Southmoor to Standlake walk

Southmoor to Standlake

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Distance: 10.3 miles.
Time without long breaks: 5 hours, but add time for the many pubs.

Terrain: Easy.
How to get there and back: Get a train to Oxford, then catch an S6 bus from Frideswide Square (by the station) to Latton Close, Southmoor. To return, catch a bus from outside St Giles Church, Standlake, to Witney, then the S6 bus from Market Square back to Oxford.
Pubs: The Blue Boar at Longworth, the Maybush and the Rose Revived at Newbridge, the Red Lion at Northmoor and the Harcourt Arms at Stanton Harcourt. There are plenty of pubs in Witney on the return journey, such as the Beekeepers, or just catch the bus straight back to Oxford.
More information: At the time of writing, buses from Standlake the short distance to Witney stop running about 7pm (weekdays). Buses from Witney to Oxford run very late, so no need to worry about missing connections. Check Traveline for up-to-date info. There are a lot of great pubs on this walk, but some (such as the Red Lion in Northmoor) may be closed in the afternoon, so check for opening times.

This walk through the level countryside west of Oxford takes you to scenic Cotswold villages – such as Stanton Harcourt, with its old church, manor house and Pope's Tower – and includes sections that run along the banks of The Thames and between tranquil fishing lakes. There are some great pubs along the way. It was initially devised as a means of getting to the difficult-to-access Devil's Quoits, an atmospheric re-erected stone circle surrounded by mineral works on the edge of a lake. Definitely worth a visit if you love your ancient monuments and haven't been before.

Exit Oxford station and walk down the approach road to the roundabout. Cross over the road to the bus stop on Frideswide Square and catch an S6 Gold bus to Southmoor. Buses during the week are every 20 mins and take apx half an hour. The stop to alight at is Latton Close. When you get off the bus, there is a Co-Op opposite if you need to stock up on supplies. Head west down the street. After a short distance you will see the Waggon & Horses pub on your right. Take the passageway just before the pub (Wagon Place), by a T-junction sign. This becomes a path that runs between houses. It leads to a footbridge over the A420. Cross over, follow the path round and carry on up Harris's Lane on the other side towards the village of Longworth.

Past the copse, continue on the path which runs along the left edge of a field. You emerge via some trees and a swing gate onto the banks of the Thames. Turn right towards the signpost and cross over the wooden bridge to follow the Thames Path. After a little while you will see a stone bridge over the river ahead. As you approach it, you will reach a gate and a wooden bridge that lead directly into the beer garden of the Maybush pub. On exiting the pub, turn left to cross over the bridge, which was built in the 13th century and was the scene of a Civil War battle. It has a one-way traffic system and passing places for walkers.

Head up the side of the field under the electricity wires and, when you reach the corner, go through the gap in the bushes. Turn right when you emerge and follow the path along the bushes. You will soon meet a wider track. Turn left and follow this track, which leads to metal gates onto a lane. This is Standlake Road. Take a right here and walk along the lane into the village of Northmoor. In the centre of the village you will find the lovely Red Lion pub. Just beyond the pub is the church of St Denys, which has 13th-century wall paintings and some carved corbel heads. Proceed up Chapel Lane, which is opposite the entrance to the church.

Take this track. When you near the next field you will see a metal gate ahead. Rather than go through this, take the path which runs between the fence and the hedge (warning: this was very overgrown when we last walked it!). You emerge over a small bridge and through a hedge at a bend in a farm drive. Walk straight ahead in the same direction up the lane and then, when it swings right a short distance further on, head straight ahead across the field to join another lane. Turn left and follow this track round until it passes a house and then eventually emerges at a T-junction by a barn conversion. Turn left into Steady's Lane, which leads to the village of Stanton Harcourt. When you reach the main road by a thatched house turn right to walk into the village.

If you have time, it's worth taking a little detour to wander up to the village green. If you do, return the way you came back towards the church. Opposite the church drive is the Harcourt Arms. We recommend having a break here before the walk to Devil's Quoits (the name Stanton Harcourt, incidentally means 'place by the stones' – with the addition of Harcourt, after Robert de Harcourt established the manor here in the 12th century). On leaving the pub, head back down the road past the old manor buildings and then take the path on the right at the bend, next to a thatched cottage. Follow the path between the buildings. It runs alongside a fence with the backs of houses on the other side and then emerges at a new housing development.

The henge is thought to date from the late Neolithic period. It had been damaged over the years from the construction of the RAF airfield and gravel quarrying, but was restored in the early 2000s, when the stones were re-erected. Although it is surrounded by local industry, it still retains something of an ambience. Leave the stone circle via the wooden gate by the info board, following the path between trees until you emerge at the small Devil's Quoits car park. Turn left and follow the road past some industrial works until you reach a small low office building opposite some trees. Turn right past the building towards a gate, but rather than go through it follow the track that runs alongside a workshop.

When you come to the end of the road, turn left and then right by a house into Cow Lane. Follow Cow Lane round the corner and just after the village noticeboard and a postbox, turn right into Tuck's Lane. Just down here on the right you will find the Blue Boar pub. You are only a mile into the walk and it might still be early in the day, but this place looks so inviting it's difficult not to stop off here. Continue down Tuck's Lane until it ends at a T-junction. Turn left, and then right up a grassy track that runs between bushes. This leads to the copse at Harrowdown Hill, which has a rather grisly and tragic connection as this is where the body of weapons inspector David Kelly was found in 2003.

On the other side of the bridge, hiding behind willow trees in a lovely old building, is another riverside pub – the Rose Revived. It has a garden terrace by the river frequented by peacocks. When you leave the Rose, head up through the car park parallel to the road. On reaching the lane, you will see a small metal swing gate opposite and a footpath sign. Take this well-trodden path diagonally across the field. You arrive at an odd-looking wooden bridge and a stile. Cross over and follow the path through the trees. It emerges at another field. Head across in the same direction, proceeding via a gap in the trees into a field with an electricity pylon.

The lane passes some houses and allotments. When you reach the entrance to Mount Pleasant Farm on your left, take the path opposite by a house. This goes through a field leading to a small gate. Follow the path as it runs between fishing lakes. You can see the lake on your left, but it is sadly fenced off. After the lakes end, cross a stile into some trees and then go over another into a field. The path enters trees again, and then crosses a stream via a narrow wooden bridge to arrive at the hamlet of West End. Turn left and walk along the lane. After about 300m, you will come to the gated entrance to a house on your left, with a pair of metal gates opposite it on your right. Just beyond this, also on your right, you will see a track running alongside a hedge.

Just past a sharp right-hand bend there is what looks like a row of old houses but are actually part of Harcourt Manor, a medieval manor house. Just beyond this, on the right, is the lane to the church. Here are the 'three towers' of Stanton Harcourt: the tower of St Michael's church, the Old Manor Kitchen, with its octagonal roof (separate from the main house), and Pope's Tower. The latter two can be seen from the churchyard. Pope's Tower was built in the 1400s but is named after the poet Alexander Pope, who stayed at the house centuries later. In 1718, Pope wrote an epitaph to a young couple from the village who died after being struck by lightning (see panel below). The epitaph can be seen on a memorial on the south side of the church.

Proceed along the path past the houses with a recreation area on your right. Where the housing development is now used to be the site of a World War II airfield (its roads - Lancaster, Wellington and Halifax - are all named after bombers) and there are some remnants here of its former usage. After the row of houses end, on the right you will see a small metal swing gate, with a footpath post alongside it. Go through the gate and bear right, walking away from the houses. In a short distance, you will come to another gate on your right. Go through this and turn left down a path that runs just inland from the edge of a lake. After 450m, just past a lifebuoy station, turn left through a gap in the bushes and go over a stile to reach Devils Quoits stone circle.

The track goes around a bend before straightening out and running along the edge of fields. It turns right and then left and then crosses the River Windrush via a footbridge. After going over the bridge, bear right across the field, heading towards a small car park. Go through the car park (or take the bridge on the right) and then turn left along a track that runs between two lakes. This track emerges via a bridge at a road on the edge of the village of Standlake. Turn right. In 100m you will come to St Giles' Church and the bus stop. From here, you can catch a No 15 or No 19 bus to Witney, which has good connections back to Oxford.

The poet, critic and writer Alexander Pope, who stayed at Stanton Harcourt from 1717-18, is famed for his use of the 'heroic couplet' and is known for many well-known phrases and idioms that are still in everyday usage (behind Shakespeare, he is the second most-quoted author in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations). These include 'to err is human, to forgive divine', 'damning with faint praise', 'a little learning is a dangerous thing' and 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread'. 'The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' is also a Pope-ism. As a guest of Lord Harcourt, Pope resided in the tower in the grounds of the manor while finishing his translation of Homer's Iliad (he had previously been living with his parents in Chiswick, in the building that is now the Mawson Arms pub). He must have struck a strange figure when he arrived in the village. Beset by ill-health, he had Pott disease which gave him a hunchback and stunted his growth (he was only 4' 6" tall).

While residing at Stanton, Pope was moved by the story of two young lovers, John Hewit and Sarah Drew, who were struck dead by lightning while haymaking in the summer of 1718. According to Pope, the two were discovered 'John with one arm about Sarah's neck, and the other held over her face, as if to screen her'. They were buried in one grave and Pope wrote their epitaph, which can be seen at the church. Some villagers saw the deaths as a sign from God that the unfortunate couple had been committing carnal sin. Pope's inscription makes it clear, in bold, they were contracted to be married and describes Sarah as a 'virtuous maiden'. After leaving Stanton, Pope returned to Chiswick, but his translation of Homer while in the tower made him enough money to move out of his parents' pad the following year and to build an elaborate villa with a grotto in Twickenham. KB

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Southmoor to Standlake

Click on the image below to access the full map on plotaroute

Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond

Click on the image below to access
the full map on plotaroute