Summer in the UK is festival time! In the immediate run-up to the big Reading Festival (from 24 August), tiny Mapledurham village has just hosted an enjoyable food festival in the grounds of the 16th-century Mapledurham House – with everything from artisanal cheeses and locally produced rapeseed oil to Provencale rosé, South African biltong and the fruit scones I’m scoffing right this minute with butter and tea.
Going through Mapledurham lock, just one lock upstream from our “home lock” of Caversham in Reading, you can spy imposing Mapledurham House (building started in 1585) on the other side of the river – but you can’t easily get there. Though it’s fairly close to the centre of Reading town, its location is remote: access is via the rural road from Caversham to Goring-on-Thames. It’s directly opposite Purley, but there’s no direct connection; you can’t cross by the weir.
Sadly, according to our neighbours, we’re too old for Reading Festival. (And from the online photos of previous years, showing leggy 17-year-olds wading through mud in denim super-shorts and Hunter’s wellies, I can see what they mean.) But there’s nothing to stop us heading down by boat or dinghy to listen to the music, they add. This year, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers will be heading the line-up.
