Day 2 & 3 - Mortimer to Worting

We started Day Two by taking the bus from Reading to Mortimer (30 minutes) before we started walking. The walk from Mortimer to Worting on the outskirts of Basingstoke is 13 miles (the guidebook suggests you do it in one day) and we decided to split the Day Two walk into two shorter days' walk as it was very easy to get back to Reading on public transport from various points. However, the St James' Way guidebook suggests this as a one day walk.  

We walked from Mortimer to Bramley, crossing into Hampshire, which was just 6 miles and got the train back to Reading from Bramley (15 minutes). Just south of Mortimer is Silchester Roman City Walls - well worth a detour. We finished at St James' Church (1160) in Bramley and then walked about a mile back to Bramley Station (Basingstoke-Reading line). 

Another day, we then got the train back to Bramley to start the next section of 7 miles to Worting. Pamber Priory was a lovely place in which to stop. Next to the church of St Thomas of Canterbury in Worting we got the local bus (76) to Basingstoke Station and then home to Reading.