Midgham

MIDGHAM station is actually in Woolhampton, but was renamed Midgham station in 1873 because of the likelihood of confusion with Wolverhampton. Most people drive to Thatcham, because there is only a handful of parking spaces at Midgham station. It is a linear village, ‘big in land but not in people’ is how one resident puts it. There is a good food-lover’s pub called The Coach & Horses. You could buy a four-bedroom detached modern house for around £545,000.

Woolhampton’s main street has half-timbered houses along one side and modern equivalents along the other, built when the road was widened in 1931, with the River Kennet as a focal high point. The A4 and the railway thunder through, making it too noisy to hear people speak. There are several shops, a post office, five pubs, and a fine watermill. A four-bedroom timber-framed cottage on the A4 recently struggled to sell at £425,000.

County:Berkshire
London terminal: Paddington
Journey time: 58 mins
Season ticket: £3492
Peak trains: 2 per hour
Off-peak trains: 1 per hour