{"id":2136,"date":"2020-10-31T01:07:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T00:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2136"},"modified":"2020-10-26T19:32:12","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T18:32:12","slug":"great-wishford-grovely-wood-wiltshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2136","title":{"rendered":"Great Wishford &#038; Grovely Wood, Wiltshire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=740,width=1230,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/> First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Wishford.jpg');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394704572_34efc3cbb2_z.jpg\" title= \"50394704572 view over Wylye Valley from Hadden Hill\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394704572_34efc3cbb2_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394706137_90aa651602_z.jpg\" title= \"50394706137 track to Great Wishford from Grovely Wood\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394706137_90aa651602_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845783_8fd634b27e_z.jpg\" title= \"50393845783 distorted lime tree trunk in Grovely Wood\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845783_8fd634b27e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394535346_f929458192_z.jpg\" title= \"50394535346 emerging from Grovely Wood above the Ox Drove\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394535346_f929458192_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394705482_941593a493_z.jpg\" title= \"50394705482 field path towards the Ox Drove\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394705482_941593a493_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394705357_2800064ebe_z.jpg\" title= \"50394705357 swirling shapes of the fields that flank the Ox Drove\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394705357_2800064ebe_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845333_335a07c6ea_z.jpg\" title= \"50393845333 The Ox Drove ancient trackway 1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845333_335a07c6ea_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845233_bdeac8473e_z.jpg\" title= \"50393845233 path from the Ox Drove towards Grovely Wood\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845233_bdeac8473e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845098_e502814b77_z.jpg\" title= \"50393845098 Above Penning Bottom\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50393845098_e502814b77_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394704752_e964bb5514_z.jpg\" title= \"50394704752 view over Wylye Valley from Hadden Hill 2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/50394704752_e964bb5514_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2136\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=2136','pwin','height=700,width=1000,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nThe first knockings of autumn were making themselves heard in the whistle of cold wind and rustle of falling leaves along the Wylye valley.<\/p>\n<p>From the creeper-hung Royal Oak at Great Wishford we followed a flinty track up a downland spine between stubble fields, the view opening out over the steep scrubby slopes and curving valley of Penning Bottom. Tiny green and orange crab apples, as hard as marbles, lay across the path, and the banks of the sunken lane were scarred with pale grey chalky spoil and showers of white flints kicked out by burrowing rabbits.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead on the ridge lay the long dark bar of Grovely Wood. Great Wishford\u2019s relationship with this ancient piece of forest is long-standing. The village enjoys the right every 29 May, Oak Apple Day, to gather wood from Grovely, a custom that can only be upheld through a ritual entry of the villagers into Salisbury Cathedral for the purpose of shouting \u2018Grovely, Grovely, Grovely \u2026 and all Grovely!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Grovely is a beautiful wood of sweet chestnut, hazel, oak and handsome specimen conifers. Fine old beech trees, well spaced, form glades where little else grows, and there was a cool and solemn atmosphere as we traversed these green, cathedral-like spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Two ancient ways twist through Grovely Wood \u2013 a ridgeway that might have been used as a thoroughfare for as long as 7,000 years, and Grim\u2019s Ditch, a defensive earthwork built by Iron Age Britons. Norsemen, coming across the earthwork nearly 1,000 years after its creation, named it after Grimr, their conception of the Devil.<\/p>\n<p>At a place where ancient ridgeway and demonic ditch entwined, we left Grovely Wood and descended into a valley of billowing ploughland, where yet another of Wiltshire\u2019s ancient tracks, the Ox Drove, ran a snaking course. A much-weathered milestone in the verge bore witness to the importance of this old byway to riders and coach travellers of bygone days. We puzzled out its eroded lettering: \u2018VI Miles from Sarum \u2013 1759.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>We found a path between fences where stonechats perched, wheezing \u2018wheesh-chat! wheesh-chat!\u2019 Their dark heads and white canonical collars gave them a rather severe air, offset by their cheerful buff waistcoats.  <\/p>\n<p>Back through the murmuring trees of Grovely Wood, and down a long flint track towards Great Wishford, its thatched roofs and chequered flint-and-freestone walls cradled in a tree smother of red, gold and green.<\/p>\n<p>Start: Royal Oak PH, Great Wishford, Salisbury SP2 0PD (OS ref SU 078355)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Bus 2A (Devizes-Salisbury)<br \/>\nGreat Wishford is signed from A36 (Salisbury-Warminster) at Stoford<\/p>\n<p>Walk (6\u00bd miles; easy, downland and woodland tracks; OS Explorer 130): From Royal Oak, under railway; right up track (\u2018Public Bridleway\u2019). In \u00bd mile at gate (070353), ahead along fence. In \u00bd mile enter wood (062351), bear left along inner edge, follow track for \u00be mile to road (055344). Right; in \u00bd mile at edge of wood, fork left (048341, No Through Road, Monarch\u2019s Way, blue arrow). In \u00bd mile at Grovely Farm, left (044335); fork immediately right along wood edge. In 600m leave trees (046329), ahead to valley bottom; left (047327) along Ox Drove track. In \u2154 mile at junction, left (057324, \u2018Restricted Byway\u2019); in 20m, left at milestone for 2\u00bd miles \u2013 up fenced path, through Grovely Wood, down to Great Wishford. Under railway (080351), left; right down South Street to church (081355); left to Royal Oak.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Royal Oak PH, Great Wishford (01722-790613, <a href=\"http:\/\/royaloakgreatwishford.com\">royaloakgreatwishford.com<\/a>) \u2013 open all day, Thursday-Sunday<\/p>\n<p>Accommodation: The Old Post House, Great Wishford SP2 0NN (01722-790211, <a href=\"http:\/\/theoldposthouse.co.uk\">theoldposthouse.co.uk<\/a>) \u2013 cosy B&#038;B, Covid compliant<\/p>\n<p>Info: Salisbury TIC (01722-342860), <a href=\"http:\/\/visitwiltshire.co.uk\">visitwiltshire.co.uk<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/satmap.com\">satmap.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/ramblers.org.uk\">ramblers.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first knockings of autumn were making themselves heard in the whistle of cold wind and rustle of falling leaves along the Wylye valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}