{"id":531,"date":"2012-08-11T06:13:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T06:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=531"},"modified":"2012-08-11T06:43:26","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T06:43:26","slug":"cranborne-and-alderholt-dorset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Cranborne and Alderholt, Dorset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The view from Boveridge Farm was all you\u2019d want on a beautiful summer\u2019s day \u2013 the gentle swell of the Dorset Downs, the snaky blue line of a fence or chalky track cutting across the hill, trees throwing ink-black shadows along the hedges. <script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.onload = setupZoom; function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=790,width=1140,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script>First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Cranborne.gpx');\" 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><\/script><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8143\/7662470056_9a2230974c.jpg\" title='View from Boveridge Farm'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8143\/7662470056_9a2230974c_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8156\/7662421548_d07cd26136.jpg\" title='knapweed'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8156\/7662421548_d07cd26136_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7118\/7662419690_74440b01a3.jpg\" title='pigs on Cranborne Chase'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7118\/7662419690_74440b01a3_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8161\/7662418242_d0fa466f99.jpg\" title='pig arks, pigs and rooks'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8161\/7662418242_d0fa466f99_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8006\/7662416080_f2a8937b29.jpg\" title='Alderholt Mill'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8006\/7662416080_f2a8937b29_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8001\/7662410852_5019c87df6.jpg\" title='downland cornfield near Boveridge Farm'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8001\/7662410852_5019c87df6_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7121\/7662407302_4c469c8a86.jpg\" title='green lane to Stone Hill Wood'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7121\/7662407302_4c469c8a86_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8004\/7662403820_8f96dc304d.jpg\" title='green lane from Boveridge'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8004\/7662403820_8f96dc304d_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=531\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\nI stood admiring the prospect, then shifted my stance  &#8211; a couple of steps to the side for a new perspective. Now I could see a blood-red slash of earth across the tree-crowned hill, and the shadows had assumed the look of sharp-tipped tentacles, reaching out into the fields with a whisper of menace. Two paintings in an exhibition, both of the same subject, separated by fifty years and a generation \u2013 The View from Boveridge Farm, 1992, by Tim Nicholson, and Boveridge, painted by the artist\u2019s mother E,Q. Nicholson in 1943, at the height of the Second World War.<\/p>\n<p>Artists have been visiting and settling around Cranborne Chase for a century or more. Elisabeth Frink, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, Henry Lamb and various members of the arty Nicholson family are among those who found room to breathe and mighty inspiration in this great expanse of forest and downland at the meeting place of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. Salisbury and South Wiltshire\u2019s summer exhibition of the work of Cranborne Chase artists past and present, \u2018Circles and Tangents\u2019, set me off exploring the landscape around Cranborne, across the border in Dorset, that inspired the Nicholsons.<\/p>\n<p>Cranborne was an English idyll on a hot afternoon, with sun on the brick walls and children running home soaking wet from paddling in the River Crane. The cornfields began on the edge of the village, from where I looked back through a hedge gap over Cranborne\u2019s roofs, some red-tiled, some thatched, in their wooded bowl of ground. Up at Boveridge Farm tractors roared in dusty fields. I caught immediately what Nicholson mother and son had represented so magically \u2013 the essence of downland, a working landscape of dull gold barley, crop and stubble, beautiful but far from twee or cosy. <\/p>\n<p>A green lane packed with butterbur and the drooping purple bells of comfrey led me through Stone Hill Wood and on by Boulsbury Farm, a self-contained huddle of farmhouse and barns where mallow flowers grew through an old hay turner. In Stony Lane I got a wave from a girl in a red singlet at the helm of a giant new tractor. All the farming world was out and double-busy in this harvest weather; but at Alderholt Bridge all was cool and still, with the millstream gurgling under the nearby mill. <\/p>\n<p>Here EQ Nicholson lived during the war, entertaining the likes of Lucian Freud and John Craxton, and painting all she could see. Her picture The Stream at the Mill House showed willow branches reaching like fingers across the blue mill stream; Craxton\u2019s Alderholt Mill stood old and strong against a stormy sky, the wall of the mill race sinuating below. If I\u2019d been a painter I\u2019d have wanted to capture the scene here, too \u2013 red brick against blue sky, bottle-green water bubbling, and a proper sense of place.<\/p>\n<p>Start: Inn at Cranborne, near Wimborne, Dorset BH21 5PP (OS ref SU056133)<br \/>\nGetting there: Bus 97 (Dorset Community Transport),  Fordingbridge \u2013 Alderholt \u2013 Cranborne (0871-200-2233).<br \/>\nRoad \u2013 A338 to Fordingbridge, B3078 to Cranborne.<br \/>\nWalk: (8 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL22 and 118; detailed instructions &#8211;  essential! \u2013 more walks, online map: christophersomerville.co.uk):<br \/>\nFrom Inn at Cranborne, right along Wimborne Street. Follow \u2018Damerham\u2019. After 2 bends turn right down Penny\u2019s Lane (057134) past recreation ground. In \u00bc mile pass concrete trough and turn left (060133) up field edge and on for 350m to road (061136). Right for 40m; left through gates and keep straight ahead along track through Burwood for \u2154 mile to road (062145). Left; in 100m, right up path (fingerpost\/FP, yellow arrows\/YA). In 100m, cross stile (062147); left over gate; right up fenced path. At top, bear right to road (062150); right. Between barns, just before tree surrounded by staddle stones, left (064150) past Boveridge Farm. On (YA) along green lane.<\/p>\n<p>At gate into Stone Hill Wood, bear right (066156, YA) along wood edge. At top of rise, bear left (069155) and follow deeply rutted track. In 200m it becomes hard-surfaced track. In another 200m (072156) keep ahead (not right) at fork, soon descending. At T-junction at wood edge (074156), ahead through hedge. Left for 100m; right across field, up to stile in far hedge (077159, FP). Forward along track to pass Boulsbury Farm. Just past farmhouse, right at fork (079163). At Boulsbury Cottages (082162) fork left along tarmac lane. In \u00bc mile, round right bend; in another \u00bc mile road bends sharp left; keep ahead here (089161; bridleway FP; cycle trail blue arrow\/BA) in tunnel of trees. Cross road at Four Corners (093159, BA); on along Stony Lane under power lines for \u00bd mile.<\/p>\n<p>Arriving at Ashley Park Farm complex and stables (097153), left past Manor Farm House; on along lane for 600m. At T-junction (103154), right for 20m; left along hedge (FP) on path in tunnel of trees. At road (106155), right, and follow tarmac lane to Hill Farm. Pass farm nameboard; in 100m, right over stile (108155; FP, YA) and follow stiles and YAs. After 3rd field cross footbridge (109152); on along lower edge of next field with hedge on right. At post with YAs (110151), forward with hedge on right and stream beyond. At the end of this long field, ahead through hedge. Cross jungly bit to reach T-junction of paths (114148). Right (YA) and keep ahead between hedge and fence for 300m. At kissing gate (116146) fork right across field. Through chain-link stile, then the following kissing gate (118145)). Keep ahead (YA) through trees to road at Alderholt Bridge (120143). Right past Alderholt Mill. Continue along road (take great care!) for 300m. Pass Little Thatch on right, and take next right along farm drive (118140; \u2018No Through Road\u2019). Pass cottages at Alderholt Park (113133); on through High Wood for \u00bd mile to reach B3078 (112125). Left to Churchill Arms PH and bus stop (across road).<\/p>\n<p>Walk: Inn at Cranborne \u2013 Burwood (062125) \u2013 Boveridge Farm (064150) \u2013 Stone Hill Wood (066156) \u2013 Boulsbury Farm (079163) \u2013 Boulsbury Cottages (082162) \u2013 Four Corners (093159). Stony Lane \u2013 Ashley Park Farm (097153) \u2013 road at South End (103154) \u2013 Hill Farm (108155) \u2013 field path just to north of stream and lakes to Alderholt Bridge and Mill (120143). Alderholt Park (113133) \u2013 High Wood \u2013 B3078 opposite Churchill Arms PH, Charing Cross, Alderholt (112125).<br \/>\nRefreshments: Churchill Arms, Alderholt (01425-652147)<br \/>\nLunch\/accommodation: Inn at Cranborne (01725-551249; <a href=\"http:\/\/theinnatcranborne.co.uk\">theinnatcranborne.co.uk<\/a>) \u2013 very friendly place<br \/>\nCircles and Tangents Exhibition: Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum (until 29th September) \u2013 The King&#8217;s House, 65 The Close, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 2EN (01722-332151; museum@salisburymuseum.org.uk) \u2013 Cranborne Chase painters, sculptors, potters etc., past and present<br \/>\n Information: Fordingbridge TIC (01425-654560); Salisbury TIC (01722-342860)<br \/>\n<A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/\">www.ramblers.org.uk<\/A> <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.satmap.com\/\">www.satmap.com<\/A> <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.LogMyTrip.co.uk\/\">www.LogMyTrip.co.uk<\/A><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The view from Boveridge Farm was all you\u2019d want on a beautiful summer\u2019s day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}