Saturday 22nd April - DH, RW, TO, AC, PCL, DL, Sully & Scrumpy
The last time we completed this walk was way back in June 2020 when the first Covid lockdown restrictions were starting to be eased. Trevor & Adrian joined Richard and myself that day, and were laughing together in the back of the car today as we arrived within minutes of each other at All Saints church just before 0900. Although we have walked from here to Hornblotton in more recent times todays walk was going to take us eastwards towards the hamlet of Sutton.
Whilst sully went around greeting everyone Adrian was keen to show off his nice new birthday pressie boot bag, suitably but strangle embroidered with just half of the famous Australian heavy metal rock band’s name. Maybe he has another matching one at home embroidered with DC? Trevor in the mean time was doing his best to convince us that his choice of headwear this week was really suitable for the walk, and not actually one he had pinched from a military parade. With great pride he related how he had spent his hard earned pocket money whilst on a school trip , as a pupil himself back in the 1970s, as a gift for his father. Having been kept in storage for many years he decided today was the day to go French on us, and on removing it from his head actually showed that is was a genuine Basque variant. For future reference into their uses and styles I would highly recommend this page I have found to anyone who wants to know more about them.
Once we set off the driveway took us towards Alford House before turning left into the woods and down towards the River Brue, which was in good flow as we crossed and continued heading north. The track slowly deteriorated until passing through a gate we were into a wet and muddy section which proved difficult walking for all. Clumps of cowslips were in full flower under the eastern hedge and thankfully it was only a 100m or so, with no major slips or falls until we were out into a open field. A small clump of flowers had us all guessing as to the variety but thankfully this week the identification app worked its wonders and reliably informed us that they were most probably Lady’s Smock, which goes by a variety of other names including Meadow Cress and Cuckoo flower. We continued through the wet grass and through a small gate and turned right onto another section of The Monarch's Way.
There was no cattle in the fields so progress was pretty good as we made it along the old route towards our next river crossing point of Bolter’s bridge, as it crosses over the River Alham, This short river has made its way around 10 miles from the Chesterblade hills above Evercreech, where we walked back on a cold and frosty morning last December, and we have also crossed at various points between Spargrove and Milton Clevedon. It only has another half mile to go at this point before it joins the Brue at the rear of Alford House. Sully headed straight down to the waters edge although once he saw how deep it was, sensibly chose to stay on the bank today. The bridge is a medieval masonary pack horse/footbridge built of lias rubble, with four segmental pointed archways, rough hewn voussoirs, three triangular cutwaters and cobbled deck. Reputedly it was built by the Abbots of Glastonbury to connect the two parts of the moor and to make a road between Castle Cary and Glastonbury. It is now a Grade II listed monument.
Continuing eastwards past a bank of wild garlic in flower, the pathway was through a large open field, and with the grass starting to gain some height and following overnight rains, it was damp and harder going as we all followed in file along a single track. Eventually a gate marked the start of a hardened farm track going by the name of Bolter’s Lane, although we all chose to squeeze through the gap by the side of the gate post rather than opening the gate, not quite sure why?
We we’re all a bit slower than normal today and the open track brought no increase in pace as we made it to the furthest point and turned around the end of some farm buildings to start the journey back. The route was clearly going to take us through cattle very soon and so with dogs on leads we passed through a couple of electric fences and entered the field full of mostly recumbent milking cows as it was not clear that taking a track along the edge would allow us access back onto the footpath at the end of it.
Richard leading the way with Scrumpy set off left flanking to work his way around the edge of the herd and made it to the rivers edge unscathed whilst those following took a more direct route through a large gap in the middle of the docile beasts. Only one of two paid any attention to us or the dogs and we reached the corner of the field in good time before the now inquisitive ones were starting to get to their feet. At this point we were unknowingly very close to a Roman settlement site which unfortunately for us has no surface indications of its whereabouts. An extract from a page on an ancient monument site copied below gives a bit more details of it. “ This monument includes a minor Romano British villa situated on very gently sloping and relatively low lying terrace on the northern bank of the River Brue. The villa was discovered during drainage works and survives as entirely buried features, layers and deposits with no visible earthworks. Some partial foundations associated with 1st century pottery including New Forest ware and further 3rd to 4th century pottery finds were made during the drainage works. A small excavation in the 1970’s yielded further pottery and a concentration of building stone and tile. Aerial photographs taken during the severe drought of 1976 revealed extensive enclosures and other structures associated with the villa“.
Unfortunately the crossing point was not ideal, but with the detachable barbed wire pulled out of the way to open up a cross-country horse fence, it was not too much of a challenge for us all and proved to be the only major obstacle on todays route, much to Adrian’s pleasure. Once across we took the opportunity to partake in sugary treats and pose with the cattle who had now all gathered on the fence line to be included in todays selfie, which felt very appropriate as the theme for todays Earth Day is ‘Investing in our Planet’. The final mile back to the cars were again through long wet grass and a great opportunity to clean off the boots. We kept to the edges only cutting across at the last minute to cross the final bridge over the Brue before we headed out to the main road.
Just as we heading back into Alford we came across a small construction on the edge of the pavement which looked as though it was probably water related. There was a well in Alford in the 1600s thought to have some magical health benefits, although the site was near Alford Well Farm some 500metres to the south of this location. On closure inspection of a 10:000 map there is just the word ‘pump’ in the vicinity so my guess s that it was the village water pump, obviously long since dried up. I can’t find any reference to the three letter entwined crest on the structure, maybe someone else could discover its origins? We headed back down church lane which gives great views of both the church and house on the way in. A slightly shorter and definitely slower walk than last week, with 3.33 miles completed in 1 hr 50 minutes, there was ample time to get back into the cars for the 5 minute drive into Castle Cary for breakfast.
The George has changed hands since our last visit and is now part of the Newts empire, but it was good to see it busy with most tables occupied. We all opted for the classic breakfast this week, although there was some discussion about the choice of smoked bacon as opposed to the normal accepted unsmoked variant. Adrian continued to convince Trevor that the beret would look much better on him and Richard was the grateful recipient of a large gillet donated by Trevor as apparently the zips didn’t ’meet’ his expectations!
Dereyk took charge of the pots of tea when they arrived, purely so he could ensure he got a good weak one for himself, and as promised included is a good Yorkshire strength/colour chart that can be used in subsequent weeks when faced with getting everyone preferences just right. Note the name for the strongest option Dereyk!
A slightly reduced plateful to previous offerings but never the less very tasty. Would personally have preferred toast to fried bread and to have beans as an optional extra on an English breakfast is something that doesn’t sit right with me. We also discussed the possibility of going back to post Covid lockdown days during this summer and organise taking turns in offering simple bacon rolls (vegetarian options for John) sat in the gardens, which would allow us to walk a few different areas and also provide a good healthy change, and well as saving a few pennies throughout the months. Everyone present was in agreement so more details once the weather improves enough to sit outside again.
It will be the start of Mays three long weekends next week but hopefully there will be enough interest to organise walks each week. Au revoir until next time.
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