Great things to see and do from River Rapids busesOxfordshire
Ride the River Rapids buses from Oxford to Reading for fabulous car-free days out. Visit flowering gardens or ruined abbeys, award-winning museums and riverside pubs. Take a boat trip on the river, a ramble on the ancient Ridgeway or a stroll along the beautiful Thames Path. You could also set off from Reading, of course, which is only 25 minutes from London Paddington by train. Either way, there's lots to see and do along the way. Look out for spring bluebells in the roadside woods, ox-eye daisies in the summer fields, golden beeches in autumn and red kites circling overhead.
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1. Bus rides in Oxford
Car-free adventures in Oxford might start with an open-top bus tour of the ancient colleges, cobbled squares and gold-stoned streets. Students have been learning at Oxford since the eleventh century, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Today it also has world-class museums, towers with great views, markets and shopping centres, theatres and cinemas.
- When you’re ready to head out into the countryside, hop on one of two River Rapids bus routes to find all kinds of adventures.
- Bus X39 and bus X40 both run hourly to Reading so, between them, there are buses every half an hour. Both buses go past the university’s arboretum (see 4 below) and ancient Dorchester (see 5 below) and through the pretty market town of Wallingford (see 6 below).
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2. Boat trips on the Thames
In Oxford, both bus routes start round the side of the huge Westgate shopping centre, from Stop E3. Simply follow Castle Street beside the brick cliff of this newly-renovated mall with its shops and cafés to find the stop. Or catch your bus from outside Oxford Police Station on St Aldate’s near iconic Folly Bridge, which the buses cross before heading south out of Oxford.
- Folly Bridge is one of several places along these bus routes where you can take a boat trip on the Thames. Salter’s Steamers offer hourly short trips to Iffley Lock every day or longer cruises that take in picturesque Port Meadow with its waterbirds and grazing ponies.
- From Caversham Pier in Reading, take a River cruise under the town’s three bridges or a cream tea cruise past riverside villages and flower-decked Sonning Lock.
- You can also hire small craft like punts and rowing boats from these and other places along the river.
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3. Taste the Thames Path
The River Rapids buses are an ideal way to sample the Thames Path, a National Trail that follows the mighty River Thames for nearly 200 miles from its muddy source in the Cotswolds, through town and country, to Greenwich and beyond. Here are three varied sections of the well-signed route that you could walk in a leisurely afternoon, all with a well-earned pint or cup of tea by the river near the end. For anyone who would rather skip the hike, these waterside pubs and cafés near bus stops are perfect for relaxing.
- Folly Bridge to Iffley Lock (2 miles) Setting off from Folly Bridge, Iffley Lock and its unusual bridges are soon after the Isis River Farmhouse pub and you can cross them to visit the 12th-century Norman church at Iffley. To find the nearest bus stop, walk back to the pub and turn left through a gate just beyond it. Walk diagonally across Iffley Meadows and the bridges in the far corner to Weirs Lane. Turn left and left again into Canning Crescent – the stop is at the end. Look out for rare snake’s-head fritillaries in the meadows in April.
- Shillingford to Benson (1¾ miles) A short rural stretch with a bus stop at each end from a wisteria-hung village to a busy marina. At Benson, turn left just after the Waterfront café or continue to Wallingford.
- Benson to Wallingford (2 miles) Across Benson weir and along a sandy, willow-shaded path, this is another delightful walk. You could combine it with the previous one and end at the mock-Tudor Boathouse pub in Wallingford.
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4. Harcourt Arboretum
All River Rapids buses stop in the interesting little village of Nuneham Courtenay, with its pretty brick cottages, outdoor café-deli and resident peacocks. From the stop at the far end of the village, walk a few steps further (ignore footpath sign) and turn right through the gate into the grassy car park of Harcourt Arboretum. Best to book ahead for tickets, especially at weekends.
- With huge wildflower meadows, peaceful parkland, shady bluebell woods and a winding walkway through 90 different species of rhododendron, the University of Oxford’s arboretum is a green oasis just five miles south of the city centre.
- Wander past towering redwoods (some of the oldest in the UK) and banks of summer foxgloves or fiery autumn acers. Even in winter, there’s a path lined with holly trees and plenty of wildlife and there are new views from a bench at the top of Lime Wood towards Wittenham Clumps (see 5 below).
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5. Dorchester
The River Rapids don’t run through the heart of Dorchester, but stop instead on the main road close by. This ancient Roman town, once capital of England, is now a peaceful riverside village with a magnificent church. Don’t let the short walk put you off: there’s a pedestrian bridge to cross the main road if you’re coming from Oxford and a blue sign points the way from the bus stop to Dorchester village centre along a tarmac path and quiet country lane.
- A half-mile stroll from the bus stop brings you to Dorchester Abbey. St Birinus founded a cathedral here in the 7th century and the huge medieval church that remains has faded wall paintings, a lead Norman font and the stone effigy of a knight carved as if about to draw his sword.
- Look out on the abbey floor near the font for the moving memorial of Sarah Fletcher, who died in 1799 of “excessive sensibility”. The Great East Window has some delicate stone tracery and stained glass, much of which dates from the early 14th century.
- Two distinctive chalk hills close to Dorchester, topped with groups of trees and one with an iron age hillfort, are known as Wittenham Clumps. The painter Paul Nash, who painted these hills several times, described the landscape nearby as “a beautiful legendary country haunted by old gods long forgotten”. A beautiful 4½-mile walk from Dorchester and back takes in both hills and a walk along the Thames Path. From the top of both hills, there are incredible views across the countryside around.
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6. Wallingford
Ride back in time to this old market town with its 1950s-style railway, grassy castle mounds, and connections with fictional detectives in literature and on TV. The buses stop regularly outside Wallingford’s 17th-century Town Hall, with its stone Doric columns.
- Crime writer Agatha Christie lived and wrote her novels for more than 40 years in Wallingford and died at her home here, Winterbrook House, in 1976. She is buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s in nearby Cholsey at the far end of the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.
- This Victorian branch line now has steam and diesel-hauled trains, which run at weekends and during the holidays. The railway is just ten minutes’ walk from Wallingford’s Old Police Station bus stop.
- Wallingford Museum, which traces the town’s colourful history, has an exhibition dedicated to Agatha Christie called “At home with the Queen of Crime”, including rarely-displayed photos of her at Winterbrook. There’s also a display about Wallingford’s connections with ITV’s Midsomer Murders, filmed in Wallingford and nearby.
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7. Reading
Look out as the bus crosses Caversham Bridge into Reading for another spectacular view of the River Thames, with its boats, ducks, geese and drifting swans.
- The bus stops on Blagrave Street, a minute’s stroll from Reading Museum, with its own version of the Bayeux Tapestry, and a couple of minutes from Forbury Gardens.
- Presiding over this flowery green space in the heart of the town, the Maiwand Lion is a well-muscled sculpture of a snarling lion, commemorating soldiers who died in 1879 and 1880.
- Walk past the lion and bandstand to find the magnificent ruins of Reading’s medieval abbey, once part of one of the biggest royal monasteries in Europe, founded in 1121.
- Signboards dotted around the garden and ruins tell you more about the history of the area and even play you the sound of monks chanting, extracts from Chaucer or medieval rounds like the Cuckoo Song (the earliest manuscript was found here in the abbey).
- A few minutes along Kings Meadows Road, just the other side of the railway, walk past the Thames Lido to find the river again. A bridge across Caversham Lock, a few steps right along the Thames Path, leads to a weir. View Island, on the far side of this weir, is an extraordinary urban nature reserve, home to kingfishers, grebes, herons and woodpeckers. A carved wooden head is sunk in the reeds and ferns on the far side and families of ducks and geese paddle the placid backwaters in spring and summertime.
