A further 50! Walk 33- 20/11/2022

A walk that I should have done slightly earlier in the season to have got the best leaf colour and somewhere I haven’t explored properly in a while.I headed for Woodstock with an aim to walk in Blenheim Park and combine it with visiting the Oxfordshire Craft Guild Winter Exhibition.

Not a good start – no spaces in the car park – whilst electric charging points are becoming more important it is frustrating when they are empty and there are no other spaces!!!

I continue along the road looking for somewhere to park – double yellow lines in abundance. Ultimately I find the secondary school and checking that there were no gates or barriers that might close before my return I pulled into a parking bay at the front of the school. Now for the trek back to the town and my ‘secret’ way in to the park. Well not actually a secret but a rather discretely signed Public Footpath which looks as if goes through somebodies private gate.

Bit of a confusion as it suggests on maps inside that some paths are closed but I still set off in an anti-clockwise direction, thinking there must be a way through to the path that cuts across the far end of the park as part of the Oxfordshire Way.

I start near to Queen’s Pool, walking at first close to the water and then branching away. Even if some of the leaves have left the trees it’s good to see their richness of colour and still evidence of autumn fungi.

I keep heading in a northerly direction but to my dismay come across rather persistent Harris fencing which bars my way forward. I have to admit defeat and double back to where I originally entered the park. A view of the monument through two lots of fencing which enclose a purpose built track – developed as a part of dredging the lower pool of the lake! This must be necessary but rather ugly!

So as if starting again I set off as if I had turned left from my entrance rather than right. Firstly past the little bridge which in my memory I should have found earlier but realised that’s because I hadn’t used the gate from the town . I head up towards that path, many more people around and I can see lots of cars parked on the horizon possibly visiting the house. I decide to walk around the lake not on the high solid path but cut down across the grass and get my first sight of the main bridge- an iconic bit of architecture with hidden rooms below water level! The main house is equally pretentious built for the Duke of Marlborough after he had won a series of battles but it’s grandeur was orchestrated by his wife, a close friend of Queen Anne.

I’m soon at the bridge and cross to the other side taking a path way down towards the main lake and my path which leads around the water whilst not being directly next to it.

Towards the end of the lake I spot a Great Crested Grebe and then chose to take the right hand forkas the path splits and I pass through a valley still showing its colour. I choose to continue on this track towards the northern end of the park until I reach the farm before I have to turn right and then take the long stretch back towards the monument. Unhindered this time by fencing. I make a vain attempt to capture the pheasant on a fence thinking it might make a good festive image but it didn’t oblige.

There is a real grandeur about this monument and its inscriptions round the base, with the two double rows of trees leading you down towards the house. All that was left for me now was to retrace my steps over the bridge and by the lower lake and leave the park by the town gate so that I could visit Craft Exhibition in the museum before refinding my car!