Beating the Bounds

There is an ancient tradition of sending the youth of the parish off to walk around the parish boundary once a year. Since becoming Newbury Town Council 9 years ago, we have done it twice, the last time in the Millennium year, so Joyce and I though it would be good to do it again.

Sunday at 10am a good crowd gathered by the canal in the centre of town to set off under guidance of Dave Stubbs, ex policeman, current Town Marshall and local history enthusiast. We walked Westwards along the towpath until we came to the boundary, then followed it round to the South, up hill to Wash Common. En route we crossed the battlefield of the first Battle of Newbury of 1643, and Dave explained how tens of thousands of men happened to spend the day of 20th September that year spearing, shooting, stabbing and blasting each other till 5,000 lay dead. Apparently cannonballs and other detritus are still found at ploughing time in the surrounding fields.

We stopped for lunch at the Woodpecker pub, - a traditional stop off for those beating the bounds in the early part of the 20th century. I chatted to most of those on the walk, and was pleased to discover two couples who have only moved to Newbury in the last two months who came along to find out more.

We made our way as far south as St Gabriels school, and then headed back along Deadmans and Pinchington Lanes to Greenham before descending into Newbury town centre for a cup of tea in the Town Hall. It was a very enjoyable days walk (8 miles) and we hope to do the shorter Northern part of the boundary in the spring.