Christopher Somerville

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window


A cool day of smoky cloud over southern Northumberland. The houses and church at Slaley glowed in green-grey stone as we left the windy ridgetop village and headed west past a string of farms – Palm Strothers, East and Middle Dukesfield.

This is all upland grazing country with long views to purple heather moors, sheep and cattle amicably sharing the same fields, farmsteads of longhouses with byres attached, and sturdily built stone barns that would be snapped up as desirable residences if they were situated 400 miles south of here.

Under the rolling green fields and massed ranks of conifers lie the seams of lead that sustained a major lead mining and processing industry from medieval times till the 19th century. At Dukesfield we passed the handsome 3-storey house of Dukesfield Hall where the mine agent lived, and down in the deep valley of the Devil’s Water beyond we found the two tall Gothic arches by which a stone flue carried the noxious lead fumes away from the smelting mill that once worked day and night here.

Imagination and a couple of helpful information boards had to supply the background of noise, heat, furnace roar, clanging and banging. Devil’s Water nowadays couldn’t be more quiet and beautiful. We picnicked by the river to the splash of clear water over miniature cascades, watching out for dippers and for tiny brown trout that rose to flip the surface with their snouts.

A bracken path lead south past Redlead Mill to a quiet road where the aptly named Viewley Farm commanded a wonderful westward prospect from its ridge, over a wide green valley of scattered grey farms to brown and purple fells far beyond.

At the farm gate the road declined to a broad sandy track that rose through the dark conifers of Slaley Forest. Fly agaric fungi as tempting as sweeties with their white-spotted scarlet caps lay in wait among the heather for passing witches and the unwary stepchildren of woodcutters’ wives.

Beyond the forest wide uplands spread north towards a distant hint of the Cheviot Hills. Fallen crab apples spattered the lanes, and the hedges winked scarlet with holly berries. We skirted a caravan park that was threating a takeover of the footpath, and followed the sheep pastures back up the hill to Slaley.

How hard is it? 8¾ miles; easy farm and forest tracks

Start: Rose & Crown, Slaley, near Hexham NE47 0AA (OS ref NY 975577). Please ask permission to park, and give pub your custom!

Getting there: Bus 689 (Consett-Hexham)
Road – Slaley is signed from B6306 (Hexham-Stanhope)

Walk (OS Explorer OL43): Left to cross B6306 (‘Byway’), follow ‘Palm Strothers, Dukesfield’ and blue arrows. In 1¼ miles pass Dukesfield Hall (944574); bear right (yellow arrow/YA) down through trees to arches (941580). Left beside Devil’s Water for ¾ mile to Redlead Mill (931573). Pass house, over stile (YA); ahead for ¾ mile to road (930560). Left; at Viewley Farm gate, ahead (933558) on sandy track through Slaley Forest for 1¼ miles to road (955554). Left; in 600m, right (956560, ‘Spring House’). In 250m at cottage (958560, ‘Private Road’), right; in 5m, left (stile, YA) through plantation, across drive, up grass track. In 400m cross track (963560); path ahead to stile; along wood edge to Cocklake (966561). Left through 2 gates; along drive; in 150m through gate (966563). Aim for left end of plantation; waymark/stile to drive (968565); left to Blue Gables (969568). Right to cross road (974569); down drive (‘Well House, Slaley’). Right round back of East Ridley Hall (974571); YAs to stile and footbridge (975573); up 2 fields to Slaley.

Lunch/Accommodation: Rose & Crown, Slaley (01434-673996, roseandcrownslaley.co.uk)

Info: Hexham TIC (01434-652220), visitnorthumberland.com
@somerville_c

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A hot sunny day in Half Moon Lane, the fair weather bringing ‘Good morning’ from cyclists passing through Redgrave. Lambs crouched panting in the shade of the hedges, and the stubble fields beyond the village glistened with reflected sun.

This stretch of north Suffolk is well wooded, a low landscape of corn and pasture whose long-established field paths run straight to their meetings with roads and farms. Moles had thrust up hundreds of miniature volcanoes of powdery dark earth along the edge of the old hornbeam coppice of Tanglewood.

A short detour led to St Mary’s Church, tall and stately on its tump – the parish church of Redgrave, nearly a mile outside the village. Green men clustered round the south door, and goggle-eyed gargoyles spewed viciously toothed water spouts. Opposite the church, Hall Farm makes tasty beer in its Star Wing Brewery – a treat we promised ourselves for after the walk, when we’d worked up a thirst.

Back on the path we passed the rusty old shed at Holly Farm and went north across a huge, hedgeless field towards the contrasting wild greenery of Redgrave and Lopham Fen National Nature Reserve in the valley below.

The infant River Waveney runs through this remarkable nature reserve, the largest valley fen in England. Considering how much water is extracted hereabouts by farms and houses, it’s a fantastic achievement to keep the water levels constant enough to nurture the snipe, the marsh orchids, the dragonflies and rare insects that thrive in this juicy green wilderness.

This summer’s exceptional heat, however, had dried up most of the pools and flashes of water, home to the reserve’s famed fen raft spiders with their yellow stripes and five-inch leg span. We’d have to return in rainier times to spot them, said the warden.

But we were happy enough walking the peaty paths through whispering thickets of reeds, watching orange comma butterflies among the thistles and tiny roe deer in the hedges. Through the green screen of willows there was the occasional glimpse of the hard dry arable fields beyond, an alien world that seemed shut outside and far away.

How hard is it? 7 miles; easy; farmland tracks and paths

Start: Redgrave Activities Centre car park, Redgrave IP22 1RL (OS ref TM 048780)

Getting there: Bus 304 (Bury St Edmunds)
Road – Redgrave is on B1113, between A143 (Bury St Edmunds-Diss) and A1066 (Thetford-Diss)

Walk (OS Explorer 230; Redgrave & Lopham Fen downloadable trail map, see below): Left into Redgrave; left (‘Bury St Edmunds’). In 200m, left down Half Moon Lane. After houses, along footpath (fingerpost). In 250m, right at fingerpost (053777, yellow arrow), then left for nearly 1 mile. At road, left (066779). In 150m, right up field edge to road (065784). Dog right/left, north for ¾ mile to road (064797). Left; in 300m, right (062797, fingerpost, ‘Angles Way’/AW). In 200m, cross footbridge, through gate into Redgrave & Lopham Fen NNR (062799). Left (‘Waveney Trail’/WT). In 300m through kissing gate/KG (060801); in 100m, left (KG, WT). In ½ mile, left opposite Visitor Centre (053802) on waymarked Spider Trail. In 600m, through KG (053796); right. In 500m Spider Trail turns left (050796), but keep ahead (WT). In ¼ mile, left across River Waveney (045794)’ in 150m, right at junction (046793, AW). In ½ mile cross road (043797); south for ½ mile to Churchway (046780); left to car park.

Lunch: Cross Keys, Redgrave (01379-779822, crosskeysredgrave.co.uk); Star Wing Brewery, Hall Farm, Redgrave IP22 1RJ (01379-890586, starwingbrewery.com)

Accommodation: Park Hotel, Diss IP22 4LE (01379-642244, parkhotel-diss.co.uk)

Info: Redgrave & Lopham Fen NNR (suffolkwildlifetrust.org)

More walks at christophersomerville.co.uk

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Walking through West Dean on a sunny afternoon, we got a strong sensation of temps perdu – a curious, time-suspended village, many of its ancient brick and timber farm buildings tumbledown or in the embrace of weeds. A smell of newly mown grass hung about Church Farm, where two Hardyesque lovers, very young and bashful, sat against the fingerpost, close together, shyly grinning at their own feet.

Among the dark trees of Dean Copse the squirrels had emptied the hazels and acorns, leaving the husks, neatly snipped and hollowed, strewn across the path. Beyond the wood the path declined to a matter of guesswork, but we nosed our way across the rough pastures and padlocks around Keeper’s Cottage, and on into Bentley Wood.

The purple emperors, white admirals, Dukes of Burgundy and other nobly-named butterflies for which the wood is famous were lying low or gone into chrysalis accommodation. But we enjoyed wandering the path among distorted old oaks in thick jackets of moss that shone a brilliant green in the dappled afternoon light.

On the outskirts of East Grimstead a fabulous tree house sat high in the fork of a tree, some lucky child’s Dorothy-and-Toto fantasy. The village lay scattered along a road that led down to a cluster of bridges – humpbacks that crossed the River Dun and the dry bed of the long-forgotten Salisbury & Southampton Canal, and a plain brick span over the railway.

A long flinty track headed south for the ridge that overlooked the Dun valley. A young roe deer cantered ahead on wobbly legs, and a yellowhammer, startled by our approach, flung itself up and away out of the hedge with a swoop and flick of wings.

We climbed a chalky holloway to the crest of the down and set back towards West Dean along the ridge track. Under Dean Hill a labyrinth of chalk caverns once stored the munitions of the RN Armaments Department, nuclear weapons sometimes among them. That all seemed a world away from this peaceful evening prospect, with views open to north and south across a countryside harvested, neat and complete.

How hard is it? 7 miles; easy; field and woodland paths

Start: Dean Station, West Dean, Salisbury, Wilts SP5 1JF (OS ref SU 257271)

Getting there: Rail to Dean; Bus 37 (Salisbury circular)
Road – West Dean is signed off A27 between Romsey and Whiteparish

Walk (OS Explorer 131): From railway crossing, down right side of King George’s Hall. In 100m fork left; in 100m, left (256273, gate, yellow arrow/YA); follow fence on right, then footpath signs across fields, into west flank of Dean Copse (249279). In 200m, right up forest road; in 70 m, left (248282, YA) on path that leaves copse (247282). Keep same direction ahead across fields (stiles, YAs). Through gate into field opposite Keeper’s Cottage (242285); left to stile (241286), then more stiles across paddocks (YAs) into Bentley Wood (240284).

Follow public footpath through wood. In 300m at cross track, left for 10m (237281); right (‘No Horse Riding’) on path for 400m to leave wood past info board, then horse barrier (232280). Ahead for 500m to T-junction (226280, ‘Bugmore Lane’). Left; left by village noticeboard opposite pond (226278, fingerpost), through kissing gate/KG. Down right-hand hedge; at bottom, right through hedge (230276); half left to KG; along fence on right, then path (YAs) to road (225274), Left to bend; ahead up side road across canal, then railway (225271); on for ¾ mile to T-junction (228259). Right; in 150m, hairpin left (226259) up chalk track to ridge (229256). Left on gravel track. In 1¼ miles, left down Dean Hill road (249258); 20m beyond S-bend, right through hedge (253261); left along fence. At end, right along hedge (253263); through gate; left down hedge. At field bottom, left through hedge (254269); right to road; right to West Dean.

Conditions: Keep your eyes peeled for waymarks and stiles in field around Keeper’s Cottage!

Lunch: Black Horse, West Tytherley SP5 1NF (01794-340308)

Accommodation: Mill Arms, Barley Hill, Dunbridge, Romsey SO51 0LF (01794-340355, millarmsdunbridge.co.uk)

Info: visitwiltshire.co.uk

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First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A beautiful hot day in Cowdray Park, the last in a string of them, with thunder and brimstone forecast for tomorrow across the Sussex countryside. Under the gale-tattered old chestnut trees that lined The Race avenue, the humid air was stirred by the slightest of breezes.

Woodpigeons cooed throatily among the chestnut leaves, and the shady avenue was tiger-striped with bars of fierce sunlight as we stepped from cool to hot and back to cool.

Smatterings of Capability Brown’s landscaping subtleties showed in Cowdray Park’s curves and falls of perspective. A side path led up across a dusty harrowed wheat field, out over the lush shaven fairway of a golf course, and down a sandy path through a valley of bracken between huge plane trees with patchwork bark.

Modestly hidden behind Steward’s Pond (itself well camouflaged by bushes) we found a mighty veteran tree, The Queen Elizabeth oak might well have been standing here since before the Normans came to Britain. Its girth, 41 ft, is nearly twice its storm-truncated height. Warty and scaly, split and hollowed by lightning strikes and age, the tree had donned a green crown of leaves and acorns for the summer, as for every summer past for a thousand years.

By contrast the lime trees of the avenue that led us onward, planted for our own queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, were slim striplings scarcely six inches round the middle. How many of them will flourish till the next millennium?

In the shade of the coppiced hazels and sweet chestnuts of Heathend Copse we went south to cross the River Rother and enter the heath country of Todham Rough. Here conifer plantations alternated with broom and gorse. Labyrinth spiders had built funnels of webbing under the overhangs of the path margins. Our footsteps crunched on the stony tracks, and pheasant poults went racing ahead in panic, raising puffs of dust.

We crossed wheat stubbles and passed the tree-smothered mound of Midhurst’s Norman castle. A path over rough ground to reach the great ruin of Cowdray House, burned out long ago, and a final stretch beside the polo fields of Cowdray Park where teams of well drilled groundsmen were preparing for next Saturday’s match.

How hard is it? 7½ miles; easy; parkland and woodland paths

Start: Cowdray Park café car park, Easebourne, Midhurst GU29 0AJ (OS ref SU 895224)

Getting there: Bus 1 (Midhurst–Petworth)
Road: Signed off A272 at Easebourne

Walk (OS Explorer 133): Cross A272; follow Midhurst Way/MW (‘Permissive Footpath’) up The Race avenue. In 800m, opposite gate on left (902229) turn right (fingerpost/FP) across field, wood, and golf course (black arrows); follow direction of fingerposts. In ¾ mile, at bottom of dip, left through kissing gate (912226, yellow arrow/YA, MW). Past Steward Pond (Queen Elizabeth oak is behind pond at 913227); on up young lime avenue.

Through kissing gate (917228); bear left (YA) clockwise round top of field. Into trees; right (919229, FP, blue arrow/BA) for 600m to road (919223). Right; in 150m, ahead (919221, Restricted Byway’) to cross A272 (take care!). On down lane; in 700m cross River Rother (916212); right (FP) along river, then over field to road (912206). Left; at corner, right (913205, ‘Bridleway’). In 200m pass cottage (912204); in 250m, right (910201, BA). In 650m, left (905204, ‘Bridleway’ FP); in 250m, bend right onto New Lipchis Way/NLW (903202, ‘Bridleway’ FP) on broad forest road.

Follow NLW (waymarked arrows; if absent, follow ‘bridleway’ arrows) for ¾ mile to Selham Road (900211). Left across Costers brook; at crossroads, ahead (‘Kennels, Dairy’), following NLW. In ¾ mile bend right to cross bridge (890213). NLW goes left, but keep ahead (FP) and bear right (YA) between castle mound and river. Follow path across rough ground to cross river by castle ruins (890217). Left; in 150m, fork right on track to car park.

Lunch: Cowdray Park Café (01730-815152)

Accommodation: Angel Inn, North Street, Midhurst GU29 9DN (01730-812421, theangelmidhurst.co.uk)

Info: cowdray.co.uk

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A cloudy summer’s day across the Kentish Downs, with rain simmering not far away.
The remnant flint walls of Thurnham Castle couldn’t keep a mouse at bay these days.
From their shelter we admired a prospect over Wealden valleys tangled with thick
dark woods, then dropped down the castle mound to find the North Downs Way.
Pilgrims, packmen, rogues and vagabonds have been travelling this ancient trackway
for many millennia. It ribbons along the flanks of the downs, a pale line scribbled
through the woods and across chalk downlands where sheep nibble the rich
vegetation, a salad of herbs and wild flowers.
We looped round the head of a dry chalk valley, the olive-green turf bitten to a close
sward of smooth grass. A shower came rattling through Civiley Wood, polishing
leaves and stems. Nettle-leaved bell flowers glowed a milky blue in the shade of yew
trees whose knotty forms resembled limbs flayed back to muscle and bone.
Out in the open, the chalk grassland of Cat’s Mount lay washed with an astonishing
spatter of colour – yellow froth of lady’s bedstraw, gold twists of bird’s-foot trefoil,
sky blue powder-puffs of scabious, purple thistle tufts and white florets of yarrow. A
multi-hued haze of flowerheads that stretched ahead along downland flanks preserved
to maintain this precious and rare environment.
The North Downs Way ran on across the slopes. One or two bees were braving the
mizzly air to forage among the flowers, but the butterflies were all in shelter and
waiting for a peep of sun.
At Broad Street Hill we left the old trackway for the woodland paths of the Hucking
Estate. The Woodland Trust bought this 230 ha estate back in 1997 when only one-
third was under trees. Now it’s two-thirds wooded, a mix of ancient woodland and
new plantings, with broad paths mown through the trees and across the open grassland
that link the woods.
Much of the surrounding farmland of this part of Kent is tricky for walkers, with
neglected rights of way, a lack of waymarks and footpaths smothered under crops.
But at Hucking the Woodland Trust actively encourages walkers to wander and enjoy
this varied mosaic of landscapes.

At the peak of the hill stood a wooden sculpture of a shepherd in cap and baggy
jacket, one of the sturdy, silent men that spent their lives minding the downland
sheep. He seemed a fitting spirit for these wide hills and woods.

How hard is it? 7¼ miles; downland and woodland tracks; easy, but NB several steep
flights of steps on NDW.
Start: White Horse Wood Country Park, Detling, Maidstone ME14 3JE (OS ref TQ
808586)
Getting there: Signed off A249 (Sittingbourne-Maidstone)
Walk (OS Explorer 148): From car park head south across grass; cross track; follow
‘Castle’ signs to cross road (808583). Fenced path to castle. Left across mound
opposite; path down to North Downs Way/NDW (809582). Left, and follow NDW for
2 miles to cross Broad Street Hill road (836571). In 100m, dogleg left/right
(‘Viewpoint’); follow Woodland Trust/WT arrows past shepherd sculpture (840569).
In 150m fork left (WT); in 100m left (843569, kissing gate/KG, WT); ahead on path
through wood. In 300m at bench, fork left; in 400m leave woodland (839574, KG).
Half right to go through KG opposite (WT sign); woodland path to Broad Street Hill
road (838577). Left for 800m to meet NDW (836571). Right; retrace route to car
park.
Lunch/Accommodation: Black Horse Inn, Thurnham ME14 3LE (01622-737185,
blackhorsekent.co.uk)
Info:
Hucking Estate – woodlandtrust.org.uk
White Horse Wood Country Park – 01303-266327, kent.gov.uk
Maidstone TIC (01622-602169)