GPS course data

Relive course fly-by video

The Berkshire parkrun venues

Dinton Pastures parkrun

In the ceremonial county of Berkshire you will find the village of Hurst in the civil parish of St Nicholas Hurst, which has a population of just over 2000 people. It sits about half-way between the towns of Reading and Wokingham. The area was originally known as Whistley and the Manor of Hurst is a 16th century Elizabethan manor house which sits in 40 acres of parkland near the centre of the village. Since 1979 a 335 acre area to the south of the of the village has been home to Dinton Pastures Country Park.

The park contains meadows, woodland and seven lakes. These areas attract and support an abundance of wildlife, including many hundreds of species of birds. It's also home to many land animals such as stoats, mink, weasels, foxes, and deer. We spotted some rabbits hanging out in the playground early in the morning. The River Loddon flows through the western side of the park and the Emm Brook through the eastern side.

The park is also home to the Dinton Activity Centre where you can partake in activities such as kayaking, canoeing and sailing or simply hire a pedalo or row boat for something more relaxing. On land there is the option of the climbing wall, abseiling and a zip wire, as well as an interesting game called Disc Golf (essentially it's golf played with a frisbee). The park also has a children's play area, Dinton Adventure Golf, two cafes and the Airstream Caravan which serves light takeaway refreshments. In the north-west of the park you will find the Museum of Berkshire Aviation. 

The area the park now occupies was once part of the Great Forest of Windsor, and had for previously been used as farmland. It eventually became known as High Chimneys Farm, and the main house, which does indeed have high chimneys, was built in the 1500s. In 1924 the farm was sold and the new owner renamed it Dinton Pastures Farm after his home village of Dinton, in Buckinghamshire.

During the 1960s and 1970s the land was used for gravel extraction and the majority of the gravel extracted was used in the construction of both the M4 and the A329(M) roads which run past the south of the country park. It was this extraction process that created the large pits that now form the lakes. Wokingham District Council took over the land towards the end of the 1970s to create the country park.

In July 2018 the country park became home to a free, weekly, 5km event called Dinton Pastures parkrun. However, this was not the first time a parkrun had taken place here. It had previously been used as Reading parkrun's back-up course as their Thames Valley Park course is prone to flooding.

The permanent event was an instant hit with initial numbers in the high 100s. Over the years this grew to a steady weekly attendance figure of around 300. The post-covid return saw numbers drop a little and it would be normal to see somewhere in the mid-200s at any given event. The official average number at time of writing is 254.8.

We visited on 18 September 2021 to take part in event 99 as this was the last event number I needed to take my Wilson Index to a nice round 100. There are a total of 6 car parks spread across the park all of which incur a charge of £1.65 per hour up to four hours. If staying for longer there is a flat rate of £6.60. There is a payment machine if you like to do things the old fashioned way, however the fee is also payable via the RingGo website/app. We parked in the main car park which is the most convenient option if you'd like to be close to the cafe and toilets.

If travelling by public transport, the closest mainline station is Winnersh Triangle but due to the nature of the road layout, this isn't the best one to use. I would instead head to Winnersh station where the route to the country park is a simple walk straight along Robin Hood Lane / B3030. For cyclists, I saw some small bicycle racks in the car park, but most cyclists seemed to lock their bikes to the trees around the parkrun meeting area.

The parkrun meeting area can be found just to the west of the car park in a triangular clearing just past the playground, next to Mungell's Pond. The course is totally flat and takes place over two anti-clockwise laps. However, the laps are not exactly the same (we'll come to that later). Underfoot features a combination of compacted gravel/stones and dirt, in dry conditions road shoes are fine, but after rain or in the winter you may find trail shoes to be the better option. I took part with my son in the running buggy and it was mildly bumpy for him, but otherwise perfectly fine.

After the run briefings, the crowd of eager parkrunners are escorted further down the path to the start area. The start line is fairly narrow, so it takes a bit of time for everyone to get going. Both of the laps effectively loop around White Swan Lake, but in different ways. The first uses the path that runs directly alongside the lake, until diverting away for a loop around a smaller lake called Tufty's Corner. It then rejoins the southern side of the lake until the loop is complete.

The second lap follows the path which runs alongside Black Swan Lake which eventually re-joins the White Swan Lake path at its most northerly point, before following it all the way back to complete the loop. This second lap does not include the Tufty's Corner loop. Once the second lap is complete, the course heads back to the original meeting/briefing point where the finish is on the grass. A better way to get your head around the course would be to view the GPS data or a Relive video.

It's a difficult course to describe in any great detail, as the surroundings don't really change much as you progresses around the course. The general theme is that you are on a forest path with trees on both sides and every now and then you get a glimpse of one of the lakes through gaps in the trees. When you do see the lakes, the views are picturesque. You may even see some of the swans. It's a pleasant place to be and the only interruption to the peace and quiet is on the south side of the course where you can hear the hum of the traffic on the A329.

Post-parkrun, we headed straight over to the Dragonfly Cafe which is adjacent to the car park and the toilets. They still had pretty strict covid-19 precautions in place, so we placed our order and took a seat at one of the numerous benches in the garden. Our parkrun results came through while we were eating our late breakfasts and 216 people had taken part in event 99.

For anyone with kids, they'll love the playground so don't expect a quick getaway. We also took a walk along the eastern side of Black Swan Lake to the brand new Dinton Activity Centre. The cafe on the upper level has a balcony which is a great place to sit and enjoy the view across the lake.

After over seven hours of parkrunning, breakfasting, playing and exploring we decided we'd better hit the road back home. It was already 3.30pm and we were exhausted, but very happy with the great day out we'd had at Dinton Pastures.

Related:

The Berkshire parkrun venues

The course GPS data

The course Relive fly-by video

Bracknell parkrun

Bracknell is a town in the county of Berkshire. It was first recorded in AD 942 as Braccan Heal which is thought to mean 'nook of land belonging to a man called Bracca'. As time went by this changed to Brakenhale and eventually reached its current form.

The town was originally a market village and part of the Windsor Great Forest. In 1949 it was declared a New Town and this is what lead to its growth. Originally this New Town was designed to house 25,000 people, but continued expansion has lead to it now having a population of over 80,000.

Like some other towns in this part of Berkshire, it has become home to a variety of company headquarters, many of these are in the technology business. So in Bracknell you will find the UK offices of Dell, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and car company Honda. Vodafone, Siemens and Hewlett Packard used to have offices here, but have since moved elsewhere. Historically the area was famous for its red bricks which can be seen in all their glory at the Royal Albert Hall, in London.

To the south of the town centre is the suburb of Great Hollands which is the medieval field-name of the Easthampstead parish area. It was developed towards the end of the 1960s to provide more accommodation for the workers at the town's then largest employer, Sperry, an electronics company who produced things like gyroscopes and other gyroscope-based aviation equipment.

Interestingly the roads in Great Hollands are laid out in alphabetical order and are also apparently named after old telephone exchanges. The area also has a park and this is called Great Hollands Recreation Ground. It contains football pitches, a bowls green, tennis courts, and a cricket pitch. There is also a free-of-charge car park, but it's quite small and fills up quickly, so alternatively you could head to one of the side streets on the eastern side of the park. A final option would be to use the car park at the Golden Retriever Pub who have given permission for parkrunners to park here.

The closest train station is Bracknell, but it is approximately 4 kilometres away. I hear there is a bus (94) that runs from the station past the park. Like other New Towns, Bracknell seems to have a fair amount of traffic-free cycling routes (dedicated paths and shared use paths), so makes using a bicycle a good option for locals or for the connecting journey should you travel by train. There are some bicycle racks next to the tennis courts.

In April 2015 the park became home to Bracknell parkrun. From the very beginning this was a well-attended event with participation numbers hovering around 200. In the years that have passed, the numbers have gradually grown and it is now common to find in excess of 300 participants present every week. On a side note the park itself is listed under the postal town of Wokingham, not Bracknell.

A newly redeveloped children's play area, wet play area and pavilion are located in the centre of the park. The pavilion contains a coffee shop, bookable function area and toilets. When we visited, access to the toilets wasn't possible until about 8.40am so it created a bit of a surge of people popping in just before the start. This slightly impacted on our pre-parkrun buggy running preparations, and we almost missed the start despite being in the park since about quarter past-eight.

The parkrunners generally seemed to congregate right in the centre of the park next to the pavilion, but the start and finish have their own separate areas. The event takes place over a two lap clockwise course (with an additional tail at the start) and underfoot features a combination of grass, dirt, tarmac, and wood-chipped forest paths. It is generally quite flat, but there are some ups and downs around the course. As we visited during the summer, I wore my road shoes, but at other times of year, or after rain, I would personally go for trail shoes.

The start is on the wide, open grass area next to the car park (please note: at the time of our visit, the official course map had the start point next to the tennis courts, I understand this is a post-covid change, so I expect it'll be updated soon enough).

This revised start area gives plenty of space to allow the participants to socially distance during the briefing, and then to spread out and settle into their positions once being set loose.

A large proportion of each lap is made up of following the perimetre grass/dirt paths around the edge of the southern and northern open grass playing fields, using the interconnecting narrower section next to the tennis courts to connect the two, but this venue also has an ace up its sleeve...

The southern-most part of the route briefly heads into Great Hollands Wood. It's a small, but stunning area of woodland which feels well established. The parkrun course follows the paths as they meander left and right through the towering pine trees. There is a small climb to negotiate half-way through the woods, but it's over quite quickly and it is followed by a longer, twisty slight downhill section. There are also quite a few tree roots to look out for - they had all helpfully been marked with flour by the volunteers beforehand, which made spotting them easier. The only downside for me is that this section was over too soon.

With the two-laps complete, the finish funnel can be found on the grass adjacent to the playground. My daughter had just had her 11th birthday a few days earlier, so took the opportunity to participate in her first 5k parkrun where she didn't have to be within arms reach of an adult, and she seemed to enjoy her first solo experience.

Once we'd had our barcodes scanned, we popped over to the pavilion where we had some refreshments from the cafe - the menu is not extensive and largely revolves around drinks and pre-packaged snacks, so you'd have to head elsewhere, like the Golden Retriever Pub if you wanted something more substantial (I hear they are now offering a post-parkrun brunch from 9am on Saturdays). Anyway, the playground is right outside the pavilion so we sat while our son played - just note, the playground isn't enclosed, so if you have children that like to wander off you'll have to keep your eyes very much on them.

The results for event 264 were processed and we received our notifications just before midday. There were 317 finishers which was very close to the official average number of 307.2. The GPS data from the day's event can be found on my Strava account, here: Bracknell parkrun GPS data (My Garmin failed so my wife shared her file with me). I also uploaded the file via the Relive app and created a fly-by of the route. You can find that here: Bracknell parkrun course fly-by video.

Many thanks, of course, to all the volunteers that made the event happen.

Related:

The Berkshire parkrun venues

Newbury parkrun

Newbury is a market town in Berkshire with a population of around 40,000 people. Originally named New Burgh, it prospered through various industries such as paper making, brewing, and brick making. The cloth trade was also big in the town. Subsequently it became a convenient and popular stop-over point for the wealthy travelling from London to Bath and many inns were present in the town.

The Inn trade dwindled when the Great Western Railway opened and it wasn't until the 1980s, when Vodafone decided to base their HQ here, that the prosperity truly started again. The town is now a hub for high-tech industries. It is also known for its connection to the world of horse racing with many training facilities being based in the surrounding area, and Newbury Racecourse is situated on south-east side of the town.

greenham and crookham commons

Moving our attention a little further to the south, we find Greenham and Crookham Commons which together cover an area of around 1,000 acres. Together they form the largest continuous open tract of heathland in Berkshire and are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is this area which is home to Newbury parkrun, however before moving onto that, there is still a little more history to go over.

Before the Second World War Greenham Common had been common land, but in 1941 it was requisitioned by the Government for military purposes. The land of the common is open and flat which made it ideal for use as an airbase - so despite a brief period of around four years after the war where the site was de-requisitioned, the land became part of RAF Greenham Common.

The base was used by the United States Air Force throughout WW2 and continued through the period of the Cold War. In 1951 the original runway was replaced with a 3km long runway which would have made it one of the longest military runways in the world at the time.

extra spacious start area

There are reports of an accident where a B-47 loaded with a nuclear warhead caught on fire in 1958 when another flying B-47 accidentally dropped a fuel tank containing over 1,500 gallons of fuel next to it - engulfing it in flames (denied by the military at the time). Subsequent studies have taken place that suggest the area was (or still is) contaminated with low level uranium.

In the early 1980s ninety-six 'BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles' (GLCM) were based at the site. The missiles carried a W84 thermonuclear warhead which had a potential yield of 150 kilotons (for reference the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had blast yields of 15 and 21 kilotons).

The operational missiles were housed within the GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area (GAMA) which can still be easily identified by the 6 large grass-covered shelters. They were designed to withstand an air-detonated nuclear strike, having a 2 metre thick concrete ceiling plus additional layers of titanium, sand, more concrete and clay. More about the shelters later...

through the first kilometre

Naturally, the presence of these nuclear weapons caused an outcry and they lead to a peace camp being set-up around the perimeter of the site. This was known as 'Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp'. It was decided early on that this would be a women-only protest and using their identities as women/mothers legitimised the protests in the name of their children and future generations. Even though the nuclear weapons were completely removed by 1991 and the base closed by 1993, the peace camp stayed in place until 2000.

On 8 April 2000 the commons were reopened to the public. The majority of the concrete from the runway had already been removed for use as aggregate in the recently-opened Newbury Bypass, but you can still see the imprint of the runway through the natural vegetation which is slowly being restored. Some other parts of the base have survived, for example the Control Tower which is a Grade 2 listed building. Its design is one of only six remaining in the UK and is unique in the fact that it has not been significantly modernised internally.

the northern/eastern side of the course

We visited the common on 4th May 2019 and after spending two hours on-the-road we finally pulled into the main car park, which incidentally is right next to the control tower. We had initially tried to park in another car park on the opposite side of the common (Greenham Business Park) so we could be closer to the nuclear shelters for our post-run visit, but we just couldn't locate it despite using the postcode from the parkrun course page. We also couldn't find the toilets which are supposed to be somewhere within the business park...

So, as we had left ourselves a little bit of buffer time, we used the facilities in the McDonalds in the retail park at the western end of the common. With that sorted we headed towards the control tower car park as described above (for info, there was a queue of cars waiting to get in). The buffer time we had left ourselves had truly run out and by the time we had found a space, assembled the running buggy and changed into our running shoes it was just a couple of minutes away from 9am.

the eastern section of the course

The start of the parkrun is on the last remaining patch of tarmac right in the centre of the old runway. It is 600 metres from the car park which at a regular walking pace takes around 5-7 minutes. Fortunately the run director hadn't started the event by the time we reached the start point, so we composed ourselves and slotted into a nice place towards the back of the field. So the main points to take away from this would be, if you think you will need to use toilets plan this into your journey and leave yourself plenty of time to park and get to the start line.

If travelling by train the closest stations are Newbury Racecourse and Thatcham - they are both over 4km from the start line with no obvious sign of a connection. I've read that if you happen to alight the train at Newbury main train station you may be able to catch a bus to one of the entrances to the common - however you'll still be 2km from the start area.

the common and crookham athletics track etc...

For cyclists there are some bicycle racks right next to the control tower. At present there are no pre-run toilet facilities available onsite for parkrunners and there is a note on the main Newbury parkrun page reminding attendees to not relieve themselves on the common, as aside from being unpleasant for other users, doing so will put the future of the event in jeopardy.

Newbury parkrun is a very well established event which has been held on the common since February 2012. Our visit fell on the 390th event. Even from the early days this has been a very well attended parkrun which has always had the number of finishers in three-figures. At time of writing the official average is 361 but this doesn't reflect current day numbers very well. As of mid-2019 I would expect to find around 600 participants (it was the 26th busiest parkrun in the country on the day we visited - out of the 606 UK events that took place)...

The good news is that the start area is vast and there is plenty of room to position yourself where you think you should be within the field of participants. However bear in mind that you have just under 200 metres before the course narrows down to the width of the common's paths. The course here is one single clockwise lap which, with the exception of the tarmac at the start and finish, takes place entirely on gravelly paths. I would imagine that road shoes would generally be ok all year round, but some people may prefer a light trail shoe in bad conditions.

the final kilometre

Once past the first corner I don't remember encountering any marshals or arrows around the course, but there were some cones placed where required that did the job nicely. The first kilometre or so is on a perfectly straight path that heads east along the northern border of the runway. It then turns and the path meanders gently around the Crookham Common end of the route where you'll catch a glimpse of Crookham Athletics track. You may remember I mentioned above that we had the running buggy with us - the gravelly/stony surface underfoot makes for a gentle but bumpy ride for the occupant.

The views are pretty nice all around - expect to see plenty of gorse, heather and bracken. There are also a few ponds and occasionally you'll get a picturesque view over the adjacent countryside. Humans are not the only creatures you will find here - expect to see some cows and horses milling around. Also look out for the small wooden posts with red tops - these signify areas that are out-of-bounds due to ground-nesting birds such as the Nightjar, Lapwing, and the Skylark. Plus the Gorse bushes provide nesting opportunities for the Dartford Warbler.

At the end of the meandering section the course ends up on the southern side of the former runway where a long but extremely gentle incline leads back to the tarmac area and ultimately the finish line. As this is a very well attended event expect there to be some queues for the barcode scanners. Also being a wide open space means it can suffer from windy conditions - while we didn't really notice any on the way around, we did find we got very cold while waiting in the queue.

the finish area etc..

Earlier on I promised that I would come back to the nuclear shelters, well here we are! Once we had had our barcodes scanned we embarked on what would turn out to be a 45 minute round trip over to the south-west corner to see the shelters. This brings me to the reason why we attended this particular parkrun on this particular day - It was May the Fourth (aka Star Wars Day)...

The shelters were used as a filming location in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and again in The Last Jedi (2017). For these movies they became the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar and it was great to finally see them in real life - sadly you can't get amongst them as the area is still subject to very strict security arrangements. They are also regularly inspected by the Russians as part of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Incidentally they were also used in Top Gear as a backdrop for a segment on communist cars, and apparently Beyonce filmed a music video here too.

control tower / nuclear shelter

The Control Tower has a cafe and is open for visits where you can have an elevated view over the former airfield, but I hadn't read up on this before our visit and totally missed the opportunity (noted for when we are next in the area)! Instead we headed back to the car and off to another cafe we had spotted earlier in the day while trying to find the other car park. We had a lovely lunch in the Honesty Cafe which is located in an art gallery at The Base within the Greenham Business Park.

Our results came through a little while later and despite periods of walking and even coming to a complete standstill at points, my daughter (dressed as Rey from Star Wars) ended up with a new 5k personal best which was of course the cherry on top of the very delicious cake which is Newbury parkrun!

Related links:

• My GPS data of the course
• The relive fly-by video of the course
• The Berkshire parkrun venues
• parkrun at the movies

Woodley parkrun

Woodley is a town in Berkshire and also a suburb of Reading. Its name means 'a clearing in the wood' and it is thought that the wood in question was Windsor Forest / Windsor Great Park. Pre Second World War, Woodley was a village, but during the 1930's Woodley Aerodrome was opened, firstly as a flying school and shortly after, the manufacture of the Miles Hawk 2-seat light monoplane began.

The expansion of Woodley continued in the post-war years as industry moved into the area from Reading and new housing developments were built. The aerodrome closed in the 1960's and since then the town has essentially become an extension of Reading. In 1964 Woodford Park was opened and this is the park that is home to Woodley parkrun.

woodley parkrun [photos: 7t / kevin lewington / simon light]

Arriving in Woodley on New Year's Day 2017 after just running at Maidenhead parkrun, I had a couple of parking options available. The advice on the Woodley parkrun website is to use the pay and display car park opposite the entrance to the park, however, I had spent some time looking on Google maps and had found a side street, a few hundred metres away, to park on and I ran the rest of the way to Woodford Park.

Had I taken the train, I would have headed for Earley station which is approximately 2 kilometres away from the park. For anyone taking their bicycle to the venue, I spotted some bicycle racks just outside the Brown Bag Cafe at the Oakwood Centre, which is quite convenient as this is where the team head to for the post-run refreshments.

early part of the lap [photos: 7t / simon light]

As for toilets, it looks like the original park facilities were demolished a few years ago. From what I can see on the Woodley Town Council website, the Oakwood Centre is now the place to head to for toilet facilities.

Once at the Headley Road entrance to the park, I immediately spotted a cluster of hi-vis vests and continued to jog over towards them. The event had its inaugural event back in October 2012 and you can tell that there is a very well oiled team on hand here. The meeting point is at the skate park and as I was a little early, I had a little look around the park.

the northern half of the park [photos: 7t]

The park is essentially divided into two sections - the southern part is your typical town park with a playground, skate park, cafe, and war memorial. The northern side is mostly sports orientated and in between the two halves there is a lake, which was added to the park in the early 1970's.

I headed back over to the meeting area and was just in time for the first-timers briefing. After this, the main briefing took place at the skate park and the runners where then ushered over to the start line, which is on the grass just outside the Oakwood Centre.

around the lake [photos: 7t]

The course is run over three laps (not completely identical) and underfoot there is a combination of grass and tarmac. It is essentially flat, but the northern half is at a slightly higher elevation than the south side so there is a slight incline/decline to run each time you switch between the two.

The course is narrow in places however it is perfectly runnable with a buggy. Also, the team ask that runners do not run with head/ear-phones on/in. However, those that still wish to listen to music can do, provided they keep one ear free to listen out for instructions from the marshals around the course - please read the text in the course description on the course page for more information.

southern side [photos: 7t]

The first lap is slightly different to the second and third. From the start, the runners head diagonally across the open grass field at the front of the park before picking up the tarmac path and following it around, past the lake and up a short, sharp incline which brings them out in the northern half of the park which is made up of a selection of sports pitches. Soon the surface underfoot changes to a grassy/dirt path and this is followed right around the perimeter of the football pitches until it rejoins the tarmac path which brings the runners out back at the lake.

Following the path around lake, the runners soon arrive back in the southern section and head along the tarmac path down to the southern border adjacent to Headley Road. The runners face a little chicane around the war memorial and then reach the corner where the run started. For laps two and three they continue to follow the tarmac path which leads back down to the lake - here the runners continue to follow the same route as before.

war memorial / finish [photos: 7t / kevin lewington]

At the end of lap three, at the war memorial, instead of continuing on the tarmac path, the runners are directed onto the grass where there is a final dash straight over to the finish funnel. I had my barcode scanned right next to the finish line and briefly headed off for a cool down.

Returning a few minutes later, I bumped into the Woodley parkrun's original Event Director and parkrun South East Region ambassador, Kerri and a few other parkrun tourists including Adrian and Chris.

post-run [photos: 7t / kevin lewington]

After a little time spent chatting, I was starting to feel the cold. So I headed off to the car to get changed and start the hour-and-a-half journey back to Kent. The official results had been processed by the time I arrived home and I saw that 315 people had taken part in the run. This was a little higher than the average turnout, but not by a huge amount. As always I had recorded my run using the Strava app on my phone and you can see the exact route, elevation etc via this link: Woodley parkrun event 226. I'd had a fab New Year's Day morning out in Berkshire visiting two lovely venues - a huge thanks, as always, goes to the volunteers that were out making this all possible!

Maidenhead parkrun

Every year on New Year's Day, parkrun HQ allow us parkrunners to register two official parkruns on the same day and I have taken them up on the offer every year since I started parkrunning. Over the last few years I have tried to run a different double each year and this time around, I decided that I would visit the closest possible double of two venues that I hadn't already run. This meant an hour-and-a-bit drive from Kent to Berkshire to run at Maidenhead parkrun at 9am followed by Woodley parkrun at 10.30am (Woodley parkrun blog). Here goes...

Maidenhead is a town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which is in the county of Berkshire. It lies on the south (or west) bank of the River Thames - there are a few different theories floating around as to exactly how the name Maidenhead came to be.

There was, in 1280, a wharf was built on the bank of the River Thames and this lead to the area being called Maiden-hythe (meaning: New Wharf). Other theories point towards the Welsh Celtic name of Ma-y-Din-Heth (meaning: place of the Fort of Barley) being the source of the name. There is also the theory that it comes from the 'Maiden's Head' - this was said to be the skull of one of St. Ursula's eleven thousand virginal handmaidens that were massacred in Cologne, although it is widely believed that this is just a legend rather than historic fact.

braywick park / briefing [photos: 7t / nick baggot (official photographer)]

Whichever one is correct, as the Maiden-hythe area expanded, the hamlet of South Ellington, which occupied the site of the modern day Maidenhead town centre, was eventually merged into one. There are a few other slightly different theories floating around, but instead of spending too much time on that, let's move onto the whole point of this blog...

Maidenhead parkrun is based at Braywick Park which is just to the south of the town centre and is the largest open public space in Maidenhead. Braywick itself is noted as one of the earliest settlements in the Thames Valley area with evidence of mesolithic flintwork dating from at least 5,000bc and neolithic pottery dating back to 3340bc.

In the park itself, there is also evidence that a Roman road once ran through it. It has also been the location of 18th and 19th century mansion houses. In more recent times, mineral extraction took place here - once that ceased, the area was used for landfill before finally becoming a public park.

early part of the course [photos: 7t]

Braywick Park covers an area of 40 hectares and is largely used for sports. In fact, you'll be hard-pushed to find a sport that isn't covered here - there's an athletics track, football and hockey pitches, a gym, archery, and golf driving range. Maidenhead Target Shooting Club and Maidenhead Rugby Club are based here. You'll also find SportsAble, which is a sports association for disabled people, a play area and an outdoor 2012 Olympics outdoor physical activity area.

Adjacent to the sports fields is a 15 hectare nature reserve, which provides a range of habitats for wildlife. It also has an education centre, where the park rangers run a wide range of educational events. The eastern border of the park is flanked by a 23km long river called The Cut which rises in North Ascot and flows into the Thames.

Parking at the venue is quite straight forward as there is a fair-sized public car park next to the main vehicle entrance to the park just off Braywick Road. At time of writing, the car park is free-of-charge at the weekends. It is worth noting that there are a few different car parking areas in the vicinity, so you must make sure you park in the correct one.

early-mid lap [photos: 7t]

There is also an open space next to the parkrun meeting area which people were parking in, but it was unclear (to me) if this is part of the official car parking area or not (it's not mentioned on the Maidenhead parkrun page). The closest train station is Maidenhead and this is located just to the north of the park. For cyclists, there are bicycle racks adjacent to the main car park. There are also some toilets in the park and they are located in a building over near Maidenhead Rugby Club and the artificial football pitches.

The parkrun meeting point can be found by following the road to the left of Stafferton Lodge (Toby Carvery) right to the end. Stafferton Lodge is a mid-Victorian villa and is built on the site of the Staverton family's second home, which was called 'Little Stroud'. Their main home was called Stroud Manor and was located in Holyport (2 miles south of Maidenhead). William Staverton was one of the surveyors of Maidenhead Bridge.

At the meeting point you'll find the aforementioned 'open space' and a small hut/shelter thingy. This is where the participants and volunteers congregate pre-run. About 10 minutes before the start of the run, a very entertaining and informative 'new runners' briefing was held where the course was described in detail. For the record, buggy runners will be fine on this course but will need to be extra mindful of ankle-clipping at the pinch points / tight turns, especially near the beginning of the run.

mid-end lap [photos: 7t]

The main briefing took place and it was time to head off. The run starts in the 'sports fields' part of the park which is nice and wide, but after about 100-or-so metres all the runners must filter onto a much narrower path. This winds its way towards the nature reserve, which is where the majority of the run takes place. A sharp left-hand turn awaits the runners shortly after and the runners then reach the main loop which is run twice.

The rectangular-shaped loop of the nature reserve is run in a clockwise direction and is mostly firm underfoot, but in the winter it's likely to be splashy and a little muddy so I'd say trail shoes are better during the colder/wetter months. The far side of the loop is run adjacent to The Cut and at the end of this section there is a short two-way path across a bridge where you keep to the left. This is followed by a fiddly, twisty section which features a short, sharp uphill climb (great fun!). Apart from that, the entire course is flat and sheltered from the wind, so it is quite possible to run a fairly good time here if you're in the mood.

end of lap / path to finish [photos: 7t / nick baggott (official photographer)]

After two laps around the perimeter of the nature reserve, the runners break off from the loop and head back along the windy opening stretch until they reach the sports fields and the finish line where they can collect their finishing token. If you think you have run a personal best, pick up the PB bell and give it a ring! I didn't have to opportunity to do so because I had run at a fairly comfortable pace and stopped to take some photos on the way around.

I had my barcode scanned right next to the finish line before heading back into the nature reserve to have a little cool down, takes some photos, and to thank the brilliant volunteers out on the course. As mentioned above, I visited on New Year's Day 2017 a few of the marshals were wishing every single runner a happy new year, plus they were so smiley and bouncy - they really made my visit here very memorable.

finish [photos: 7t]

I had recorded the run using the Strava app on my phone and if you want to see the elevation data etc, you can view it all here: Maidenhead parkrun event 93. Being New Year's Day, there was no time to hang out with the team post-run as I had to dash over to Woodley, but on a regular day, I understand that they go to Stafferton Lodge (Toby Carvery) for a coffee and a chat. I hear the all-you-can-eat breakfast includes a 'breakfast yorkshire pudding', but be careful if you are vegetarian because they actually contain bacon.

I'd had a very enjoyable visit to Maidenhead parkrun, but it was now time to move onto Woodley parkrun for round two of my New Year's Day double. The official results were processed shortly afterwards and I saw that there had been 188 runners on-the-day of my visit, which is pretty much about the same as a regular Saturday morning parkrun here.

The Berkshire parkrun venues

The ceremonial county of Berkshire is made up of the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Wokingham.

The pins on the map mark the locations of parkruns within the county. The green pins show the venues I have officially visited while the red pins are venues that I still need to visit. The list below covers 5k events only, not junior parkruns.


 


Bracknell - Great Hollands Recreation Ground, South Road, Wokingham, Berkshire.
Course: 2 clockwise laps
Underfoot: Mixed terrain (grass / dirt / wood-chipped forest paths, tarmac)
Profile: Flat with a couple of gentle slopes
Notes: Worth a visit for the forest section alone 
Further reading: My Bracknell parkrun blog post


California Country parkrun - California Country Park, Wokingham, Berkshire.
Course: mixture of laps and an out-and-back (tbc)
Underfoot: Mixed. Dirt/mud, gravel
Profile: tbc
Notes:
Further reading: not visited

Dinton Pastures parkrun - Dinton Pastures Country Park, Wokingham, Berkshire.
Course: 2 anti-clockwise laps (not identical)
Underfoot: Gravel/stones and dirt
Profile: Flat
Notes: Beautiful views across the lakes
Further reading: My Dinton Pastures parkrun blog post


Maidenhead - Braywick Park, Maidenhead, Berkshire.
Course: 2 clockwise laps plus a start-finish tail
Underfoot: mostly hard surface - a little splashy/muddy in the winter
Profile: Flat, but with a very short, sharp incline which is run twice
Notes: run mostly in a nature reserve, features a section next to The Cut (river)
Further reading: My Maidenhead parkrun blog entry


Newbury - Greenham Common, Newbury, Berkshire.
Course: 1 single lap
Underfoot: Hardpack trail (gravel/stones) and tarmac
Profile: Mostly flat, some some very gentle inclines
Notes: Takes place on former site of RAF Greenham Common. Also has a Star Wars link.
Further reading: My Newbury parkrun blog post


Prospect - Prospect Park, Liebenrood Road, Reading. Berkshire
Course: Two laps
Underfoot: Grass
Profile: Generally flat
Notes:
Further reading: Not visited


Reading - Thames Valley Park, Reading, Berkshire.
Course: Lollipop (start/finish tail and two loops of the sweet part)
Underfoot: Towpath and gravel footpath
Profile: Flat
Notes: The land sometimes suffers from flooding
Further reading: not yet visited


Sandhurst Memorial - Sandhurst Memorial Park, Sandhurst, Berkshire

Course: small lap, then two large laps (course may change at times)

Underfoot: Grass, paths, and woodland

Profile: Flat

Notes: Buggy runners should consult the team before visiting

Further reading: My Sandhurst Memorial parkrun blog post

Upton Court - Upton Court Park, Slough, Berkshire.
Course: Two anti-clockwise laps (not identical)
Underfoot: Grass and tarmac
Profile: extremely gentle undulations
Notes:
Further reading: My Upton Court parkrun blog post


Woodley - Woodford Park, East Reading, Berkshire.
Course: 3 clockwise laps (lap one slightly different)
Underfoot: Grass and tarmac
Profile: Mostly flat, but has a short, sharp incline next to the lake
Notes: Earphones not permitted (or one earbud only) here due to safety reasons
Further reading: My Woodley parkrun blog entry

Please note: Information contained within the blog posts, such as the course configuration, parking arrangements, availability of toilets etc, may change. Please always check with the relevant events' web page and social media channels for the latest and most accurate information.

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