South Swindon Wildlife Corridor

The idea of encouraging people to walk, and producing maps of the area isn't new, there are already a few circular walks in Swindon, there are some on the Swindon Travel Choices site, and also Ten Best Walks in Swindon produced by Total Fitness. There's a GPS cycling and walking routes site with some great photos. When Swindon was Thamesdown, there were Thamesdown Walks, although I can't find them on Google. Currently South Swindon Parish are looking at creating a country park wildlife corridor walk through some of our wonderful countryside in and around south Swindon. A group of six of us walked some of the proposed route recently to see what we thought about it, and what enhancements like benches and signage might be needed.
The walk starts at Shaftesbury Lake and goes to Coate Water, walking beside the lake and through the woods; one of the people in the group said, as we gazed at the splendour of the trees, 'I planted these 40 years ago', what a legacy to have.

 He also reminded me about the Thamesdown Walks.

 Amazing to think this part of Coate Water, on one side of the path wasn't wooded 40 years ago, and is now very wild, and a fabulous habitat for all manner of wildlife..

 From there we crossed Broome Manor Lane and walked along the path by the golf course, and walked over where the railway line used to run.

 In Casso's Wood there's a stone carved by Sarah Chanin , it was commissioned by Thamesdown Borough Council  as part of the Great Western Community Forest in 1992. The plaque above records that fact, and below here's the carved stone in it's woodland setting.

The inscription reads: 
Casso's Wood Planted January 1992 by friends in fond memory of Cassandra Clunies-Ross ecologist-forester 1965-1991 that her work to conserve woodlands here and abroad is not forgotten

 The spindle tree was looking fantastic a little bit further along the route

 We then turned right into the woods by Nationwide where the bridge goes left over the M4 and up Ladder Lane. We found the noise of the motorway was soon muffled by the trees.

 There's an overgrown pond in there a bit full of bullrushes which would benefit from some clearing.

 We then came across the Wish Hounds, they were originally seen by people as they drove along the M4, now obscured by trees. By clicking on the link above, you can read Angela Atkinson's blog posts about the Wish Hounds in lots of detail.

 If you click on the link, you can find many more photos of them, this is my favourite

 I think they're better in profile against the sky.

 The day was quite dull, and got even duller as we crossed Croft Road and walked beside Wichelstowe Country Park, or what will become the country park.

 There were 2 deer running through this bit of field, but it's not possible to see them.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon looking at the possibilities of creating a parish wildlife walk. It's a great thing to walk along with other people.