Stourpaine to Winterborne Stickland and return

We're heading home from our holiday in Dorset tomorrow, and we're now probably too far south-west of our daughter's house near Salisbury to enable us to walk on the Jubilee Trail on single day walks when staying with them. So we knew that this would be our last walk on the Jubilee Trail for a while, which I was quite sad about. I'd have liked to be able to walk as far as Milton Abbas today, but we'd have needed to walk there and back from Stourpaine, and this would have been slightly too far, especially since the weather forecast for this afternoon wasn't great. However, the walk we did was lovely. We did get sufficient rain at one stage to make us put our waterproofs on, but it didn't come to much. 

We parked at the car park we'd seen signposted last time we were in Stourpaine, down Havelins by the village hall (ST857096), close to  Hod Drive, which is one of the routes to Hod Hill. Parking is free and there was plenty of space, but it is a good job we weren't hoping to park here next weekend, because (signs told us) the car park will be closed because of a village event on the recreation ground to celebrate the coronation. We walked back through the village, past the quaint cottages and impressive church I've commented on previously, and on to the path that cuts across towards the old railway. It was in this section that I realised I'd left my walking poles in the car, and we were expecting a steepish climb out of (and so back to) Durweston, so I didn't feel it was sensible to attempt the walk without the poles. So we both walked back to the church, where Richard left me and the rucksack sitting on a bench while he went back to the car. I had a nice chat with a passing local who walks every day with her dog and who agreed that walking poles are very useful round here. 

Richard wasn't long, and we then continued under the railway bridge and to the River Stour. This is an attractive little section, over the river and past a former mill, which seems (as is so common) to have been converted into apartments. We continued along the mill's drive, where cars, other than those with a good reason to be there, are fiercely forbidden. We emerged onto the busy A357 in Durweston. From further back there had been views to Durweston Church (and now there were views across the valley to Stourpaine Church), but Durwesteon Church had disappeared from sight so we simply took the minor road as indicated then turned onto the footpath to climb away from the village.  The climb was steady rather than steep, with good views in all directions. A track followed along the bottom of the valley, but our path was usually slightly to the left of this.

The path continued up the valley through the delightful Sutcombe Wood; there were bluebells underneath the trees but it was the fresh green of this section which was most impressive. At the top, we emerged onto a private road at Folly Barn. We weren't able to work out what the folly is here,  and the barn is now a house and we also passed "The Folly".  We walked along the road behind a dog-walker, stopping to photograph the stunning blue of the  bluebells in the wood to our right. We reached Shepherd's Corner Farm; the hill-walker got into her car which was parked in the farmyard and drove off, so presumably she's a friend of the family. Meanwhile, we continued on a path straight ahead. 

Half a mile or so further on, we turned left at a cross-roads of paths and it was here where we first noticed a St Edward's Way sign, and for some distance we were on both the Jubilee Trail and the St Edward's Way, a 30 mile route between Wareham and Shaftesbury, established by the Dorset Ramblers who also established the Jubilee Trail. St Edward's Way is more recent though;  it was inaugurated as a pilgrimage route in 2021. Our track led us through Field Grove, another lovely bluebell-carpeted woodland. There were paths leading into the wood in various directions, but we kept straight ahead. We passed Field Grove House and emerged - very briefly - onto New Road. There were several cars parked here. 

We turned almost back on ourselves onto a path along the edge of the wood, then turned left away from the wood onto an open area. We descended across this area towards the village of Winterborne Stickland. We reached the road near the playing field and turned left to walk through the village, passing some road works. The route of the Jubilee Trail actually turns off the road to rejoin it after a right-hand turn, but that misses out the church so we stuck to the road. There were several convenient benches near the church so we stopped here for an early lunch before retracing our steps. It started to rain as we crossed the open area, making it feel rather bleak, though it had stopped by the time we reached the woodland.

Before walking the outward leg of the walk, we'd wondered about following the road from Field Grove to Durweston on our return, but now we decided that it was better - and more pleasant - to follow the lovely route we'd used on the outward leg. Much of this was in woodland, so had it rained we'd have had some shelter - and we didn't need to worry about cars.  In Durweston, we went searching for the church (and it did take us a little while to find, back up the hill). However, it was worth the effort; there were some interesting sculptures on the building and little blackboards by several of the graves telling the life story of the people buried there - what a lovely thing to do.  We continued on our return route to Stourpaine, past Durweston Mill and across the river. 

Following leg