Robust Rambles

Section 43

Shawford to Hursley

Walk Details

Walk Instructions

Greatstone to Gillingham Robust Ramble

Section 43  Out

Shawford to Hursley

Map: OS Explorer 132 Winchester

Distance: 3.5 miles/ 2 hours

Start: The Bridge Inn at Shawford. Ask at pub for parking if intending to patronize, otherwise the station car park or go up under the railway bridge, pass the station approach and go next left into Bridge Terrace; small car park for Shawford Down.

Comment: A shortish section making use of the Monarch’s Way as no other footpaths link these two villages. Easy walking apart from a stiff climb at the start. Good Victorian church at Hursley.

From The Bridge Inn walk up the main road under the railway bridge. Cross the station approach to find steps going up to a shady footpath. Walk up this to soon reach a narrow road by a car park. Straight ahead is a gate behind information boards.

Go up to and through this gate, then on steeply up Shawford Down towards a stone cross. At a cross track, bear left, to pass the memorial on your left. Two tracks diverge. Bear slightly right, still, now gently, uphill.

Pass a seat and continue to reach a fence at the far side of the Down. Turn right on a track, and go along by the fence to a wooden equestrian gate. Through this continue to soon reach a gravel drive by a house. Turn left along this drive, which soon meets a public road at a bend.

Turn right on the road and stay on it to finally reach a T-junction with a main road. Cross and turn left, past a bus stop. Immediately turn right down an asphalt path which goes through a subway. Follow it steeply up through trees at the far side to reach a road.

Turn left along Shepherd’s Lane, ignoring a turning to school, immediately left. Stay on Shepherd’s Lane for ½ mile, passing between detached houses. Finally reach flint built Dairy Cottage. Here. follow the lane left and right and continue past New Barn Farm.

Keep on up to a T-junction. Here go straight across to a stile. Cross into a small grassy area and go diagonally left across to a further (broken) stile. Cross into the corner of a large field.

Go straight down, over a track then follow the field edge downhill with trees on your left. Keep all the way down to the bottom. Continue to follow the field edge around the bottom corner then on over a track and along by a hedge on your left.

Finally, the hedge swings away left. Stay on along the field edge passing a triangle of grass on your left. Reach a gravel track. Turn right on this, uphill, still along the field edge, with trees on your left.

Emerge at a T-junction by a pylon. Turn left on a wide gravel track. Continue past a farm and reach a further T-junction. Turn left on a road for a few paces, then right, up a tractor track into the corner of a field.

Go forward a few paces then sharp right around the corner of the field (ignore a track going downhill towards a house). Go along the field edge towards twin wooden poles and power lines for ½ mile. A hedge soon appears on your left.

Eventually leave the field and go through a wooded section to reach another field. Again, go forward along the field edge with a hedge on your left. Finally leave the field into an enclosed path and soon emerge onto a road at Parsonage Farm.

Turn right a few paces then left into an enclosed path signed ‘Wide Footpath’ for some reason. Emerge onto a field edge, and keep forward under power lines.

At the far side of this large field, go forward past a cemetery. Drop down to meet a road and continue past houses to emerge onto a main road with the King’s Head pub on your right in Hursley and the end of the section.

Greatstone to Gillingham Robust Ramble

Section 43  Return

Hursley to Shawford

Map: OS Explorer 132 Winchester

Distance: 3.5 miles/ 2 hours

Start: The King’s Head in Hursley. Park at the pub with permission or up the lane opposite at the rear of the church by the playing field.

Comment: A shortish return making use of the Monarch’s Way as no other footpaths link these two villages. However, some attractive paths and woodland walks and a contrast of flat fields and gentle inclines. Waymarking is patchy but the paths are clear on the ground.

From the King’s Head, go back up the side road by the Butcher’s shop used on the outward route. At the Y-fork bear right, uphill, to pass the cemetery on your left and reach an open field. Go straight across, to zig-zag through woodland on the far side, on a narrow path emerging on a road at Parsonage Farm.

Turn right a few paces then left into an enclosed path. This soon emerges into a field. Go ahead along the edge with a hedge on your right. At the end of the field, go through a wooded section to reach another very large field.

Keep forward, as before, with a hedge on your right, for nearly ½ mile.

At the end of the field look for a stile into a small paddock. Go straight across to another stile out to a road. Turn left up the road for 10 metres, then right up a wide gravel bridleway towards power lines.

Pass a farm and keep on. Ignore a track off right by a large log and continue uphill. At a Y-fork, bear left still uphill, between hedges for ½ mile.

Over the top pass a house, over on the right, and reach a

T-junction. Turn right, past a metal fieldgate, and go down

hill on a gravel track (ignore a footpath off left by a bench

seat). The track becomes a metalled road.

Just after a set-backed house on your right called

Shepherd’s Crown, look for a fingerpost just off the road

Down on your left. This shows two paths going off. Follow

the one on the right going steeply downhill. This soon

meets a broader track. Turn right on this, down through a

dramatic woodland tunnel.

After 100 metres reach a cross path coming up from the

left and going up steps on the right. Ignore this and go

straight on; up for a short distance then continuing down

again.

Soon reach a road through two metal kissing gates. Turn

left on the road around to a T-junction. Go right, over a

motorway bridge, then immediately left down the road

signed to Shawford. Look for a footpath up the bank on

the right in about 30 metres. Enter Shawford Down. Turn

immediately left to follow the hedge on the left down and

around to the gate used on the outward route.

Exit the Down. Cross the narrow road by the car park to

the footpath in to trees opposite and drop down to the

Station Approach road. Cross and continue down, under

the bridge to reach The Bridge Inn and the start of the

section.