Salisbury to King's Somborne

Yesterday (Friday) we had been to see our daughter, son-in-law and grandson in the village of Downton near Salisbury and we had arranged to stay overnight with them, then spend the weekend walking the Clarendon Way in two legs, spending the night at the Andover Premier Inn. Little Bertie had a bit of a tummy bug, but it was lovely to see them all. We (well, Richard!) cooked a meal for Helen and Tom in the evening, which was much appreciated and, after a reasonable night, we had breakfast with them all and set off. We first drove, in two cars, via the attractive town of Stockbridge in the Test Valley in Hampshire, and on to the village of Kings Somborne. There, as we'd hoped, there was space to leave on car just by the church, at SU 361310. We drove back to Salisbury and parked the other car in the Harnham recreation ground car park , to the north of the A3094 at SU137292. I'd discovered this car park when out with Helen and Bertie earlier in the summer. It is free, which appeals to my mean nature, and not too far from the start of the Clarendon Way at Salisbury Cathedral. There is a lovely walk from here into the centre of Salisbury across the water meadows, but it is a bit further to the Cathedral that way than by turning left and walking the short along the A3094, to the point where it is crossed by the Avon Valley Path. Knowing we had quite a long walk ahead, we took the more direct route this morning

At the Avon Valley Path we turned left, in the reverse direction to the way we walked on the way from Salisbury to Downton in August 2018. It was rather nice to overlap with another path so comprehensively and, in terms of walking, it doesn't feel like it was three years ago since we were last here, on that occasion heading towards Harnham Slope. In another sense though it feels a lifetime ago; that walk was pre-Bertie, pre Covid and when my sister's husband (who died last Christmas) was fit and well. Returning to 2021, we crossed the River Avon and cut through to Salisbury Cathedral Precepts, then round the Cathedral to the statue "Walking Madonna" where the Avon Valley Path starts. We continued onto the Clarendon Way, through High Street Gate and so into the town centre, soon turning right and climbing up Milford Hill, passing under Churchill Way (the A36) just to the north of the infamous College Roundabout, frequently a cause of delay on our journey to Downton. As we continued towards Milford, the route on the map is shown as following the road all the way, but we took a good footpath slightly to the north, crossing over a railway, though I have no idea as to which railway line goes where in the Salisbury area. We descended to cross a stream then continued on a minor road which became a track and we left Salisbury and its abutting villages behind and headed out onto the downs.

We passed Rangers Lodge Farm and climbed, though the bulk of Ashley Hill remained to our right. Nearer at hand, there were various people, dogs and vehicles doing something, and we eventually decided these must be beaters preparing for a hunt. We continued to climb, now towards King Manor Hill, gaining lovely views back to Salisbury Cathedral before our views were obscured by the approaching woodland. Somewhat to our surprise, through a gate to our left we could see the remains of Clarendon Palace, the ancient royal hunting lodge after which the Clarendon Way is named. We'd expected it to be further away and less accessible. We went for a closer look, passing some llamas who were resting in the shade. The site seems well cared for, and research on our return home found the website of the Friends of Clarendon Palace, which gives more information. Apparently, Clarendon Palace was the most westerly major royal rural residence in medieval England and it dates back to the 1100s (probably established by Henry I), long before Salisbury was founded in the valley below during the 1220s.

For the next mile or so we were in attractive woodland, which doesn't have a single name on the OS map, but includes Little Gilbert's Copse, Warner's Copse and Fairoak Copse. The woodland to our left came to an end and we continued past Great Netley Copse and Pitton Copse, also passing "Four Cottages" before descending to the village of Pitton, nestling in the folds of the hills and suitably quaint and picturesque, We had left OS Explorer Sheet 130 (Salisbury) behind and were on Sheet 131, whose name "Romsey, Andover & Test Valley" reflects places rather further east. For now, we left Pitton's thatched cottages and pretty church and headed back onto the downs. After climbing on a track, we took a grassy route which followed along the edge of the escarpment with glorious views towards the village of Firsdown and the downs beyond. It was around midday so we started looking for somewhere to stop for lunch, but one possible seat already had people sitting on it. We stopped for a chat with a man and his son, who live further along the route of the Clarendon Way but were out on a regular dog walk.

West Winterslow Church, at the northern end of the little village and also on the edge of the escarpment, was right on our route. From the outside, the Church looked almost identical to Pitton Church, but the location was stunning location and, to our delight, we found a bench on the edge of its churchyard which was both in the shade and had more of the glorious views that we had enjoyed as we walked. We ate the first half our lunch, enjoying the location rather more than the food, which largely comprised a pack of "snacks" (cocktail sausages etc.) which we had bought yesterday. We were only just over a mile south of the A30, which we drive along regularly en route from our flat to Helen's house, and we were almost due south of the government research laboratory of Porton Down. Indeed we could see Porton Down in the distance, looking remarkably like any old military base. It was nice to be able to put everything into context, but even better just to enjoy the views. What a lovely churchyard in which to be buried!

The next bit of the route felt a bit fiddly. After walking around the churchyard, we took a narrow path next to a fence, which descended to Hare Warren. Our route joined with our old friend the Monarch's Way, turned onto the roman road that the Monarch's Way had been following for some time, and climbed to Middle Winterslow. This is a much larger settlement than Pitton and West Winterslow and, although the houses we passed were attractive enough, it wasn't as pretty as the smaller villages. It may be just that we didn't go the right way. The route through Middle Winterslow and for the next couple of miles is in a noticeably straight line, as you'd expect for a roman road, but on a couple of occasions you take a left hand turning from the road. The first of these just took us to a more minor road along the northern edge of the village, but the second led to a footpath downhill and then up again, across a field where a group of teenagers were sitting talking and playing music (and smoking I suspect!).

The continuation of the roman road to the east of Middle Winterslow had looked rather boring on the map, but it was lovely. We were on a broad track and a road for a while, but it was very minor, and we passed more woodland (Upper Noad's Copse and Lower Noad's Copse) on our right, with good views to our left. At some point we passed from Wiltshire into Hampshire, and there were good "Clarendon Way" signs. There were more people about, both walkers and runners, though I am not sure whether that was because it was afternoon, because we were on a shared route, just "one of those things", or because the route as a whole gets busier in the more easterly Hampshire section, which I have heard. I suspect it was just some feature of this little section, and it wasn't unpleasantly busy. We were amused when couple of runners were obviously having some difficulty in finding their route along one of the named paths when standing right next to a signpost near Buckholt Farm. We passed a herd of White Park cattle and turned to the left away from the line of the Roman Road.

I had expected to be descending from here down to the Test Valley at Broughton, but I had misread the contours on the map! In fact we climbed quite steadily, but we were on a good track with pleasant views and we enjoyed the walking. Near an intersection of tracks at SU287324 we stopped for a "second lunch", something we do quite often when on a long walk; more of the "snacks" we had bought the previous day, and again I enjoyed the sit-down and the views rather more than the food. Then we continued to climb before descending quite steeply through and to the east of Smith's Plantation. And so to Broughton, arriving in the village past the playing field where there was plenty of activity.

The parts of Broughton we walked through were, like Middle Winterslow earlier, largely residential, and our hopes for a tea shop or somewhere to buy an ice cream were stymied. Our photos make the village look quite pretty, so perhaps my memory is tainted by the phone call we received from the residential home where Richard's Mum lives to say they had a Covid case in the home. Obviously, this was a worry in itself, but it also meant that no visiting would be possible for some time and it placed uncertainty over the long-planned visit of Richard's brother and sister-in-law on the day after their wedding - which was just two weeks off. Ah well, when Richard's mobile rings at unexpected times, we always fear it will be the home saying that his Mum has had a fall or somesuch (and these calls always seem to come when we are miles from home and a good distance from either of our cars, as today), so in some senses we were relieved. If this Pandemic has taught anything to a chronic worrier like me, surely it is just to get on with life in the present, because you never know what the future will bring. On this occasion, all worked out well with impeccable timing - we actually heard during Phillip and Anne-Marie's wedding that Diana's residential home had the all-clear!

On our way out of Broughton, we passed the church and in the churchyard we noticed a dovecote. It transpires this is a rare type of dovecote; there are apparently 482 nesting boxes inside, with access by way of a revolving ladder. We crossed the stream (Wallop Brook) and turned right, on a path running along the bottom of some rather grand gardens. Then at a dog-leg near Hayter Farm we encountered a rather unusual sculpture. This appeared to be a carved out of an old concrete pillar and to celebrate the Clarendon Way, with a rather feint map of the route on the front and some large birds on the top - are these perhaps birds of prey which are known to have been kept at Clarendon Palace? Unfortunately and unusually, online research on our return home has, so far, failed to reveal anything further, so if you know more please do let us know.

The route became a rather boring track down to a minor road on the outskirts of Houghton, where we turned left. Shortly afterwards, a right-hand turn led to a track that took us across the several channels of the River Test. There were rather a lot of "private" signs , making it difficult to find a nice place to stop for a rest, and there were also a fair number of other people about. However the River Test, perhaps the best known of Hampshire's chalk streams, really is beautiful and we had some pleasant conversations with other people who were watching the mesmerising flow of the river. We stopped for a short break at the side of the track near the final river crossing. Then, just before the climb out of the valley, we crossed the Test Way, rather less interesting at this point than I'd expected (it follows a disused railway line in this section). Here we also parted company with the Monach's Way, whose route we had been sharing since the other side of Middle Winterslow.

I was getting quite tired, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover that once again I had misread the contours on the map and, after the initial climb from the Test Valley and a level section, we descended to King's Somborne rather than ascending. Furthermore, this last little stretch, which we had thought would be along a road, was actually on path alongside. We crossed turned right onto the A3057, leaving the route of the Clarendon Way at this point, and we were soon back at the car. It had been a delightful walk and we were pleased with ourselves for having walked this distance in undulating countryside. Richard made his daily phone call to his mother from here then we collected the other car and drove on to the Andover Premier Inn. We had our first indication of challenges to come when the first place Richard stopped at for petrol didn't have any. However he got fuel at another petrol station en route and we both successfully navigated the complicated road layout in the vicinity of the Premier Inn.

Richard bought supplies for our evening meal from the nearest Tesco, but unfortunately he soon became rather unwell and I too was unwell in the night. We will never know whether we had caught young Bertie's tummy bug or whether our problem was as a result of the slightly dubious lunch. However, it was clear that we weren't well enough to walk the rest of the Clarendon Way the following day; that would have to wait. With some effort we managed to drive back to our flat, but it took me all of the following day to recover, and even longer for Richard.

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