Great Western Coffee Shop

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/news/2022/october/improvement-works-begin-on-active-travel-route-in-west-berkshire/ (https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/news/2022/october/improvement-works-begin-on-active-travel-route-in-west-berkshire/)

I am not entirely clear where they mean "The stretch of traffic-free path starting at the southern end of Mill Road, Burghfield is being upgraded."

I would like to think it is the stretch that leaves the K&A tow path (just along from The Cunning Man PH) and joins Mill Road, which tends to be a quagmire in winter. Even better would be the stretch further west that then goes round the gravel pits, although I thought this was a private road.

Went out yesterday to have a look/ It is the section from the end of Mill Road round the gravel pits. Barriered off with a large puddle/lake in front of the barrier, I would expect it will still be there when the have done the work.

Interesting how you can always see new things. At the junction between Mill Road and Burghfield Road, just behind the Bridge Cafe (long closed) is this
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4306868,-1.0231364,3a,75y,136.57h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBxGXO7PU7eqx3v8uEy6HTQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4306868,-1.0231364,3a,75y,136.57h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBxGXO7PU7eqx3v8uEy6HTQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192)

Part of the GHQ Blue line of defences constructed during WWII. Going up and down Burghfield Road you easily miss, probably more concerned about not meeting a tipper, skip, or concrete lorry.

Interesting, Sid. I wasn't aware of this particular part of the defence. A couple of years ago I wrote an article for the West Berkshire Countryside Society's quarterly newsletter about visible military features on sites where the Society does environmental work. I included Bucklebury and Snelsmore commons and Sulham Valley, through which an anti-tank ditch was dug during WWII from Theale to the Thames in Pangbourne. Once the invasion threat had gone, it was filled in. Many pill boxes remain, and there are a few concrete "dragons' teeth" in the hedge alongside Sulham Lane, near Oaklands Farm. Not  a lane I care to walk along, though I see the occasional runner (though no longer the pony & trap that I came up behind several times some years ago).

And, as mentioned several years ago in the Coffee Shop, there's the pill box on the railway embankment close to the Roebuck Inn (as was) in Oxford Road, Tilehurst.