Walks

Viewing events from February, 2016

Morning Walk

Feb. 24, 2016, 9:45 a.m.

Peter's morning walk from Petersfield  via Hangars Way to Steep and Bedales School

 

On 3 May Samuel Pepys wrote 'Took coach to Petersfield. Here my wife and I lay in the room the Queen lately lay at her going to France'  (probably wasn't The Premier Inn next to MacDonalds..)

Day Walk

Feb. 17, 2016, 9:45 a.m.

Jeff's walk will be in Alice Holt Forest, near Farnham.

Seven miles no stiles, nettles and little mud! 

Alice Holt Forest, Rowledge and Holt Pound

 Rowledge Village website

According to "The Way We Were - a Social History of the Village of Rowledge"by Flora Westlake, the village was once called "Rowditch", renowned for fights between local youths across the ditch that formed the Surrey /Hampshire border. In Victorian times, the name changed to "Roughditch" and had the reputation of a generally lawless place.  The nearby Vicar of Wrecclesham, in an effort to bring more "supervision" to the area convinced the Bishop of Winchester, who's diocese covered the whole of the area, to establish an ecclesiastical parish.  The Government agreed to help and donated two acres of land from the Alice Holt Forest for a church, churchyard and vicarage.

 

Shipwrights Way is a new long distance route which links villages and towns in east Hampshire through some beautiful countryside. The name reflects the use of oak grown at Alice Holt Forest for Tudor shipbuilding, linking this site with Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, home of the Mary Rose and HMS Victory.

 

 

Morning Walk

Feb. 10, 2016, 9:45 a.m.

 Dell Quay,  parking near the Crown and Anchor PO20 7EE

Five hundred years earlier it was the 7th most important port in the Kingdom. Small coastal barges and local boats carried wool and grain to London and foreign ports, and brought back coal, timber and cargoes of anything needed for the City of Chichester. In the early 1800s there were over a hundred ships registered here. (conservancy.co.ok)

 

Mud uncovered between the tides is the richest source of food. Waders, such as Curlew, Godwits, Redshank and Dunlin, probe with their long beaks in the mud for small marine animals like worms, small shellfish and crabs. The plover family of waders pick their food from the mud surface and Turnstones find theirs under seaweed and pebbles. Shelduck sift the surface of the mud for tiny snails. Other birds feed on plants growing on the mud; Brent geese and Wigeon eat green algae and Eel grass ; Coot and Mute Swans are also vegetarians. Others are fish-eaters; they may dive from a height (Terns) or from the water surface (Grebes, Cormorants and sea ducks like Red-breasted Merganser and Goldeneye) or stand and fish in the shallows (Heron). (conservancy.co.uk)

 

 

 

Day walk

Feb. 3, 2016, 9:45 a.m.

 This walk will be in Petworth Park. 

We're hoping the path will be less muddy than the footpaths elsewhere. Lunch will be in Petworth town followed by a walk around the outskirts of Petworth. Probably 6 to 7 miles. 

Petworth Park - home to the largest fallow deer herd in the country