4th January ‘25. DH, RW, TO, PC, DL, JB, CH, JS, Scrumpy & Maisie
After all the festive celebrations and no doubt excess of food for many, it seemed like a good idea to start the year with a good stretch of the legs and workout for the heart and lungs, by taking a once every couple of years climb of White Sheet hill. It was also a good time to invite along another Wincanton long term resident, the first in the group from north of the border - country not county that is! So being unable to drive currently our new memberJohn walked to Deryck’s where Chris was the kind driver for those from the western side of town. With two of us from Greenway and just two this week from the northern territories of Ansford ( or Castle Cary, I don’t think anyone knows where the boundary is) and Bruton, there was a good group of eight who met up in the car park at Mere at 0845 for a slightly earlier start.
Following the round of New Years handshakes and the delayed passing of a couple of Christmas cards, with hats and gloves on all round we headed off up the narrow path towards Castle Hill. It was good to see that the council have refurbished all the wooden climbing equipment in the kids play area as we passed by. Unfortunately due to the time restraints today there was no time to climb to the top of the old fort, but pausing briefly at the top of the pathway the view back over Mere, past the church tower and down to the south was a pretty good start to the day. Although it was a cold start to the day at -1C, the ground was still quite firm form the much colder temperatures of the previous night as we started to make our way along the edge of the hill and to the rear of the properties on the Bramley Hill area of town.
We soon got a bit strung out on the narrow path but it didn’t take long to reach the end of the hill and the town as we headed over the A303 and out into the area to the east of Zeals Knoll. The sun had now risen but unlike the day before, there was a little bit too much cloud to feel any immediate effects from it, as we pushed on at a good pace through open fields to keep warm. Maisie used the open area to resume her teasing of Scrumpy as she ran circles around before diving back in like a World War 2 ace towards her target for a quick growl and bark, before heading off once again. At the front the pace continued at a good lick and it was only when we noticed it had gone a bit quiet behind us that we paused for a while to allow for a quick regroup.
We continued as a large group at a slightly slower pace as we pushed on northwards through one of the most westerly areas of downland in Britain, with the chalk ridge of the Iron Age hill fort and Neolithic camp, all part of the Stourhead estate, although it has been under the ownership of the National Trust since 1946. There were pockets of the previous days frost still remaining in more hidden areas of the hedgerows but the south facing slopes of WhiteSheet, after their day in the sun yesterday, were appearing more green than white today.
Our route took us through the edge of Search Farm and alongside the enclosure which has always housed a couple of donkeys, normally seen sheltering in their little shed on previous walks. Today they were out in the field and clearly thought that we might be carrying a couple of rosy red apples for them as they quickly made their way to the fence line. John, doing his usual ‘Dr Dolittle’ bit, soon had them at close range, although with the sight of his big leather gloves instead of food, they very quickly lost interest in our company. At the end of the next field we turned right onto a Drove way which leads from the hill top down to Stourhead House and dropping into low gear we started the climb to the top of Beech Clump.
Taking a designated pause to look at the monument and to allow for the group to reassemble, we took the opportunity to grab this weeks groupie. The memorial is to the twenty airmen who lost their lives when a Douglas Dakota C-47 crashed at the site on the 19th February 1945. Dakota III TS436 from 107 OTU was assigned to the Glider Pick-Up Training Flt, whose role was to train crews in the 'snatch take-off method for retrieving gliders. Those on board were mostly returning to their base in Leicester East, on completion of the course of instruction at RAF Zeals.
The aircraft took off at 15:23 hours in conditions of broken cloud, with some patches down to 100 feet and generally overcast, a westerly wind at 10 mph and visibility of 1 to 2 miles at ground level. The pilot made a quarter circuit of the airfield and then set course to the north-east. Three minutes later whilst flying in and out of the broken cloud and whilst in level flight, the aircraft flew into a clump of 60-foot tall beech trees on top of Beech Knoll. The impact ripped 10 feet off the port wing and the aircraft rolled to port, hit two more trees and then impaled itself on a cluster of four mature trees, caught fire and disintegrated, scattering wreckage over a distance of 300 yards on the far side of the knoll. Destruction of the aircraft was complete but investigation revealed the engines to have been at a high power setting on impact.
The Accident Report, published on 17th May 1945, suggests that the pilot, who was the sole survivor, had failed to climb to a safe height when flying in poor visibility, although the knoll was a well known obstruction in close proximity to the airfield.
As we started off again, we exited the trees and continued eastwards along the track towards the small car park at the base of the hill. Trevor, hoping for momentum to carry him up the first bit of the hill took off at speed and was soon no more than a dot in the distance. The rest of us taking things a bit easier had time to look around and enjoy the views both southwards, where three deer could be seen grazing in a near by field, and opening up to the north towards Long Knoll as we too prepared ourselves for the forthcoming climb.
We crossed the stile at the start of the climb and then made our way up the partly frozen muddy slope before turning into the old quarrying area. Out of the wind and expending considerably more energy as we climbed the steps cut into the narrow chalk ridge, hats and gloves were soon removed temporarily by many. As we climbed to the top it was great to see a lone Red Kite circling above us, and at times getting very close to us. As soon as we crested the final climb, the cold northerly wind returned and hats were once again put on top of heads to keep the heat in. Dereyk took the opportunity to reach into his pockets to pull out the bag of lollies which was greatfully appreciated by those needing and able to take a sugar fix. We had made good time to this point, 3 miles in 90 minutes, so I was confident that with a mainly downhill route back to Mere, that we would be down in good time for breakfast.
Heading over the top of this almost unique elevated chalk grassland we used a very tall and slippery stile to get onto the ridgeline track and head towards the radio mast and enclosed reservoir. This whole area is the northern point of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has views across much of Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset. Turning off the track a bit further along we headed back towards the edge of the horseshoe shaped escarpment and started our descent.
The last time we walked this route we all remembered quite vividly that by this point the heavens had opened and we were being pelted by heavy rain coming in almost horizontally. It was a rather unpleasant head down walk then but thankfully today we were able to reminisce about the time the Army rifle range occupied the next re-entrant bottom, or the mass of orange clays that used to mark the down range end of a farm clay pigeon shooting area. We made it down to the road just before 11.00 and it was then just a steady 10 minutes along the farm access road and over the A303 once more before we reached the cars. A good 5.25 miles completed, with over 500 feet of ascent, completed in exactly the same time as last time: 2 hours 20 minutes.
Unfortunately our usual Angel cafe is closed for modernisation and so we had to take a short drive out of town to the Hillbrush factory and the Brush & Broom cafe/restaurant. Despite only booking in on Friday there was no record of the booking but they quickly found us two back to back tables, seating four on each. We made our choices rapidly from the rather limited options on the menu and didn’t have too long to wait for drinks to arrive first. Soon afterwards the variety of choices of breakfast arrived and the tables and we got stuck in. A few little gripes in there being only one (Cornish) butter pat for 2 pieces of toast, no choice onto change the smoked bacon to plain were expressed but overall despite the cost the quality of the food was, as usual, very good. I hope it was a good first experience for JS, does his inclusion make us officially an international group now?
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