Search Results : essex

Feb 232013
 

Wind and rain were set to bear down on the low-lying Essex countryside this morning. We clapped on all sail and scudded away out of Great Bardfield, stopping only to admire the handsome red façade of Brick House.First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Here in the early 1930s the artist Eric Ravilious came to live and paint the village and the subtly undulating farming country in which it lies. Anyone who walks these fields will recognise the modesty and honesty of Ravilious’s local landscapes, the way a fence or a row of posts draws the eye to the curves and lines of the land. Like the Impressionists, this lively and life-loving man found his inspiration in quiet countryside.

The warm red brick and half-timbered houses of Great Bardfield, the outlying farms and fields and stream dips, give an impression of timelessness. We followed a bridlepath east through broad Essex fields. At Great Lodge stood a square-sided, slit-windowed brick barn, built in the 1540s for Anne of Cleeves as part of her divorce kiss-off from King Henry VIII. Here Ravilious painted a Frisian bull, head lowered, chained by the nose in a memorable attitude of animal strength in human bondage.

In the margins of the beetfields big white swallow-tailed scarecrow kites jerked in the wind like shimmying ghosts. An intense sun turned distant trees into burning bushes of gold against a wall of slate-coloured storm cloud driving down from the north. The squall drove us to hide in a prickly hedge, then into the stable barn at Hunt’s Farm where we waited it out in the company of three politely inquisitive horses.

A red fox with a black-tipped tail went cantering off across the paddocks as we emerged. Beyond the farm the rest of the party, soaked through and chilled, set back to Great Bardfield. But I hadn’t yet had my fill of Ravilious country, and took to a skein of lanes hardly wide enough to admit a car. Between the dapple of brilliant sun shafts flickering through the hazels and the gleam of puddles it was hard to see my way.

The homeward path lay across meadows and under hissing poplars, below the white sails of Gibraltar Mill on its ridge and past the gently thundering sluice of Great Bardfield’s watermill, a coda to this walk through the countryside that so enchanted Eric Ravilious. The artist died on active service with the RAF in 1942, and his muted and intimate landscapes have subsequently gained a fame they never achieved in his short lifetime.

Start: Vine PH, Vine Street, Great Bardfield, Essex, CM7 4SR (OS ref TL675305)

Travel: Bus: Service 9, 10 (firstgroup.com) from Braintree.
Road: Great Bardfield is on B1057, between Finchingfield (B1053) and Great Dunmow (A120)

Walk (7 miles, easy, OS Explorer 195): Take road signed ‘Braintree’. Opposite church, left along Bendlowes Road (678303, ‘playing field’); immediately right (‘Bridleway’) on path among trees. Follow this (blue arrows/BA) for 1¼ miles (keeping ahead where track bends left for Bluegate Hill at 683299) to pass Great Lodge (695291). Continue to Park Hall. Don’t fork right through farmyard, but keep ahead (701287) with cottage on right. In 250m track forks right, but keep ahead past BA on electricity pole. At end of field (706287), left up hedge. In 200m, right through hedge (705289, BA); on to Hunt’s Farm. Right down drive to road (708289); left for 400m; at triangular junction, right (710292); in 400m, fork left (714293, ‘Redfants Manor Farm’). Follow lane past farm (714296); follow yellow arrows/YA past pig field on left. At end of field (711301), right for 30m; left through hedge and over wire (YA). Keep ahead (same direction) across field, then along its edge (709302) with plantation on right. Aim left of line of poplars and row of stables, and cross field to foot of lane at Ashwell Hall gates (707302). Cross lane and keep ahead along muddy track (YA). In 300m, fork left (705303), walking round edge of field on your left to reach road (703300) and turn right..

In 200m at junction (701302), Great Bardwell is signed to left, but keep ahead (‘Wethersfield’). In 600m, left at T-junction (698306; ‘Walthams Cross’); in 400m, by Chiefs Farm (695306), right past Whinbush Farm. In 350m, left over stile (694309, fingerpost, YA). Dogleg right and left round field edge; into next field (YA); across it, through hedge by stream (690309, YA); across next field and footbridge (689310, YA) into big field. Half right across field for 150m; at bushy reservoir tank (688311), bear more left (due east), aiming for electricity pole in a corner of the field. Just before you reach it, pass a YA in a hedge gap (686311). Ahead with hedge on left; across 2 fields, following electricity poles, to enter woodland strip by waterworks (682311; YA). On along next field edge (YA). At The Watermill, left at house (680311); in 50m, right past sheds and along green lane. In 500m, right across footbridge (676309, YA) to road; left into Great Bardfield.

Lunch: The Vine PH, Great Bardfield (01371-811822; thevine-greatbardfield.com)

Accommodation: Bucks House, Great Bardfield CM7 4SR (01371-810519; buckshousebandb.co.uk) – art-filled and comfortable

Great Dunmow TIC: 01371-872406/876599; visitessex.com

Ravilious In Pictures: A Country Life by James Russell (Mainstone Press)
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk
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 Posted by at 02:28
Aug 252012
 

On one of those peerless late summer afternoons we left our table by the stream in the garden of the Queen’s Head at Fyfield, full of potted shrimps. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Hath Essex anything to show more fair? White clouds rolled evenly across the gently swelling countryside of bean fields and pastures where small black cattle grazed intently. The path ran above ditches full of fluffy pink hemp agrimony, where comma butterflies displayed their tiger-striped wings with deeply scalloped edges. Lampett’s Farm lay backed in among its trees with red tiled roof, tall chimneys and whitewashed walls, a rural picture of perfection. The barley fields rustled in a rising wind, and pigeons scooted like Spitfires at unaccustomed speed before it.

In a tunnel of trees we found the Three Forests Way, an old green lane running broad and direct through the cornfields, past the weatherboarded barns at Green’s Farm and on by ploughlands where starlings and seagulls rose in their segregated flocks and wheeled, brightly lit by the sun against slate-grey rainclouds that were quickly running up on us from the west.

We hustled on into the shelter of Butthatch Wood and the path to St Botolph’s, the church in the fields. Branches weighed down with wild plums and bullace hung by the way, and we pulled handfuls of the sharp and succulent little fruits, yellow, scarlet and purple.

St Botolph’s stands solitary in the fields, sole marker of the original site of Beauchamp Roding village. How strange it is to find a large flint-built parish church, solid and stately, footed in the beanfields all alone. Inside, the massive old rood beam still spans the chancel arch, resting on two corbels with carved figures – one an angel with widespread wings, the other a jolly, if demonic, porcine lion (or leonine pig) with a squashed-in snout, some medieval mason’s bit of fun.

We moved on through cornfields edged with mauve drifts of mallows. In the hedges, blackberries hung intertwined with wild hops whose leaves and buds were sticky to the touch, pungent in the nostrils. At Shellow we passed fishing lakes where a young boy was in the act of landing a carp, his upper body strained tensely backward in counterbalance to the bow of his rod as the big fish flapped and splashed just out of reach of the landing net.

A last stretch beside the snaking River Roding, half choked with spikes of purple loosestrife, and a glimpse of a children’s tea party laid on a blue and white check cloth under a tree at Miller’s Green.

Start: Queen’s Head PH, Fyfield, Essex CM5 0RY (OS ref TL 570069)

Getting there: Bus 46 and 146 (Chipping Ongar – Fyfield) – harlowride.co.uk
Road: M11 Jct 27, A414 to Chipping Ongar, B184 to Fyfield.

WALK (7½ miles, easy, Explorer 183)
From Queen’s Head, right along B184 (‘Dunmow’). In 30 m, left (fingerpost/FP), diagonally left across field; left through hedge gap (569072; green arrow ‘Epping Forest Countrycare’/EFC). Keep hedge on right for 4 fields (stile, yellow arrow/YA) to reach a cross path by stile. Right (565072; EFC); then bear left through jungly bit to meet gravel byway (565075; ‘Three Forest Way’ on map, unmarked on ground). Left (red arrow), following byway for ¾ mile past Malting Farm and Green’s Farm to road at Claydon’s Green (566086). Dogleg left and right across road and on (FP) along hedge. Through next hedge gap; left, with hedge on left, aiming for right side of Butthatch Wood. In 150 m ignore YA pointing right; in another 50 m, right (567090, YA) to wood (569093); follow its nearer edge (YAs). At top end of wood, left (YA); in 50 m, right (570096) across 2 fields. Halfway across 2nd one, 100 m before barn, turn right (570100) on path; through hedge and on (YA) to B184 (574099). Left for 200 m; opposite end of road (‘Woodend’), turn right (576100, ‘St Botolph’s Church’) down stony lane to church (578097).

Return up lane. 150 m from church, right (578099; YA) towards pink house. At road, right (581099); in 50 m, left (FP) and follow field edge with hedge on left. In 500 m, at field end with footbridge on left, bear right (587098) across field, then on with hedge on left, aiming for 5 tall poplars in far hedge, with house on their right. Aim left of poplars, ignoring kissing gate on left, to YA post in far corner (589092). Pass it, and turn right along lake; through car park, past ‘Birds Green Fishery’ notice; follow drive to road (589089). Left to cross Shellow Bridge; immediately right (FP) along field edge with River Roding on right. Along right edge of copse (588088; YA); bear half left and follow posts and YAs for ⅔ mile across fields to road at Miller’s Green (589078).

Right for 200 m; at sharp right bend, ahead down drive (588077; FP). Keep right of house, with hedge between you and it, across grass, past YA and on. Bear round right side of field (Essex Way/EW); in 50 m, right across bridge (588075). Cross field to post; left to road (EW, YA). Left, round sharp left bend; right (586071, EW) across fields for 700 m to road (580068). Left for 50 m; right (FP), keeping left of house and following grassy path. In ¼ mile, dogleg right and then left (576070) through hedge (YAs). Pass some weatherboarded houses; cross EFC path (green arrow) and continue across River Roding (573070). On far side, 2 YAs; follow left-hand one, with hedge soon on your right. At road (571071), left to pub.

LUNCH: Queen’s Head, Fyfield (01277-899231; thequeensheadfyfield.co.uk) – deservedly popular village watering hole

INFO: Chelmsford TIC (01245-283400); visitessex.com
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

 Posted by at 07:40
Sep 032011
 

The River Stour in its serpentine windings, its floods and drought trickles, has smoothed out a beautiful shallow valley where Essex and Suffolk meet to stare at each other across their common boundary, the river itself.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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This is cornfield country, broad and gently undulating, well wooded and prosperous, where a pheasant’s life is uninsurable and the medieval timber-framed houses are lovingly and expensively restored.

The Henny Swan stands by the Stour, an old country pub now smartened up, the object of sunny afternoon boat trips from nearby Sudbury. We set out past handsomely thatched Henny Cottage and on up the lane to Middleton among the clustered, dusky yellow buttons of tansy. Young goldfinches with scarlet cheeks and crossed tail feathers bounced in the holly trees. Fields of wheat lay creamy gold under the sun, the crop coursing in matt and sheen before the wind. A landscape with a dip and swing to it, where rolls of straw from already harvested fields lay like giant cotton reels among the stubbles in fields whose headlands were blue with borage flowers.

On a tump near Middleton we halted and sat to take in the view down a valley of cut grass dotted with oaks, on over distant barley fields to the stumpy broach spire of Great Henny church on its ridge, the focal point round which this walk revolves. Pink blooms of centaury shook in the wind, and a young deer sprinted across the grass. A quintessentially English view, the sort you fight and die for.

A rutted old byway carried us southwest between hedges of field maple, hazel and elder, its sandy banks burrowed by rabbits into miniature landslips of orange ochre. At The Ryes a little scarlet George V postbox leaned in the hedge, framed in brambles but freshly painted. This is carefully warded and kept countryside, the hedges newly planted with quince and whitebeam, the field headlands left unploughed as seedbeds for wild flowers.

‘Come and help yourselves!’ invited a woman picking greengages and plums from her hedge in Great Henny. We walked on with mouths full, down by Fenn Farm with its vociferous (but friendly) dogs, by Twinstead with its Victorian fantasy church. On across the barley, round by Great and Little Hickbush, and down again to the dreamily winding River Stour and the beer garden of the Henny Swan.

Start: Henny Swan PH, Henny Street, Sudbury CO10 7LS (OS ref: TL879385)

Getting there: A12 to Colchester, B1508 to Bures, left (‘Lamarsh’, then ‘Sudbury’) to Henny Street.

WALK (6½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 196):
Leaving Henny Swan PH, left along road (Sudbury direction); in 100 m, left (‘Middleton only’). In ¼ mile, on right bend, left (875386; ‘bridleway’). In 300 m, by footbridge, right (875383, yellow arrow/YA) along field edge. In 300 m follow it to left; in 70m, right (872384) to meet St Edmund’s Way (868385). Right (YA). In 150 m, keep forward (‘Stour Valley Path’, YA) for 700 m to top of rise. Left on public byway (868393, red arrow) for ¾ mile to road by cottages (859385). Right to T-junction (858384); left for 500 m; by ‘Great Henny’ sign, left (858380) up Old Rectory drive (fingerpost). In 150 m, at gate, right (859380, ‘bridleway’) to road (861378). Left; in 400 m, pass side road (‘Church’); on next bend, right (fingerpost) down Fenn Farm drive. Keep right of house (864374; raucous dogs, but not unfriendly!), on downhill between hedges, past YA at bottom (ignore). Ahead for 250 m to T-junction of paths (863372). Left (blue arrow), on under 2 sets of power lines. Just before road at Twinstead church, left (862367, YA) on grassy track. At hedge end, on across field. In ¼ mile pass pylons; down slope, through bushes; left along hedge, through gap (870368). Right with hedge on right, round field edge to road (873369). Left; cross stream; in 100 m, right (873371), following field bank and power lines to Great Hickbush Farm. By farm hedge, left to drive (878371); left to road (874374). Right; round right bend; in 200 m, left (876377; fingerpost) across field to road (875382); right to Greathouse Farm and valley road (880382). Left to Henny Swan.

LUNCH: Henny Swan PH (01787-269238; www.thehennyswan.co.uk)

INFO: Colchester TIC (01206-282920; www.visitessex.co.uk)

Coast Along for WaterAid, 10 September: 250 sponsored UK coast path walks! www.coastalongforwateraid.org www.LogMyTrip.co.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com
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 Posted by at 04:44
Mar 052011
 

‘Is it really Essex?’
Jane’s amazement was easy to understand. Essex just isn’t associated with scenes like this. Thatched, colourwashed, timber-framed houses line Ashdon’s village street; the River Bourn courses dimpling under diminutive brick bridges; gentle farmlands rise all around.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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A place that wears its ‘Best Kept Village’ trophies up on its walls, with pride, for all to admire. Go to the Thames Estuary shore of Essex to have your prejudices confirmed (or challenged – but that’s for another walk); but come to the north-west corner of England’s most maligned county to have them scattered to the four winds. Here are rolling green hills, catkin-laden copses and delectably-situated medieval hall houses enough to delight any country walker with all five senses alert.

Children’s shouts drifted from the village school playground as we climbed past beetfields with flapping scarecrows to the crest where Ashdon windmill raised its white sails. Crossing the ridge to walk the descending field path into Steventon End, we gazed ahead at what must be the most perfect juxtaposition of two houses in all Essex – the beautiful half-timbered Tudor house of Ashdon Place, pink-washed, sheltered under a wooded slope; and beyond it the mellow red brick Waltons, its ranks of windows flashing back the sun, every inch an early Georgian country house, but with an Elizabethan hall buried inside it.

The way led through the Waltons parkland, where drifts of winter aconite with yellow hairdryer hoods and ruffs of green grew under the trees. Six chestnut foals watched us with wary curiosity from a paddock. Out among huge wheat and bean fields, their hedges white with old man’s beard, we crossed the wide roof of the hill and came down by Bowsers End with its farmhouse standing quiet among willows.

Back in Ashdon’s little sub-hamlet of Church End we found the lumps and bumps of a former village abandoned at the time of the Black Death, its remnants a couple of old cottages and a crooked, timber-framed old Guildhall. Here stands All Saints, one of those rural Essex churches cobbled together over the centuries out of bricks, flints, timber chunks, blocks of limestone. A splendid mishmash with round porthole windows on high, the whole building a bit skew-whiff and out of kilter. And in one of the south windows a few fragments of delicate, ancient glass – leaves and flowers, angels’ faces, wings, hands, and a wight with mournful countenance and golden, curly hair.

Start & finish: Rose & Crown, Ashdon, Saffron Walden CB10 2HB (OS ref TL 587421)
Getting there: Bus: Four Counties Buses (01799-516878;
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk) Service 59 (Haverhill-Clavering)
Road: Bartlow, then Ashdon, signed from A1307 Cambridge-Haverhill at Linton

Walk
(5½ miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 209): From Rose & Crown take
road opposite (‘Radwinter’). In 200m, left up Kates Lane. In
100m, left (fingerpost); at top of bank bear right past bench
(589421; yellow arrow/YA) and follow YAs (Harcamlow Way on map). At
next bench don’t turn right; keep ahead to Ashdon Windmill
(595425). Left along road. Don’t take first 2 paths on right (black
fingerposts); keep on round bend and turn right on path (concrete
fingerpost) diagonally across field, aiming to left of buildings
below. Cross road in Steventon End (593429); up drive (fingerpost),
past Waltons house and on. Through shank of woodland; at its end,
sharp left (591434; no waymark) on bridleway along its north edge.
Cross road (584432; NB blind bend! take care!). Down lane
opposite; follow it for ½ mile. Opposite Aulnoye, left (580437,
‘bridleway’) up wood edge and on for nearly a mile to Bowsers
End. Sharp left here (568431, fingerpost) along broad footpath. In ⅔
mile pass woodland; through gate; in another 150m, left over
footbridge (577424, YA). Cross stile; aim half left for bottom left
corner of wood; cross stile with waymark here (579423). Up steps to
lane; right; at top of hill, right (581422; fingerpost) past cottage
and along farm track. In 50m, left through hedge (YA); right along
field edge past Hall Farm to road (580417). Cross; down lane to All
Saints Church (581415). On far side of church pass to left of
Guildhall; bear left past gate. In 20m, left at crossing of paths;
follow fence past east end of church and on to gap in hedge (582415).
Diagonally left across big field to far bottom corner (585418). Left
to road by village museum; right to Rose & Crown.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch:
Rose & Crown, Ashdon (01799-584337); Ashdon village museum (tea and WI cakes!)
Ashdon village museum (01799-584253): Open 2-5; Sun, Wed, BH Mon, Easter to end Sept; Sep-Christmas, Sun only.

More info: Saffron Walden TIC (01799-524002); www.visitessex.com
www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.com

 Posted by at 01:02
May 022009
 

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Coastal Essex is full of subtle magic. Last night I’d stood out in the moated garden of Wicks Hall farmhouse at midnight, listening to a nightingale fluting from a nearby thicket. This morning it was the chaffinches’ turn to be heard. The lime trees around the village lockup in Tollesbury’s square were loud with their short, explosive proclamations of spring. I ducked into St Mary’s Church to admire the famous ‘swearing font’ with its inscription:

‘Good people all I pray take Care

That in ye Church you doe not Sware

As this man Did.’

After levying a £5 fine on John Norman in 1718 for drunkenly shouting and cursing during a service, the Tollesbury churchwardens use the money to buy a new font and deliver a sermon in stone at the same time – a nice touch of rustic pragmatism.

In the village street cocks crowed from back yards. A saw whined in a workshop. A whiff of sawdust and resin floated from Adrian Wombwell’s boatbuilding shed. ‘Out exploring?’ enquired a dog walker. ‘Enjoy the day, mate!’

Down on the edge of Tollesbury saltings, a fine row of wooden sail lofts stood sentinel. Once they held the drying sails of huge Jumbo class racing yachts; nowadays small businesses fill their resonant interiors. Beyond them a dash of scarlet in the drab carpet of the marsh showed where the old Porthcawl lightship lay in retirement. Halyards chinked, black-headed gulls swore like John Norman in their screechy voices, and a breath of salt came up Woodrolfe Creek on the wind.

I walked the sea wall all morning and never saw a soul. Hares bounded away across the level grazing marshes. The reed beds along the dykes were alive with bunting chatter, and lapwings creaked and tumbled like bundles of rags over the fields. At Shinglehead Point the ribs of an ancient wooden vessel lay in the mudbank like fish bones. Across the wide Blackwater Estuary the square box shape of Bradwell nuclear power station sat squat on the flat horizon, the least significant item in all this open landscape today.

Out at The Wick I found the remains of Tollesbury Pier, a few old wooden piles with their feet in the Blackwater. There were great hopes of establishing a resort here when the pier opened in 1907 – trippers from Clacton, yachts from London, a packet steamer to the Hook of Holland … Nothing came of it. The pier legs rot gently; grass and thistles smother the trackbed of the Kelvedon, Tiptree & Tollesbury Pier Light Railway.

Where could you find a more peaceful and solitary walk on a bright, blowy spring morning? Yet Piccadilly Circus lies less than an hour away.

 

Start & finish: Tollesbury village square, CM9 8RG (OS ref TM 956104)

Getting there: Bus (www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk) – plenty of services, e.g. 91 from Witham, 92 from Colchester

Road: A12 to Kelvedon, B1023 to Tollesbury

Walk (7 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 176): With your back to church, turn right out of square along B1023. Ahead at bend along Woodrolfe Road to sail lofts (966107). Detour: gravel path behind leads to lightship. Opposite Tollesbury Sailing Club, right up steps (fingerpost) along bank. Pass marina; at 3-way fingerpost (969103), left along sea wall path for 4 and a half miles. Pass Left Decoy (961084); in another quarter-mile, bear right inland (958083) along farm track past Bohuns Hall (956099) to Tollesbury.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch: King’s Head PH (01621-869203) or Hope Inn (01621-868317), Tollesbury

Accommodation: Wicks Manor, Witham Road, Tolleshunt Major, CM9 8JU (01621-860629; www.wicksmanor.co.uk)

More info: Maldon TIC (01621-856503); www.visitessex.com

 Posted by at 00:00
Nov 042023
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
rustic waymark on the lane to Fishpond Bottom old crab apple tree, Lambert's Castle view over the Vale of Marshwood The Vale of Marshwood 1 The Vale of Marshwood 2 Holloway from Roughmoor ford Beechmast crunchers at Roughmoor

A grey and blowy day across the Dorset coast and the deep-sunk Vale of Marshwood. Up at Lambert’s Castle the beeches thrashed and hissed, shedding their leaves downwind like flocks of birds.

A steep path took me down the fields to Roughmoor, where a sow and her three pink-and-black piglets were blissfully crunching up the beechmast fallen from the trees. They snorted and grunted and raised their snouts hopefully as I leaned on their fence, but I had nothing in my pockets to add relish to their feast.

Marshwood gives the impression of great depth and remoteness, a green mosaic of woodland and sloping pastures that Thomas Hardy would recognise today. At Roughmoor Cottage a splashy ford led to a holloway rustling with bracken and hart’s tongue ferns.

Up at Higher Stonebarrow the wind roared in the beeches that held the hedge-banks together with the grip of their root tangles. A basso profundo moan came from the high tension cables that crossed the valley. But once down in the squelchy green lane beyond Sheepwash Farm I was walking far beneath the rumpus of the gale. At the ford below Little Coombe the swollen stream gushed freely among horsetails and filled my boots, one of the myriad waters that once filled the carp pools dug by medieval monks at Fishpond Bottom.

A network of old cart tracks threads through Marshwood Vale. I saw no-one as I followed the sunken path to Little Combe and Great Combe, isolated farmsteads on green slopes under the grey sky. A glimpse of the roofs of Charmouth lining their cliff gap to the south with a wedge of wind-whitened sea beyond. Then I turned up straggling Long Lane to cross the earthworks of Coney’s Castle.

Two Iron Age hill forts, orientated south-north, dominate the eastern flank of Fishpond Bottom – the modest rise of Coney’s Castle, and to the north the bigger stronghold of Lambert’s Castle on its long slim promontory.

I’d just finished re-reading Bernard Cornwell’s sword-slashing King Arthur trilogy, ‘The Warlord Chronicles’. Romantic fantasy was irresistible here on the windy ramparts. I strode them like a warrior, wolfskin cloak flying free, sword in hand, as I prepared to repel the Saxon hordes massing in Marshwood Vale below.

How hard is it? 5¼ miles; moderate. Some boggy green lanes, fords.

Start: Lambert’s Castle car park, near Lyme Regis EX13 5XL (OS ref SY 367987)

Getting there: Off B3165 between Marshwood and Raymond’s Hill (A35)

Walk (OS Explorer 116): Back along drive. In 100m, opposite gate on left, right down path. Cross B3165 (366988); down steps; kissing gate; half left down to gate (365989). Right down drive. At Roughmoor Cottage cross ford (363991); up holloway to Higher Stonebarrow. Left up drive; at start of road, left (357990; gate with red dog notice). Bridleway bounded by hedge, then walls to cross B3165 (360987). Stile. Down right edge of field to cables; follow them left to green lane (363983). Right; in 50m, left (stile); right along upper edge of woodland on right. In 250m at telephone pole (363980), sharp left down through trees to road (364981); right. 50m past Sheepwash Cottage, left (364977) along wet green lane to Little Coombe Farm. 100m beyond, right (369975) for ⅔ mile past Higher Coombe and Great Coombe farms to Long Lane road (373968). Left for ¾ mile to Peter’s Gore crossroads (371981). Ahead (‘Marshwood’); in 20m, right past Lambert’s Castle/Wessex Ridgeway signs. North across Lambert’s Castle for ½ mile; at northern edge (372991) turn back along western rim to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Hunter’s Lodge, Raymond’s Hill EX13 5SZ (01297-33286, hunterslodgeinn.co.uk)

Info: marshwoodvale.com

 Posted by at 02:53
Oct 282023
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Looking west from the foot of the North Downs 1 Looking west from the foot of the North Downs 2 Looking west from the foot of the North Downs 3 Looking west from the foot of the North Downs 4 Looking west from the foot of the North Downs 5 Looking west from the foot of the North Downs 6 chalk crown commemorates 1902 coronation of King Edward VII homeward path through the stubble fields near Withersdane The Devil's Kneading Trough view from the North Downs Way over the Kentish Weald

What a perfect ideal of a village Wye encapsulates, with its charming red brick and whitewashed houses round the village green, its post office, sports field, pubs, shops, surgery and public conveniences, all tucked under a beautiful corner of the North Downs.

The Church of St Gregory and St Martin is a building of shreds and patches, odd corners and uneven walls that reflect its many collapses and rebuildings over the centuries. Beyond the church we found the North Downs Way arrowing through the fields towards the steep, tree-topped rampart of the Downs, where a huge chalk crown was cut high in the downland turf in 1902 by Wye College students to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII.

Hops still hung like pale green lanterns in the hedges, sticky to the fingers. A jay swore among the tangled hazels and clattered off, leaving one sky-blue feather to float gently to earth. We climbed a chalky path up through the trees to emerge at the top of the downs with a remarkable prospect spread out across the flat wooded Weald of Kent. To the south, distant views of Romney Marsh, Dungeness power station buildings and the tiny shapes of cargo ships in the English Channel; to the north a silver-grey strip of the Thames, with the Essex shore a knobbled blue line beyond.

We strolled the upland path, absorbed in this South Country panorama. A handily placed bench gave a vantage point over the steep sides and narrow flat bottom of the Devil’s Kneading Trough, a coombe carved out of the chalk downs by Ice Age freezing and melting of water.

The Devil seems to have taken quite a fancy to this part of the world. Following the homeward path through the stubble fields at the foot of the downs, we passed near the cottage at Withersdane where the holy well of St Eustace still whelms. A local woman swollen by an evil dropsy once drank its waters in hope of a cure. She immediately vomited forth a pair of black toads that changed into hellhounds, then demonic asses. When sprinkled with holy water from the well, they shot into the sky and disappeared.

How hard is it? 5½ miles; easy; downland tracks and field paths.

Start: Wye village car park, Gregory Court, Wye TN25 5EG (OS ref TR 053468); or Wye railway station, Bridge Street TN25 5LB (048469)

Getting there: Train to Wye
Road: Wye is signposted from A28 (Canterbury – Ashford)

Walk (OS Explorer 137): Left along Bridge Street; in 100m, left along Churchfield Way. In 500m left through churchyard to NE corner (055469); up path by allotments. Cross road (056470), up Occupation Road (‘North Downs Way’/NDW). Follow NDW (road, then path) across road (066468), up hill into woods (069469). At top of climb (blue arrow on post points ahead) (070469), but fork right here. In 500m cross Crown Field (072466), then road (077457). Follow NDW through trees, then at edge of open downs. In ¼ mile pass Devil’s Kneading Trough coombe (078454); in 600m reach waymarked post with 2 arrows (081450). NDW keeps ahead, but go sharp right downhill through kissing gate. At bottom, right along road (072449); right at fork (075450, ‘Wye’); in 200m, left through hedge (074451, fingerpost) on path across fields. Cross road at Silks Farm (065460); at road near Withersdane Hall, ahead (060462); at next bend, ahead on path (060463). At road in Wye, ahead (055466, New Flying Horse inn to right), to station, or next right to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: King’s Head, Church Street, Wye TN25 5BN (01233-812418, kingsheadwye.co.uk)

Info: wyeheritage.org.uk

 Posted by at 01:10
Dec 092022
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Thorncombe near Forde Abbey Farm footbridge over Stonelake Brook near Thorncombe fungi on the Monarch's Way near Thorncombe IMG_5264 flooded gravel workings at Westmills Plantation rain approaching parkland near Forde Abbey IMG_5255 bushy hollow near Thorncombe near Thorncombe

The old wool-trading and lace-making village of Thorncombe lies up and down its sloping street, a handsome huddle of old cottages in a steep, remote piece of countryside where Dorset tips over into Somerset.

The sun was finally groping its way through the clouds after days of miserable rain. The fresh wind and brilliant autumn colours of the woods put a spring in our step as we followed the rim of the deep ferny cleft of Stonelake Brook.

The Monarch’s Way led north through pastures where the wet grass polished our boots for us. Flints underfoot crunched and crackled. Off on our left side the church and houses of Thorncombe sloped down their hillside, framed by oaks and beech trees in wind-tattered gold and scarlet.

Down at Synderford bridge we picked up the Jubilee Trail and followed it north across the red mud squelch of rain-swollen brooks and the broad clover leys on Chitmoor. Devon Ruby cattle grazed the fields at Wheel House Lane, the sturdy little bull inspecting the females with close solicitude.

A screeching chorus of pheasants arose from a maize field as we neared Forde Abbey, where the last of the afternoon was slanting across the old monastic buildings. The view down the drive from the ornate gates was of a surf of pink, white and purple cyclamen along the lime avenue leading away to beautiful gardens and fountain pools.

Just beyond Forde Abbey the meanders of the River Axe mark the Dorset border. We crossed the bridge into Somerset and turned west through lush river meadows dotted with fine old cedars. Along the river, the pink blooms of Himalayan balsam opened their spotted throats to release a spicy fragrance. We edged round a deep gravel pit, pushed our way through an elephantine jungle of maize nine feet tall, and skirted the empty yards of Forde Abbey Farm.

Now the sun made a belated return, streaking the sky with patches of blue and fringing the clouds with a sharp lining of silver. Lemon yellow beech leaves scuffed under our boots as we came past Whistling Copse and turned for home.

A great view of rolling country to west and east, and we were crossing Thorncombe’s cricket field where goldfinches in a flicker of wings were gobbling up the grass seed laid on the pitch by the groundsman in hopes of a perfect surface for next summer’s opening match.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; easy; field paths. NB GPS and OS Explorer map are helpful for route-finding.

Start: St Mary’s Church car park, Thorncombe, Dorset TA20 4NE (OS ref ST376034)

Getting there: From Crewkerne (A30, Chard-Yeovil) follow ‘Forde Abbey’, then ‘Thorncombe’.

Walk (OS Explorer 116): Path through churchyard to road; left to junction at chapel (376032); right uphill. In 100m pass ‘Old Alley’; left (375032, fingerpost/FP). At stile, ahead (yellow arrow/YA); in 2nd field, stile (377027, ‘Liberty Trail’) through trees. In 200m, sharp left on Monarch’s Way/MW (377025) to pass Yew Tree Farm (383031, ‘Wessex Ridgeway’). At road, right (380035).

At Synderford sign, left (382037, FP, Jubilee Trail/JT), skirting water treatment plant. Cross brook; bear right up field slope with hedge on right to gap (380037, JT). On by hedge, following JT waymarks to cross brook in trees by stepping stones (376041). Left up hedge, left through hedge at top of bank (375043); right to kissing gate/KG. Follow right-hand hedge; in 200m, right (374045, KG); left up hedge. In 200m, left with hedge on left (374047); follow JT to Wheel House Lane (371048).

Left; opposite Thorncombe turning, right (366047, FP, JT) across fields to road (362053). Right past Forde Abbey gates, across River Axe. Left (362054, ‘Horseshoe Road’). In ½ mile, recross Axe (356051, YA). Follow Liberty Trail/LW and YAs clockwise round gravel excavation at Westmills Plantation (354050). Cross road (355046, ‘Forde Abbey Farm’) across field. Skirt to right round Forde Abbey Farm buildings (357042); follow farm drive. At fuel tank fork left (363037, blue arrow) across field to Horseshoe Road (366037). Right (LT). In 200m bear right along hedge (366036, FP). In 650m path descends and bends right; left here (368030, stile) to stile in conifer hedge (370030). Across recreation ground to cross road (371031), then more fields (YAs) to Thorncombe.

Lunch: Bell Inn, Winsham TA20 4HU (01460-30677)

Accommodation: Haymaker Inn, Wadeford, Chard TA20 3AP (01460-64161, thehaymakerinn.co.uk)

Info: Chard TIC (01460-260051); fordeabbey.co.uk

 Posted by at 16:52
Feb 192022
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
neolithic ramparts of Hambledon Hill Hambledon Hill from the valley at Shroton 1 Hambledon Hill from the valley at Shroton 2 looking back over Shroton from the path to Hambledon Hill looking back to the walled track from Hambledon Hill the ramparts of Hambledon Hill 1 the ramparts of Hambledon Hill 2 walking up onto Hod Hill ramparts of Hod Hill looking into the valley from the ramparts of Hod Hill

Some call it Shroton, others Iwerne Courtney. Whatever about the name, it’s a pretty little village of chalk, flint and thatch that lies among the undulating downland of Blackmore Vale.

Snowdrops spattered the hedge roots and daffodils were still hiding their waxy yellow petal heads as we set out from the village up a white chalk track streaming with the morning’s rainfall. Huge gunpowder clouds came rolling up from the southwest across a sky of pure blue.

A yellowhammer with a sulphurous head was practising his spring flirting with a drab female in a bramble bush, and larks went up singing from the sheep pastures. There was a hint of spring in the air, though not in the wind, still wintry enough to bring tears to our eyes.

Soon the massive ramparts of Hambledon Hill came over the skyline. Neolithic people mounded them round the long L-shaped crest of the hill, and crossed them with linking causeways, a vast undertaking 5,000 years ago. Human skulls were ceremonially laid at the bottom of the ditches.

We walked the circuit of the ramparts among sheep remarkably white and healthy-looking after a winter on the hilltops. Through smooth green pastures far below curved the River Stour, its course marked by patches of flooding.

A hailstorm came pattering across as we turned south along a field track, the ice pellets bouncing off the grass and piling up in the ruts. We ducked into a barn and waited out the shower among bales of straw, then followed a rollercoaster path steeply down and sharply up again to the heights of Hod Hill.

It was the Durotriges tribe that walled in this hilltop, some two thousand years after the earthworks were raised on Hambledon Hill across the valley. The invading Romans chased the Durotriges away in 43 AD after a brief bombardment with ballistae – several of these iron catapult bolts have been found up here.

We crossed the plateau through Roman and British ramparts, both sets of fortifications still prominent on the ground. Beside the path at the far side of the hill grew hazels heavy with catkins, and scarlet shoots of dogwood.

Down in the valley below we turned for home along a rutted track, walled with brick, flint and hard chalky clunch. A buzzard wheeled overhead, the edges of its wings silvered by a sun already sunk behind the rim of the western hills.

How hard is it? 6 miles; moderate hill walk; downland tracks and field paths
Start: St Mary’s Church car park, Shroton, near Blandford Forum, Dorset DT11 8RF (OS ref ST 860124) – £1 honesty box for parking
Getting there: Bus X3 (Shaftesbury – Blandford Forum)
Road – Shroton/Iwerne Courtney signposted off A350 (Shaftesbury to Blandford)
Walk (OS Explorer 118): Right along road; left (‘Child Okeford’); in 100m, left (859126, stile, ‘White Hart Link’ /WHL, ‘Wessex Ridgeway’/WR). Track uphill; at gate, right (WR). In ⅔ mile at trig pillar, right (848123), anticlockwise round Hambledon Hill ramparts. Back at trig pillar, ahead; in 250m, ahead at fingerpost (849120, ‘Steepleton Iwerne’). In 900m right at barn (855116); down to cross road (855112). Through gates opposite; up track; in 150m fork right (855111) up to gate (NT- ‘Hod Hill’), Half left across Hod Hill for 700m. Through outer ramparts (858103); left on lower path. In 250m, right through gate (860105, NT); left on track down to road (861111). Follow WHL for 1 mile back to Shroton.
Lunch: The Cricketers, Shroton DT11 8QD (01258-268107, thecricketersshroton.co.uk)
Accommodation: The Fontmell, Fontmell Magna, Shaftesbury SP7 0PA (01747-811441, thefontmell.co.uk)
Info: shroton.org; visit-dorset.com

 Posted by at 04:32
Dec 042021
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
leaving Sydling St Nicholas along the rutted path of the Wessex Ridgeway Norden Hill from the River Frome valley 2 winter shadows in the lane near Cattistock Norden Hill from the River Frome valley 1 wintry fields near Maiden Newton view west from Wessex Ridgeway toward Frome Valley looking back east over Sydling St Nicholas 2 looking back east over Sydling St Nicholas 1 Sydling St Nicholas church rustic fence by Sydling St Nicholas churchyard teasels by the path to Sydling St Nicholas muddy lane to Sydling St Nicholas path up Middle Hill Lankham Bottom and the flank of Middle Hill 1

Sunk deep in the green downland valley of the River Frome lies Maiden Newton, a sprawling village, with its church tower upstanding yet far below the skyline. Dorset dialect poet William Barnes caught the scene in his poem ‘The Fancy Feäir’:

‘The Frome, wi’ ever-water’d brink
Do run where sholvèn hills do zink,
Wi’ housen all a’cluster’d roun’
The parish tow’rs below the down.’

We found the brink of the shallow, gravel-bottomed River Frome well watered, and well muddied too. It was a squelch and a splosh up the riverside path to Cattistock. Sir George Gilbert Scott designed Cattistock’s church with a remarkable tall tower. It beckons you into the crooked street of the village that William Barnes called ‘elbow-streeted Catt’stock.’

Cattistock has kept its village amenities intact – church, post office, cricket field, Fox & Hounds inn, and an active pack of fox hounds. We heard them give tongue from their kennels as we headed east up the chalk grassland slopes of Lankham Bottom.

The low angle of the winter sun made relief models of the field boundaries on the downs, their shadows stark against the green slopes. The tattered old hawthorns that marked out the path were in full crimson berry, and mistle thrushes dashed among them like busy Christmas shoppers, never pausing for more than a moment.

Up at Stagg’s Cross we braved the rushing traffic tide of the A37, then sauntered along a forgotten old strip of road where moss grew through the tarmac and down across the pastures to where Sydling St Nichols unravelled along its watercress stream.

Ancient Court House Farm and tithe barn lay together alongside a church guarded by fat-cheeked gargoyles choking on their waterspouts. As we sat in the church porch a terrier came wriggling up, very keen to find out what was in our sandwiches (it was ham and mustard).

The Wessex Ridgeway hurdled us back across the downs, a broad and muddy old track in a sunny green tunnel of trees that rose to the ridge and fell away west towards Maiden Newton. The western sun turned all the clipped hedges to gold, and over the invisible sea beyond the hills to the south a strong clear coastal light silvered the base of clouds slowly building out there.

How hard is it? 8½ miles; easy downland tracks; some muddy and puddled stretches.

Start: Maiden Newton railway station, Dorchester DT2 0AE (SY 598979)

Getting there: Rail to Maiden Newton; Bus 212 (Dorchester-Yeovil)
Road: Maiden Newton is on A386 (Crewkerne-Dorchester)

Walk (OS Explorer 117): Down Station Road; left at junction. In 100m, right past church; left (597979, ‘Wessex Ridgeway’/WR, ‘Frome Valley Trail’ fish arrow waymark). In ¾ mile, right at road (590988); in 650m under railway; left at junction (592993). In 100m, left (‘Macmillan Way’); fork left in Cattistock churchyard; ahead up street. Just beyond Post Office, right by Rose Cottage (591998, ‘Staggs Cross’); follow bridleway to pass Manor Farm. On up Lankham Bottom; in 700m by metal gate on right, half left (604000) past post, up slope to gate (606002). On to gate onto road (612005); right to cross A37 (613004). Follow old road; left at junction (620002); in 600m, right (626001, gate with shackle) across 2 fields; left along farm track (628998). In 200m, right (630998, stile) to junction (630994); keep ahead; in 100m, right (kissing gate, ‘Breakheart Hill’). Left down east end of church; cross stile; right on track for 550m to meet Wessex Ridgeway (627993). Left; follow WR for 2 miles back to Maiden Newton.

Lunch/Accommodation: Fox & Hounds, Cattistock DT2 0JH (01300-320444, foxandhoundsinn.com)

Info: Dorchester TIC (01305-267992)

 Posted by at 01:52