Saturday 20th May. DH, RW, PCL, TO, PC, DL, Pete, Sully, Scrumpy & Albus
Having being unavailable every weekend so far in May, it was good to get the boots on and return to the fold, ready and just about eager to explore a new route around the Fonthill estate. Having booked into the Bird & Carter for our breakfast, we were given permission to meet and park in their car park which we last did back in February’22. Summer has been a long time coming this year with cool winds keeping the temperature down, but today with almost clear blue skies overhead, the bravest had even opted for shorts, confident that it would only get warmer as we started walking with the sun climbing overhead. As we were preparing our boots and getting the dogs sorted, a cry went out to look up as a red kite (Milvus milvus) was taking off from a nearby perch, also hoping to get up into the blue skies and get warmed up ready for a days scavenging on the wing.
Equipped with a plethora of walking sticks this week, we turned right out of the car park and crossed the road to enter the churchyard of the Grade 1 listed All Saints church, which is first mentioned in 1242 and contains many 13th &14th century aspects. Unfortunately it was closed today but the purpose of the small door at the top of the tower certainly sparked some early discussion. The footpath continued through the church yard, past some very old graves before heading through the newer section of village burial sites. A gate in the corner of the field of rape seed opened up into a larger field which had obvious evidence of being recently occupied by sheep and maybe their lambs. As we crossed it heading towards a row of cottages, the sheep came into view and so the dogs were all swiftly put back on their leads. Our route took us through another gate as we followed the small service road to the rear of the old cottages, most likely part of the Fonthill workers residential estate, each with their own outbuildings at the bottom of the gardens. We passed to the rear of Berwick house and headed for the parish church of Berwick St James, although previously a larger parish with its own Manor house, the parish now predominantly consists of the farm and industrial units that spread out northwards of the church. The 12th Century church of St Leonard’s, designated Grade II* was closed in 1966, declared redundant in 1973 and is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. Fortunately for us we were able to briefly enter the church, past the two bell ropes clearly visible in the foyer to see the church as it has been left for the last half century or so.
Leaving the church and securing the doors behind us, we headed past the three storey Berwick House which has now been converted into eight flats and headed out onto the B3089 where we carefully navigated a short section of the busy road before crossing over to access the public footpath heading southwards up the hill. A steady climb took us along the field edge for half a kilometre and when we paused to catch our breaths some 40 metres higher up the ridge, the view northwards across the Wiltshire countryside with not a cloud in the sky, as far as the Great Ridge Wood with the A303 traffic passing along, was pretty impressive.
Having been in the open sunshine is was a pleasant change as we entered a small wooded area and followed a small pathway through the masses of wild garlic. Almost without warning the pathway started heading down a steep slope, made more slippery with the recent rain on the mud and chalk, and so carefully avoiding the many tree routes that crossed the path, we clung to the handrail as we descended. Coming up from the other side a couple of runners were reduced to walking and a bit further on we were joined by two lovely black coated retreivers whose owner could be heard shouting after them, using some non too friendly language at times. As the path exited the wood we emerged into the edge of their garden and had to stick close to the edge as we made our way towards the edge of the properties. A short stretch across the front of more estate cottages and we were soon pausing at the end of the Greenwich lane to regroup before crossing the road and heading up Stop Street towards Fonthill Gifford village.
I had been expecting a steady climb past a multitude of postbox cottages, and although there were certainly some very picturesque and quaint cottages covered in the ubiquitous clematis and wisteria, there was a fair bit of infilling of modern homes and many others had been refurbished over recent years which were quite disappointing with their modern UPVc windows and triple garage blocks, no doubt hiding a few 4 x4’s.
We posed for this weeks selfie in front of one of the better cottages and Dereyk took the opportunity to distribute this weeks sweeties to those welcoming the weekly sugar fix. As we reached the end of the lane marked by the suitably name Hill cottage, the track climbed into the edge of the woods again. Unfortunately a lapse in concentration (I’m blaming it on a bit of oxygen starvation) allowed me to miss the pathway into the fields, but having gone a further 100m into the woods and on arriving at a large set of gates clearly marked as ‘No Entry’ we had to turn back and drop back down to get back on the right route again.
Once in the field the village of Fonthill Gifford was stretched out in front of us and I must say that from this angle it looked far more appealing. Passing through a couple of fields and the only bit of boggy ground today we soon had the steeple of the next church in our sights. Whilst looking at the rather splendid country house, which in fact was just the former rectory, yes this is an area of the county dripping in money, I managed to put one foot into a large hole just of the track, giving my back a slight jarring. Following a track past some more lovely properties we were soon by the church of the Holy Trinity, a considerable newer one than the previous two, having been built in the 1860s, although with a modern thatched cottage in its foreground and the field cut ready for some wedding parking, it certainly was just as photogenic in its own right as the older ones.
At this point we were around half an hour from our breakfast slot so on reaching the road junction by the Beckford Arms, instead of cutting across fields to the hydro power end of Fonthill Lake, we headed north along the tree lined road back towards Fonthill Bishop. Through the trees we caught glimpses of the lake and it’s clear blue waters, which is due to an unusual but natural chemical phenomena happening after a long dry spell, as the water is entering the lake having passed through a lot of calcium and magnesium, which as they mix and warm is turning the water an Italian lake shade of blue as opposed to the usual Thames coloured brown we normally see. Further along it was good to see a family of swans and their cygnets enjoying the clear waters as lots of 4x4s and electric cars made their way past us, possible en route to the wedding venue back up the road. Although we got split up into about 3 small groups, we made good time along the road, and were soon passing under the archway and alongside the cafe, where through the windows we could see the trail blazers had already taken their seats for the breakfast. Perfectly timed and having completed around 4.2 miles, the rest of us joined them outside the former village stores and post office on the sheep fleece covered benches, part in the sun and part in the shade.
It took a few minutes for our orders to be taken, not helped by Trevor confusing the waitress with his choice of bread and eggs, and as we waited for drinks the usual summary of the walk was discussed and the equally usual banter and stories flew around the table. I’m sure Peter was a bit shocked at his former teachers and colleagues antics at times, but he was quite happy sat amongst us all trying to work out the fact from the fiction. After a rather lengthy wait our platefuls slowly arrived and although a minor mix up with a bit of toast, the general opinion was that is was a simple but tasty breakfast offering. All in all a great summers morning walk through the gorgeous Wiltshire countryside, and I for one was certainly pleased that I and the slow going Sully had completed the whole route in one piece.
Comments