{"id":2851,"date":"2024-04-06T01:16:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T00:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2024-04-03T17:26:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:26:23","slug":"win-green-and-tollard-royal-wiltshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2851","title":{"rendered":"Win Green and Tollard Royal, 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=1220,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/> First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('WinGreen.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\/52863305387_50ab3c6b78_z.jpg\" title= \"Oak and bluebells, Rotherley Wood\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863305387_50ab3c6b78_s.jpg\" alt=\"Oak and bluebells, Rotherley Wood\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863305357_5be8b24d8d_z.jpg\" title= \"apple blossom, Tollard Royal\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863305357_5be8b24d8d_s.jpg\" alt=\"apple blossom, Tollard Royal\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864324363_a7574a2314_z.jpg\" title= \"track above Munday's Pond\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864324363_a7574a2314_s.jpg\" alt=\"track above Munday's Pond\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864324373_11776de192_z.jpg\" title= \"spring greenery and blossom above Tollard Royal\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864324373_11776de192_s.jpg\" alt=\"spring greenery and blossom above Tollard Royal\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864050499_ba10e7d205_z.jpg\" title= \"Skulls information pillar by General Pitt-Rivers's excavations, Rotherley Down\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864050499_ba10e7d205_s.jpg\" alt=\"Skulls information pillar by General Pitt-Rivers's excavations, Rotherley Down\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864324378_fd2f541512_z.jpg\" title= \"view from Ox Drove\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864324378_fd2f541512_s.jpg\" alt=\"view from Ox Drove\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863305407_5e9171ccb9_z.jpg\" title= \"Track descending to Ashcombe Bottom\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863305407_5e9171ccb9_s.jpg\" alt=\"Track descending to Ashcombe Bottom\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863888011_b23f8d4fd2_z.jpg\" title= \"Track descending through bluebell woods to Ashcombe Bottom\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52863888011_b23f8d4fd2_s.jpg\" alt=\"Track descending through bluebell woods to Ashcombe Bottom\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864274355_6c28f3cbb6_z.jpg\" title= \"Bluebells by the track to Ashcombe Bottom\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864274355_6c28f3cbb6_s.jpg\" alt=\"Bluebells by the track to Ashcombe Bottom\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864274360_6a0effe272_z.jpg\" title= \"King John Inn, Tollard Royal\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864274360_6a0effe272_s.jpg\" alt=\"King John Inn, Tollard Royal\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864274370_d8ab0bbfac_z.jpg\" title= \"track in Ashcombe Bottom\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52864274370_d8ab0bbfac_s.jpg\" alt=\"track in Ashcombe Bottom\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=2851','pwin','height=700,width=1200,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nA cloudy, murky morning over Cranborne Chase. The views from Win Green were all melted into muted greys. The topograph on the saddle of high ground hinted at the prospect: fifteen miles northeast to Salisbury, twice that to the Isle of Wight down in the southeast.<\/p>\n<p>Children skipped and tumbled down the steep slope towards the wooded Ashcombe valley. The sharp spring wind was soon shut away, and calm descended on the deep green cleft where the path ran edged with primroses, violets and pungent wild garlic in full flower.<\/p>\n<p>These woods of the Ashcombe Estate are a prime example of careful management and discreet signage. The vast hunting forest of Cranborne Chase, on whose borders they lie, was once a different affair \u2013 a tangled tract of deep forest where outlaws skulked and wild locals in straw helmets beat up gamekeepers and poached the deer.<\/p>\n<p>Down in Tollard Royal all was peachy, the snugly thatched cottages of flint and clunch, the gossipers on the benches round the village pond, all in a Sunday morning peace under steep valley slopes.<\/p>\n<p>We climbed over a ridge where spring lambs were busy butting milk out of their mothers\u2019 udders. In the cleft below the rains of late winter were drying, leaving Munday\u2019s Pond a soggy circle of nettles.<\/p>\n<p>Our path lay uphill, breasting a slope beside the old hazel coppice of Rotherley Wood. A marvellous sentinel oak, twisted, split and bow-backed, stood with its feet in a flood of bluebells, and the hazel stools themselves were circled by the sharp evergreen leaves of butcher\u2019s broom, another indicator of ancient woodland.<\/p>\n<p>Up on the back of Rotherley Down lumps and bumps in the turf showed where a Romano-British settlement was excavated in 1886-7 by local landowner General Augustus Pitt Rivers. \u2018Skulls\u2019, says the inscription on a modest pillar. \u20181 was brachycephalic, 3 were mesaticephalic, 6 were dolichocephalic, 3 were hyperdoliocephalic, one was uncertain\u2019. The General, father of modern British archaeology, remained an educator to his fingertips.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the settlement site we turned along the chalky white track of the old Ox Drove ridge road towards Win Green. The clouds had cleared, and the Isle of Wight lay blue and humped on an invisible sea far in the southeast, a view familiar to those residents of Rotherley Down two thousand years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\fHow hard is it? 7\u00bc miles; easy; downland and woodland tracks<\/p>\n<p>Start: Win Green car park, near Tollard Royal, SP7 0ES (OS ref ST 924204)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Tollard Royal (B3081) signed from A350 (Shaftesbury-Blandford Forum). At top of hill before Tollard Royal, follow \u2018Donheads\u2019, then \u2018Win Green\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Walk: Through gate at top of car park; follow path along fence and downhill. Follow \u2018Wessex Ridgeway\u2019\/WR and \u2018Footpath\u2019 signs through Ashcombe valley. In 1\u00be miles, hairpin back left (937185, \u2018Tollard Royal\u2019 fingerpost); in 50m right through 2 gates (WR); follow path with fence on right. In \u00be mile, just before Tollard Royal pond (945178), left over stile. (NB for King John Inn, right at road). From stile climb bank, at top, on through gate (arrow) along fenced path to stile (949181). Diagonally left down to gate (940184, Munday\u2019s Pond on left). Ahead on grassy track up slope beside Rotherley Wood. In \u2154 mile track enters wood; ahead through gate onto open down; Pitt-Rivers information pillar and excavations to right (950194). Opposite pillar, left through gate; right up middle of fields (arrows) to Ox Drove road (949205). Left; in \u00bd mile fork left (938206, \u2018Cranborne Droves Way\u2019), then right on chalk trackway. In \u00be mile, beside NT \u2018Win Green\u2019 sign, left (928207) up grass path to car park.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch\/Accommodation: King John Inn, Tollard Royal SP5 5PS (01725-516207, <a href=\"http:\/\/kingjohninn.co.uk\">kingjohninn.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Info: <a href=\"http:\/\/cranbornechase.org.uk\">cranbornechase.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cloudy, murky morning over Cranborne Chase. The views from Win Green were all melted into muted greys. The topograph on the saddle of high ground hinted at the prospect: fifteen miles northeast to Salisbury, twice that to the Isle of Wight down in the southeast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2851","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\/2851","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=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}