18 December 2021 - Corton Denham with PC , PC , TO , AC , RW and Scrumpy and Bill
“Don’t forget we are going out for lunch so don’t be late” – the age old words of warning ringing in my ears , I set off to collect Phil and together with Scrumpy we headed over to Corton Denham to rendezvous with the others at the village church. As I had left my phone behind on charge, it was amusing on arrival to see Pete phoning to enquire “Where are you?” only to be answered by Sarah saying “In the kitchen – he left his phone behind”.
Let us be clear on one point, it was Pete who suggested we park in the church car park…that was never part of my planning. For some reason, I reversed the car into the small space available and that later proved to be the one saving grace….
Adrian immediately discovered that he had brought Ruth’s boots by mistake…rather a tight fit it turned out. Sensibly enough Adrian rang home to report the mistake, which landed Ruth on the end of a bizarre call as she tried to make sense of our barracking Adrian’s every word in the back ground. Ignoring possible blistering effects from undersized boots, Adrian stepped out with us through the village, passing The Queen’s Arms which was noted to be offering bacon rolls with coffee.
As our Red Leader was out of action elsewhere, Richard had accepted the poison chalice of route planning. So we set off on a perfectly straightforward circular walk with an initial stiff climb briefly up a tarmac lane then branching off to the right into fields so that we gained height rapidly – always a cause of grumbling in the ranks. The climb took us above the village onto the ridge of Corton Hill which leads out to the Beacon and here we would have enjoyed splendid views across Dorset and South Somerset were it not for the misty drizzle which engulfed the landscape. We got the chance to look down onto Corton itself with some lovely old stone buildings clustered round the twin centres of spiritual and temporal succour – the church and the pub. We were at 643 feet above sea level, trig pillar S5877 featuring a red warning light for low-flying helicopters and a circular stone seat for weary walkers.
There was a chorus of “We’ve been here before” as walkers recalled Trevor’s previous route up from South Cadbury but in fairness some overlapping is inevitable and that had been a while ago. We dropped down onto Beacon Lane which leads towards the old RAF base at Sigwells and turned right briefly following the minor road rat run from the A303 to Sherborne. I had pondered an extension to the route in the direction of Charlton Horethorne but was roundly squashed and the shortened walk took us along a farm lane towards New Barn Farm. On this stretch we encountered a lady walking two beautiful Dalmatians and Trevor accosted the woman with his classic line “We’ve met before”. Visibly shaken the woman backed away and ensured the dogs were between her and this curious assortment of trampers. Trevor offered some dubious explanation of a connection via Brian’s photographic work but she was clearly relieved to be on her way.
At the end of the track we were once more able to look down on our starting point but my route took us leftwards through New Barn Farm before dropping down into the village. Queue more grumbling…comments along the lines of “I can smell the bacon from here” and “We don’t need to check the map to find our way to a pub” had to be ignored. Noone appreciated that skilful planning had ensured that once we gained the initial altitude we had kept fairly level, using the natural plateau to our advantage. The owner of New Barn Farm proved very cheery and wished us well as we followed the footpath through her yard, along the ridge of Wheat Sheaf Hill. We should have found our way down the side of this hill on our way back into Corton but lost confidence in our route and instead stayed high, effectively retracing our steps to Corton Hill before descending on our outward path.
We parted at the pub, as I was not breakfasting but getting home to join another party for lunch. Phil came with me back to the car to collect his boots and this was when we encountered a frosty greeting by the parishioners of Corton Church, led by a hatchet faced woman who wished to make it clear that our cars were not welcome. There was a kind of outdoor event underway in the yard and we had to negotiate our way out – which is when I offered up a short prayer of thanks that I had parked for a swift getaway with no reversing required! The pubgoers (including Pete who had suggested the car park) went unscathed later as all this had packed up by the time they finished breakfast.
Adrian’s feet went unblistered, I got home in time and the local pub got a welcome boost to funds so I count that a moderate success – but I’m happy to hand back the route planning to Dave!
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