Gallery

Viewing galleries from January, 2024

Alice Holt Forest walk on 24th January 2024

Sixteen of us met up in the carpark of The Bluebell pub in Dockenfield for our 4.3 mile walk in Alice Holt Forest. We walked down Boundary Road towards Three Ways, entering the forest in the South East corner. The level but slightly muddy path took us to the junction of Shipwrights Way and the Easy Access Trail which lived up to its name as we walked it, linking up to the Willows Green Trail. Opting to return to the Shipwrights Trail, crossing a stream and using the Lodge Pond and Habitat Trails past a tubular sculpture where we controlled our impulses to climb through, eventually turning left along a muddy path to pick up the Old Stagecoach Road. Our coffee stop was beside the Old Stagecoach Road on a couple of perfectly placed benches cheered up by an early bloom primrose and a static Robin that probably had bedecked a Christmas Tree earlier. Failing to meet any menacing gentlemen in tricorned hats brandishing antique flintlock hardware, we left the Stagecoach Road to take the Family Cycle Trail heading back towards our lunch. Unfortunately before we completed our circuit in the forest, a lame incident required a short backtrack to Boundary Road and The Bluebell where the healing aspects of beer set to work and we enjoyed a hearty lunch.

Exton and Old Winchester Hill walk on 17th January 2024

We met up at The Shoe Inn in Exton for our 5.3 mile walk up to Old Winchester Hill and back led by Jay and Lindsay.  It was a dry and cold day that needed us to wrap up well.  Crossing the River Meon in full flow, we headed up Shoe Lane and crossed the Warnford Road onto the South Downs Way following it up onto the disused railway line.  Dropping off the disused onto Pound Lane we took the footpath across the fields onto Stock’s Lane and then up the Mill End Lane track where we picked up the Monarch’s Way climbing up to the Iron Age Fort on Old Winchester Hill.

One of the benches on the Hill gave us our resting place for our coffee break.  Crossing the Hill Fort, a boot emergency first aid was needed, luckily we had the material available to afford the repair.  We descended the hill on the South Downs Way, back onto the disused railway again before retracing our steps back to the Shoe Inn, stopping off to befriend a donkey on the way.  The lunch was excellent and a number of walkers succumbed to home made loaves of bread.

Lurgashall walk on 10th January 2024

Thirteen walkers gathered on Lurgashall Green for a 4 mile walk on crunchy ground following cold weather which done its best to harden up the rain sodden earth. We exchanged stories about ice on the road on the journey there, consoling ourselves that a nice warm lunch would be waiting for us at the Noah’s Ark when we finished. The route took us into the graveyard of St Lawrence Church, over a stile, across a field onto a track to Park Farm, walking between the two ponds, over another stile and into fields again. We used the house at Shop Hill Farm to sight the path across the field and into a copse before venturing onto Jobson’s Lane for a short distance where we turned left up towards Ramsfold Wood. Before reaching the wood we took a path to our left, eventually dropping down onto Quell Lane, enjoying the downhill across Quellwood Common followed by a climb back up to the woods beside Blackdown Farm where we stopped for a coffee break. Buoyed by our caffeine boost, we marched smartly past the houses and Home Farm with glorious views in cloudless skies across to the South Downs and admired the wooden horse and foal before heading down the drive towards the gatehouse back down to Jobson’s Lane where we admired the chainsaw wood carving we had seen being carved last year. Turning north and immediately east on the bridleway towards Coochway Ground, we took the footpath away from the bridleway through Spring Coppice, an orchard and back to the Noah’s Ark for our eagerly anticipated lunch that lived up to our expectations.

Chichester Walk on 3rd January 2024

The New Year walk in Chichester started in Northgate car park with a shower of rain that got heavier as we made our way to Priory Park, the wind joined the rain so a brief stop to view the area where Chichester’s Norman Castle once stood. Built by the Earl of Shrewsbury in the 11th century, by the 13th century it was used as a court and jail, captured by the French then later recaptured by the English in 1217, its destruction was ordered by Henry III between 1222 and 1269. We continued to follow the city walls overlooking the Guildhall with the Cathedral in the background. We heard about the Gunpowder store which was formed in 1838 when the city wall was breached for Priory Road. Allegedly, gunpowder and muskets from the Civil War in 1642 were found in a hidden store. Walking away from the city walls we realised it was too wet to stop on the benches at the Canal basin and unfortunately the coffee shop and Heritage Centre were closed. The volunteers of the Canal taking a well earned rest from all the pre-Christmas boat trips and Santa returning to Lapland. However, we ‘bumbled’ along to another establishment and enjoyed their coffee whilst the weather cleared, later re-joining the walls around the outside of the Cathedral gardens, past the oldest school in Sussex, a private preparatory, the Prebendal School was originally opened as a song school for teaching and housing of the Cathedral Choristers. From the top of North street back to West street all areas of the city walls and each end of the four main streets that lead to the Cross, East, South, North ending at West were visited before arriving for lunch at the Crate and Apple.