I have retired again and I’m looking forward to more walks and cycle rides in the months to come.
This walk relates to the Hangers Way Hampshire. The route is from Alton to Queen Elizabeth Country Park where it meets the South Downs.The term Hanger refers in Old English to a wooded slope.
I had planned to do the entire route 23 miles over two days but, sometimes the weather conspires against you. Severe Storms were forecast for the following day.
Trish joined me for this walk and as it turned out one days walking was enough and we had glorious weather managing to avoid localised storms.
We parked one car on the verge outside the Hawkley Inn at Hawkley and then drove to Alton where we began our ten mile walk.
Once out of the town and across the A31 its a pretty trail with some interesting spots.
Walking initially across arable land southward there is a strange wooded hill, part of Neatham Down with earthworks that may have been some monastic building. Its so steep and out of place with the rolling hill there. It’s private so not being able to explore we carried on.
I was relating to Trish, what I thought was a fascinating program on Radio 4 (a couple of days before) about wasps. I started to descibe an incident where an actor had been standing on stage when a wasp crawled up inside his nose!
At this point in the tale, Trish had a panic attack! She was nearly brought to her knees in the middle of a field and valiantly tried to steady her breathing.
Obviously being the sensitive person I am, I carried the tale to its conclusion! Poor Trish how does she put up with me! She has always had this phobia I’m not sure why and the irony is, I am seriously allergic to them! Wasps, not phobias!
We walked through the churchyard of St Mary’s East Worldham. The villiage is mentioned the the Doomsday book although people have been living in the area much longer than that.
I think Chaucers wife is meant to be buried there but, I was far more interested in the trees. There was a beautiful malus with small red fruit and a huge Liriodendrum Tulipifera or Tulip Tree. Its a sort of North American Magnolia and a primitive flowering tree. I do love plants that have probably been around when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Anyway carrying on to a beautiful vale with a pond and King Johns Hill. King John is supposed to have had a hunting lodge there. It was also an Iron Age Hill Fort and at any rate its a Scheduled Monument.
Gradually we made our way into Bins Wood. This wood feels old (to paraphrase Legolas) and indeed it is. For the second time in recent weeks, I managed miss a turn in this wood but, this time we encountered cows with calf’s. We nervously passed and then had to double back giving them a very wide berth.
I had read somewhere about highway men using this area in days gone by but I couldn’t find any reference to it until I stumbled across Sir Adam de Gurdon.
He was Lord of Selbourne during the 13th Century he was also Bailiff of Alton in 1232, and a Knight of the Garter. He was one of the disgruntled barons who sided with Simon de Montfort the 6th Earl of Leicester against the Kings misrule and heavy taxes. As a result he was relieved of his estates in 1266. This led him, with others, to form a party of outlaws that rampaged Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hampshire. He was particularly keen on waylaying travellers at Alton Pass. He sounds quite a character.
We meandered into Hartly Wood and found a tranquil pond.
The route took us under Wick Hill Hanger and through various meadows to the beautiful Villiage of Selbourne. We came in via the church yard.
I wanted to show Trish the stained glass windows dedicated to St Francis of Assisi in the church but it was closed. In any case Trish was much distracted by a ring of field mushrooms in between the grave stones, it quite made her day (she’s a fungus enthusiast).
We had a pit stop for tea and cake in the new cafe at The Gilbert White Museum.
Selbourne is famous for its Naturalist Gilbert White and its zig zag footpath up Selbourne Hanger.
However for me its now famous for its highway man Knight and field mushrooms in the graveyard.
The final part of our walk took us across Noar Hill Hanger (of glow worm fame) and and Hawkley Hanger down into Hawkley wherey car was waiting to transport our weary limbs home.
Now we have to plan for the next part of our walk….whenever that may be.
The Travelling Bee 