Durweston

5/4/2017

Date:
Location:
Walk Leader:
Participants:
Distance:
Parking:
Lunch:

5 April 2017
Durweston
Peter
Peter, Clive, Ray
7.4 miles
Village Hall
Charlton Inn ★★☆☆☆

We parked, after asking for permission which was given very graciously, in the Village Hall car park. We then followed the Stour Valley Way all the way to Bryanston Farm. There is one quite steep climb up through The Hanging but steps are provided. In spite of these we were still puffing by the time we reached the top! Rather than stay on the hard surfaced road we branched off and followed some smaller an more pleasant tracks through the woods and down to Blandford Bridge.
We turned right out of the rather grand school gates, walked a short way up New Road and then onto a footpath across the field. This is not very well marked and some deviations were required as it was broken up into smaller areas by electric fences. We found a very pleasant spot to sit in the middle of the gallops before reaching Beech Clump and luckily no riders decided to test their skills while we were there.

The Dovecot

It was a little difficult deciding whether to walk along the edge of the field where there is a nice broad path or along the rather narrow fenced off footpath. We ended up doing a bit of each. At Quarleston we walked around the edge of the field as it looked as if it had been newly sown and there was no obvious path across the field. The dovecot above the entrance to the house (approximate position marked on map) is quite an amazing construction well worth a look.

The plan was to walk down the track to Higher Barn Cottages avoiding a bit of the road but this was ditched in favour of the easier more direct route and the flowers were lovely alongside the road.
There was a minor complaint when two of the team realised that the leader had not been entirely correct in saying it was all downhill back to Durweston but in truth the gentle slope to Websley Farm was hardly worth a mention. It's not quite clear where or how we missed the footpath but we ended up walking through the grounds of Knighton House Schoolwhich was almost deserted at the time.
We were back at the car in good time to try the Charlton Inn for their £5 over 65s lunch. It was OK but the portion of liver in the liver and bacon dish was decidedly small.
This walk followed most of the route of one of Rob's walks from December 2010, the first walk that Ray missed as a result of his radiotherapy. It seems so long ago...