It never really struck me as a dangerous place, until we went to one of
the pubs in the high street. (Same with High Wycombe though)
It was the young underage drinkers stirring up the places. Not going to
mention the pub(don't remember the name) but it was halfway down the
high street.
I am 56 as was my friend. We got one pint and got the hell out. Very
confrontational kids aged 15-20.
I did notice that old familiar smell of John Courage brewing the beer
has gone away too. Sad.
When I was a kid, we lived in Wokingham, so Reading (or Bracknell) were
the places to go shopping.
We would park in that old Multi-story car park and the smell of the malt
boiling was intoxicating.
As for Farmers. They have told my wife and I to get off their land
several times. Granted, that was over towards Virginia Water way past WG
Park.
And perish the thought that you put a water bottle in their trash can.
You would have thought we had murdered their pooch !!!! ;-{
My mother lives by Widbrook common between Maidenhead and Cookham. THAT
is a beautiful walk. You can go from Bourne End to WIndsor without
hitting a main road. All fields and backwood trails. I miss it. In
Savannah you have to drive. The idea of sidewalks here is lost.
Perhaps this is why the overweight people numbers are so so so high here
in the south.
DT
Post by Simon ClubleyPost by David TurnerYeah, well, Reading is probably the most dangerous leg of all. I would
rather be attacked by goats, sheep, cows and farmers than the teenage
thugs hanging around Reading. Was there last year. Man how it has changed
[Oh, why not reply to this ? :-) It's not like there's a lot of other stuff
being posted.]
Goats I have no real experience with.
Sheep are docile and simply don't care about you unless you get really
close (2-3m) and then they just move away. Around here, there are villages
where the sheep and the humans share the pavements, grassy areas, and the
roads and the sheep simply don't care about the humans unless you get
_really_ close to them.
Cows are a different story and I would rather have to deal with teenagers
than a field of cows (especially cows with young hiding behind them),
although sometimes there's no choice because there isn't another viable
alternate route.
Farmers either tolerate you but mostly outright welcome you and actively
engage in discussion with you if you pass them by while they are working
on their land. Last time I had a real problem with a farmer (claiming there
wasn't a route across their land even though it was marked on the OS map)
must be about 10-15 years ago.
The only annoying thing about farmers is that they occasionally take
advantage of their right to place some kinds of bulls in fields which
have public rights of way going across them.
Simon.
PS: Reading doesn't exactly strike me as a hotspot of danger. :-)