Walks from Cow Drove Cottage

Our April 2022 holiday had been booked to give us the opportunity to do some walking while also spending some time with our grandson and his parents, who live in the Wiltshire village of Downton, to the south of Salisbury. We had looked for cottages within an hour's drive of Downton, ideally close to Cranborne Chase. We'd expected to find somewhere a bit further south, in Dorset, but the nicest-looking suitable cottages we saw advertised were Cow Drove Cottage and its neighbour Barn Owl Cottage, recent barn conversions in the grounds of Park Farm near East Knoyle, which is also in Wiltshire, about a 40 minute drive to the north-west of Downton. East Knoyle is around 6 miles north of Shaftesbury, a pretty little town which is in Dorset, with Gold Hill, made famous for the Hovis advert in the 1970s, and a very useful Tesco! East Knoyle's main claim to fame seems to be that it was the birthplace of Sir Christopher Wren. It proved to be a very suitable location, and an excellent cottage,

We'd walked within a mile of the cottage when we were on the Wessex Ridgeway in October 2013 so, after arriving at Cow Drove Cottage the previous day, our first walking priority on Saturday 23rd April was to link to the Wessex Ridgeway. It was so close that there was time to do this before heading off to meet Helen and Bertie at Stourhead later in the morning. We walked a short distance along the road, then took the track which climbed quite steeply up Knoyle Ridge, passing bluebells in the woodland to our right, and also by the track on both sides. Near the top, we passed underneath the archway of a bridge on a now-disused railway, then we emerged to attractive if misty views across the Nadder Valley to the south.

However the most memorable feature at the top of the hill was the expanse of bluebells. It wasn't entirely clear whether we should take the track through the wood or go along the southern edge of it. The OS maps app on my phone led us to believe that the "correct" route was the latter, but we're not entirely sure. As we walked along the edge of the wood, a man and his son ran past us, heading in the opposite direction, but they then passed us again, now going in the same general direction as us. It appeared that they were on a circuit so hopefully we'd be able to do the same and return on the other track. In fact the man and his son passed us several times, so it became apparent that their morning run took in several loops around this delightful wood.

In less than a kilometre we were rejoined by the track through the wood, so our planned return walk was feasible. Very shortly further on, we reached the Wessex Ridgeway, as proved by the photograph shown to the right. As I was taking the photo, a woman came past on a horse and stopped for a chat. We returned to the cottage after a lovely walk which was only 1.8 miles long altogether and had taken a total of less than 50 minutes.

Keep reading below the map for other circuits from Cow Drove Cottage.

When met up with our family on this holiday, they usually had to head back home mid-afternoon in order for Bertie to have a sleep in the car. On two occasions, this provided us with an opportunity for another short walk from the cottage. The route shown in red below is a 2.6 mile (just over an hour) walk around East Knoyle and surrounding hamlets. We walked this on Saturday 23rd April, after our trip to Stourhead.

Park Farm and its cottages are separated from the centre of the village by the A354. After walking to and crossing the main road, we took a footpath across a field, as shown on the OS map, to the top road through East Knoyle. The problem with this route was that it involved quite a substantial climb, and then when we reached the top road we promptly descended again, down to the centre of the village. We later discovered that the best way to the centre of East Knoyle from the cottage was to follow the old route of the A354 (before crossing the modern A354). This emerges opposite the East Knoyle turning and you don't have all the ups and downs.

We passed the playground, the memorial to Christopher Wren and "Wren's Shop", a community shop which is reported to "sell everything". A man in a suit and a woman in a red dress were just going into the shop and as we continued along the road, we were passed by a number of other smartly dressed people. We surmised that there was a wedding at the church, a pretty place, and - from the large marque in the grounds of one of the large houses further up the road, it was quite a big do. A car park had been set up to the west of the village, and I think the taxi-minibus that was scurrying about was probably taking people back to the ceremony and reception. this probably meant that the village appeared rather busier than would normally be the case, but it added to the interest.

We continued by way of narrow lanes, climbing up to the viewpoint on Windmill Hill which - surprise, surprise - had good views in one direction and a windmill on the other side of the road. This is East Knoyle Mill, which dates back to 1700 and lost its cap and sails following a fire caused by a firework in the celebrations around the coronation of George V in 1911. Clouds House, an Arts & Crafts House that is now an addiction treatment centre, is closeby but we didn't actually pass it. We continued on narrow undulating lanes past The Green and Milton and back to the A354, slightly further to the north of the road leading to the cottage. After crossing the main road, we were able to take an excellent short cut underneath Warminster Plantation and down the side of Park Farm, admiring the various animals in their paddocks.

Later in the week, on Thursday 28th April, after a lovely day out at Kingston Lacy with Tom, Bertie and his other grandmother, Richard went out again for a longer 5.5 mile (2 hour) walk, as shown in blue on the map below. This explored both East and West Knoyle, and included some lovely bluebell woods.