Thursday is Experiment Day! Every Thursday I shall be trying out a new walk in Hampshire (or elsewhere) that is not in the New Forest. Should the "experiment" turn out to be unfavourable, there will be a consolation walk i.e. one I have done before and enjoyed. Given the vagueries of my work roster, Thursday may be titled "Third Day" instead; but it's the same thing.
This is a walk with directions to be found in the AA "50 Walks in Hampshire and Isle of Wight", another guide book I recently purchased. There is a good bus route to Cheriton (see below) and a few stiles.Today was a lovely day and, after a slightly inauspicious start, this was a beautiful walk. When I do this walk again I shall probably use one or two diversions which I will add in parentheses as I go along.
Parking in Cheriton was easy enough today, on a little side road in the village near the post office just round the corner from The Flower Pots Inn as you approach the village from the south. However, there is a stagecoach bus service no. 67 that runs through Cheriton between Winchester and Petersfield every hour.
The walk goes past the post office and round to the right past the school towards some gates. The start of the Wayfarer's Walk is tucked in a corner between a cottage and the gates and climbs up out of the village and across fields. The scene is rural, all cornfields and cows.
Where the guidebook advises us to "turn left downhill and keep to the track to a lane by a barn", please be aware that today when I did this walk there were travellers' caravans parked in this lane accompanied by vociferous dogs. Fortunately these were strongly chained and the man who appeared very courteously escorted me past the dogs.
(There is an alternate route previous to this lane which follows the Itchen Way rather than Wayfarers Walk. This brings you on to Hinton Lane rather than Broad Lane later on (both greenways) which both come together later just before Prite Lane - another greenway. There is also the option to extend the walk slightly and keep along Cheriton Lane and then turn on to Alresford Lane (greenways again) to pass alongside the site of the 1644 Battlefield of Cheriton. You will need OS Map 132 Winchester New Alresford and East Meon to follow and complete these alternate routes)
The route continues past the barn and over a lane and then up alongside arable land, which is pleasant walking. In the AA book they mark a spot as a viewpoint, which is nice, but in my opinion there are better and prettier views to be had later on.
I had a bit of a directional problem across a brown field, as the waymarker points straight across, but the field had been newly ploughed and I wasn't sure of the way. So I went around the left edge of the field and came out on to a footpath between this and a cow pasture and turned right towards the next cropfield. Turn right along this field and come to a path that cuts through the crop. The farmer here is obviously sympathetic to walkers. Please respect this courtesy. Walk along this path to the gate and stile.
The path comes out of a copse into a field beside Tichborne House on the left. And here I saw a deer which cantered gracefully across the field to the fence and managed to squeeze through into the garden of the House.
There were pheasants and skylarks everywhere today!
There are now two more fields to traverse before emerging on to a bridleway. Pass Vernal House and over the River Itchen and across the road to a field and path rising steeply.
The reward for the climb is a seat placed at the top of the slope and the view to the north, over Vernal Farm and over New Alresford which can be seen to nestle in the Itchen Valley. The view is extensive and, in my opinion only, much better than the one recommended in the AA book.
After a bite to eat and a long drink, my legs were ready to tackle the next bit. More fields but with more interest to them as you pass beside a small bluebell copse and then along the right side of the next field with Tichborne Church's Norman tower positioned on a hill among a grove of trees before you, with the village cottages tucked down below it. This is Hampshire at its oldest and best. The church of St Andrews is 11th century. Tichborne House is to the left, and the manor has been the seat of the Tichborne family since 1135.
If you want a respite at the Tichborne Arms please note that the opening times are 11am to 3pm and then 6pm to 11pm.
There is a very narrow and long climbing lane from the road up to the church, with high hedges on both sides and tall trees ahead so that you can't see the church until you reach the end of the lane, which is entirely charming!
From the church come back down to the road and now walk along the road for about a mile, past cow pasture (there were new calves today) and alongside the River Itchen, past farms, and a cottage where I thought rather peevishly that it was a pity to have all that quiet countryside and then a blaring stereo. It wasn't. It was a group of, presumably, young people playing live instruments which somehow makes a big difference. On past this to Cheriton Mill and up a path past the Mill and a cottage on to what looks like someone's lawn. There were daffodils in bloom beside the river and beehives on the opposite bank.
This is the Wayfarers Walk once again and passes through large fields which were thankfully for me free of cows. There is a double stile to cross and then a single stile into a horse paddock with about half a dozen horses in it. I could have gone back. I didn't. There was a large white horse right beside the narrow zigzag walkers gate out of the field ahead, and it was blithely attempting to pull the wooden fence down with its teeth. It looked at me, but was more intent on destroying the fence that was keeping it from its tea. I had to get between it and the gate, and although it didn't move, it did let me pass.
And now I was back in Cheriton coming back down towards the little river where a drake was alternately trying to mate with a duck and fight another drake. Further on, past the post office to the village green, a mother duck was getting aggressive with another that had taken a peck at one of the former's ducklings (floating fluffballs!). I bought a Mars bar at the post office and returned to the car to finish my water and eat the Mars bar before heading for the A272 and home.
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