Since the locking of the car parks that sort of trouble has stopped. The local kids could be a pain down at Lemons Hill big car park, sitting on the nitrous canisters.
I was getting out of the car, putting gear into the swim (which about 2 weeks ago was under water), although there is another quite sloped swim in the car park cut since.
I also used to park down the lane by the White Horse and go 2 swims to the left, about 200 metres. The first swim was a snag pit, the remains of the old road from Tattingstone to Stutton, I've put up a pic so you can see.
You now have another car park, entrance by the layby and houses on Lemons Hill, so that keeps walks short.
The longest walk I had was The Wonder Car park and going left to the end of the bay on the far side.
Birchwood can be a pain, but although I fished it a few times, never caught carp in the area.
I never found it busy on any day of the week, although there might be a few people fishing, you never felt like they were close. The only thing I would say is try to reduce background on any pics you put up, or don't let everyone know you are catching.
There were a few problems with lure anglers casting over lines (Eastern European) which put me off, and got me in trouble when I spoke out about it.