Chettle to Home Farm (Tarrant Gunville) and return
Walked by Sally, Richard, Helen and Tom, Sunday 30th August 2020
Just over 7 miles, about 3.5 miles progress on Jubilee Trail
For photographs on this walk click here
We were staying with our daughter and son-in-law in Wiltshire, our first time away from Norfolk or Milton Keynes since the Coronavirus lockdown, and our last visit planned for before their son’s birth (due in mid October). It was the late summer bank holiday, my birthday – and the sun was shining after a wet and windy week, but it wasn’t too hot. A perfect day for a walk of the length that Helen, a keen walker but quite heavily pregnant, could manage.
We drove to the village of Chettle, less than three miles south of Tollard Royale, an area that we had particularly enjoyed when on the Wessex Ridgeway in 2013. And en route, we passed through Broad Chalke, which we had walked through on another enjoyable walk, on Helen and Tom’s “Cranborne Canter” last year. So it wasn’t a surprise to discover that today’s walk was also excellent, through pretty villages and glorious countryside.
There is a convenient little parking place just outside the Village Hall in Chettle (at ST953134) and we parked there and continued south along the minor road, past the Church, soon joining the route of the Jubilee Trail. I was taking so many photos that Tom teased me that it was too picturesque! We soon left the road and continued on tracks and footpaths, passing a side entrance to Chettle House then wandering our way across the countryside to Tarrant Gunville. We descended slightly then climbed up past the Church, making a diversion to take a closer look.
We continued on a road then path to Home Farm, which advertises camping and a farm shop and café. The latter in particular looks attractive (noted for future reference), but we left the route of the Jubilee Trail here, after wandering across a couple of fields where the path was not where it was shown on the map, crossed a more obvious track and emerged at ST921117, just above “North Tarrant Hinton Down”. It’s a glorious spot and we wanted a break, so we stopped for an early lunch.
We continued on good paths to the village of Tarrant Hinton. The “Great Dorset Steam Fair” usually takes place near here every August Bank Holiday weekend, but not this year because of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, we enjoyed the extremely pretty village for itself before continuing, initially alongside fields of sweet corn. We zig-zagged our way back to Chettle, with a better view of Chettle House. The house has relatively recently been returned to a single residence, after being flats, and the owners appeared to be enjoying a barbeque.
We returned to Helen and Tom’s house for birthday cake and, later in the day, our own barbeque.
