Broad Chalke, Ebbesbourne Wake and Bowerchalke circuit

We last walked on the "Cranborne Canter" (later renamed "Cranborne Circles") back in August 2019, before the Covid Pandemic and before our grandson was born. It feels a lifetime ago. Our walk today was on a delightful spring day, the first day of British Summer Time. It was also a day on which mothers were very much in mind: it was "Mothers' Day" (Mothering Sunday) so lovely to have spent yesterday with our daughter and her family and to start today with them; today would have been my mum's 104th birthday had she still been alive; and we heard around lunchtime that Richard's 96-year old mum (who lives in a residential home) had tested positive for Covid, so she was very much in our thoughts [later note: Diana recovered fine, though the outbreak was widespread in the home and they did lose someone]. Continuing the theme of mothers, we passed a field of sheep and lambs towards the end of the walk.

Last time we were here we'd walked from Broad Chalke to Helen and Tom's house. Today we drove to Broad Chalke and parked back in the same car park (SU041254). The car park is by the church and there was a 9.30 service; we were a bit worried that either there would be no space or we would be in the way. We arrived about 9.20 and it was apparent there should be plenty of space for everyone. We walked back along the minor road from the car park to road on which we had approached the village in the car. On foot we continued straight ahead, ignoring the access to the pub and then a left hand bend taken by the onward road to Knapp and beyond. At Chalk Pyt Farm we had a choice of track; we took the left hand one and climbed, with good views to Barnett's Down and Knapp Down to the right and back to the Ebble Valley to our left.

We noticed what we thought was a car park for an event ahead of us, with marshals apparently helping with the parking. However, as we got closer, the cars (mostly old rally cars) drove off, one after the other. What was going on? We asked one of the marshals who explained that we were above the "Hill climb". This is the Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb, whose website explains that the principle of speed hill climbing is straightforward. The aim is "To drive or ride from a standing start to a flying finish in the shortest possible time." Fortunately the cars were going the other way i.e. downhill (I think we had reached the "top paddock") and the access to the site is from below, so we were not in the way of the racing cars or vice versa.

We continued up the track to the top and here we turned left onto the byway which runs for a considerable distance along the top of the slope. We passed a couple of rather derelict-looking poultry farms on the left; to our right there were impressive views down towards Fovant and the valley of the River Nadder. A family we were friends with in the Cambridge area moved to Fovant around 35 years ago and lived there for some time before moving on again and we visited Fovant, perhaps 30 years ago. It is lovely how our long distance footpath walking has helped us to link together various places, and thus various memories. We followed the ridge-top for a couple of kilometres. We'd been planning to go further along this byway but, despite the lovely views to our right, it wasn't the most exciting of walking, so we decided to cut across to Church Bottom. This was a good decision!

Our route took us through a strip of woodland on a clear track, then across a ploughed field to a field boundary. We emerged out the other side just as a lady with three dogs came walking past. It was tempting to follow her, but the direction we wanted was straight ahead, so that's the way we went. After following along the field edge for a while, the woman and her dogs followed us across the field. Our route finding was quite impressive (with the help of the OS Maps app!); we reached the woodland at the other side of the field at precisely the right point for the path through it. This brought us out up above Church Bottom, a spectacular dry valley. We let the dog-walker-and-dogs overtake us again, then we descended to Church Bottom and walked down the valley behind them. At the junction of Church Bottom and Prescombe Down we watched them climb up the slope to the south before following them, with more spectacular views opening up behind us.

We couldn't see a more direct route through to the main part of the village of Ebbesbourne Wake, so we followed the path around to the west to emerge on the minor road, and we followed this further west, past a possible parking place for the next leg, to "West End" a pretty little place clustered around a bridge over the stream. Across the stream, we took the road on the other side and back towards the east, to the village. We took a footpath on the offchance that it would lead to the church and it did; even better there was a bench outside the church, so we sat there to eat our lunch and for me to change my socks.

As we ate our lunch we considered the best way to approach our onward walk, either east to Valley Farm and then up a by-way to the south, or south through Ebbesbourne Wake then east on a track around Barrow Hill. We had decided on the former on the basis that the climb looked less severe, but as we approached the point at which the routes divide, we realised that most of the pretty village was on the latter route so that was the way we went. It was a good decision; in addition to taking us past more of the attractive thatched cottages and the village pub, as we climbed there were stunning views back to the village. It was at this point that Richard got the call to tell him that his Mum had Covid, so I had plenty of time to photograph the view (trying to avoid the hedge and trees that were in the way) while Richard was contacting his brother.

From the top of the climb, the route continued across fields to Bowerchalke. We decided to walk through the village rather than rather than taking the alternative road to the north or the track to the west and we encountered the signpost shown on the right. "6d Handley" refers to the village of Sixpenny Handley, but to understand that you need to be old enough to remember pre-decimal currency! Bowerchalke also has an attractive church and some pretty cottages. We'd considered following the road from Bowerchalke to Broad Chalke, but decided to head around Knowle Farm and then to take the track from here that passes to the north of Knowle Hill to Field Barn and beyond. This was the least good section of walking of the day, largely because the "track" is actually a tarmacked approach road. However there were good views as we climbed, and we had the company of a tractor which was driving backwards and forwards between the farm and the barn. There was also a tractor in the field to our left, preparing the land in some way.

Below Field Barn the route divides and, from the map, we'd thought that the better route would be to take the upper (i.e. right hand) option. However, we wanted a change from the rather hard, boring track we were on (though it was no longer tarmacked), and this continued to the right. In contrast, the route to the left was more minor, a pleasant green track - so we went that way, This brought us down to the road which was perhaps slightly busier than ideal, but we nevertheless had a pleasant walk through the village back to the church and our car. We had a good journey back to our flat in Milton Keynes, ready for the week ahead.