Hidden Gems: South Stoke

By Andrew Adie

South Stoke is a place of gentle pleasures, your kids aren’t going to thank you for taking them there and you’re unlikely to get many ‘points’ from your mates when you regale them with tales of walks by the Thames and drinks in quiet pub gardens. But if you like that kind of thing it’s bliss.

Located between Goring and Wallingford in the South Oxfordshire countryside, South Stoke is a pretty village which lies at the point where the Thames Path and Ridgeway National Trails converge. It offers scenic paths along the young Thames or trails up into the Chilterns making it a perfect spot for walkers, runners of cyclists.

You can also hire canoes or a boat at Wallingford and Goring and drift along the Thames, passing underneath Moulsford Railway Bridge, whose gravity-defying spiraled brick structure was designed by Isambard Kingdon Brunel (probably another point not to mention to your mates or children).

Lunch and drinks at the Perch & Pike or a trip to nearby Hailey to visit the King William IV provide traditional pub food with outside space and the chance to watch Red Kites soaring through the sky. Perfect for a late summer / autumn escape.