Ridgeway sleep-overs we used a combination of mainly local pubs with accommodation, small inexpensive hotels and our home for one night, as we live almost on the Ridgeway. None were actually right on the Ridgeway and ranged from justa few hundred yards to a 1 mile walk, in the case of Wantage we ordered a taxi to do the last 3 miles as the road down is too dangerous and at Nuffield we took the bus into the next village.
Lesley has been judging the best of Ridgeway walk list but here are the accommodation in order of stay. We must say that with the exception of the Cherry Tree, that has been up for sale for a long time, they were all excellent........in many different ways, bed comfort, food, ambience, convenience, breakfast.....its all very subjective. A walk-in shower, a lovely pub garden to while-away the evenings. From basic pub food to perhaps a touch too gastro in style. From small rooms to huge rooms. From busy pubs to those that were pleased to see us arrive. For ambience the John Barleycorn in Goring was a proper-pub atmosphere with excellent evening food and breakfast. The Rose & Crown in Ashbury was a gem of a pub too. Our first two nights in the Parkland Hotel, although not sumptuous rooms, was clean and excellent for food, service and location. The White Hart in Nettlebed, even though it was a large 'chain' type pub/hotel, we had a very nice room and was a busy restaurant with good food. Pub stops on the way were banned until the day before reaching home (2nd to last day) when we planned to dine and take a pint at The Plough at Cadsden. This is the only pub truly on the Ridgeway, as the trail passes right through the beer garden......nice it was too!
The Southdowns Way sleep-overs were somewhat different as we stayed each night at our static holidaycaravan in a beautiful park home besides the downs and near to Shoreham for our daily coach pick-up
