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Start and finish at the Eyeworth Pond car park near Fritham. An alternative car park is at Telegraph Hill. This 6 mile (10Km) walk can be easily tailored to the distance and time you want to spend walking by turning left earlier along the route.
The route includes woodland and open heathland, used in the Second World War as a bombing range testing the bouncing bomb.
The pond is a haven for birds and one often finds bird enthusiasts there willing to identify the small birds there for passers by. It was originally made as part of a complex making gunpowder in the 19th Century.
The Royal Oak at Fritham serves simple lunches and cask ales.
Eyeworth Pond was only created in the second half of the 19th century by the Schultze Gunpowder Company, an organisation that for many years had premises in the grounds of nearby Eyeworth Lodge
Work on the factory started in around 1860, although Captain Schultze, who lent his name to the enterprise, did not become involved until 9 years later. The remote New Forest location, surely out of keeping for such an endeavour, was selected to limit potential damage should unexpected explosions occur.
A trade pamphlet published in 1896 notes that the Company employed upwards of 100 people in 60 buildings. The factory was sold just before the First World War, but continued in operation under new ownership until 1921.
Little evidence of the factory survives, although the superintendent’s and gatekeeper’s houses remain, and so does the gravel track – the Powder Mill Road – leading out to the Cadnam-Fordingbridge road, built to avoid the need for the potentially deadly products to travel through the nearby village of Fritham.
Read more at http://www.newforestexplorersguide.co.uk/heritage/history-in-the-landscape/eyeworth-pond.html
2022-01-20 Eyworth Pond.pdfPage updated
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