The Crossing,

in March 1982.

Where the rabbits crossed the Enbourne From chapter 7, 'The Lendri and the River':         'Immediately in front of him, Bigwig and Dandelion were staring out from the sheer edge of a high bank, and below the bank ran a stream. It was in fact the little river Enbourne, twelve to fifteen feet wide and at this time of year two or three feet deep with spring rain, but to the rabbits it seemed immense, such a river as they had never imagined. and from chapter 8, The Crossing: 'The top of the sandy bank was a good six feet above the water. From where they sat, the rabbits could look straight ahead upstream, and downstream to their left.... The bank did not stretch far in either direction. Upstream, it sloped down to a grassy path between the trees and the water.'

The Crossing is the moment when Hazel becomes the leader of his band of rabbits. It, like much of the book, is based on Adams's own WWII experiences, particularly in the Far East, where he had to cross many more fearsome rivers than this.

You are now standing on that grassy path and looking towards the sandy bank. You would have seen the rabbits looking perplexed had they been able to penetrate the years of undergrowth that has grown to cover on the bank top. They had to cross over here to avoid the large dog that was 'loose in the wood', a phrase that was to echo in Fiver for a long time. There were no handy bits of wood when I visited. Note the simple wooden bench placed for fellow Watership Down readers to rest on for a few minutes. The view downstream from the bank top looked rather like this:

This spot is the widest and thus the slowest flowing part of the Enbourne for a considerable distance. We did not cross here, it was too deep to avoid getting wet so we had to follow this bank downstream to the A34 road and cross over the bridge by the Swan pub (don't worry - it was closed). This road was a very serious bottleneck for traffic for many years. However a bypass has at last been built, after great environmental outcry, to relieve this road. It's route avoids all Watership Down sites and passes a long way to the West of here. The border between the counties of Hampshire and Berkshire runs along the Enbourne hereabouts. In these photos everything on the left bank is in Berkshire, everything on the right, Hampshire.

Upstream from the crossing