Piddletrenthide to Lyscombe (again)

I know I said that there were far too many gridsquares to return to a place, but I so enjoyed my walk on Thursday that I wanted to share it with Paul. I also wanted to find my hat and actually explore the interior of the chapel which I had so carefully avoided on the grounds that I thought it was somebody's home. Trouble was, the weather was nowhere near as good as it had been on Thursday.

I planned a slightly different route which would include the route I took and where I thought I might have lost my hat, but which would also take in a few extra gridsquares.

We passed a settlement on West Hill, which really just looks like a few lumps and bumps in the ground, but makes an interesting feature for a gridsquare photograph. (ST7002). I'm really too embarrassed to include it here because it really is a boring photo.

I wish it had been sunny today because we saw some amazing field systems. Now Paul gets really excited about field systems. I always like it when he gets his camera out - it makes a change from it always being me who takes the photos - and field systems are a sure fire way of him getting his camera out. I have to admit they looked pretty good (even if they didn't constitute a gridsquare photo as they were in one square and I was in another so it doesn't count - purist that I am!)

Field system, Watcombe Plain (east side of valley)

After getting very excited about that field system, we got a tiny bit more excited when we realised we were walking through another field system. Yes, I mean that our feet were treading on the very boundaries of ancient fields - you really know your day has been made when that happens. At the T-junction of the Wessex ridgeway, I wandered left gratuitously for about 100 metres just so I could get a photo of ST 70 03 (I really thought I'd left those days of gratuitous walking behind when I left Islay!) It was an even more boring photo than the one of the West Hill settlement so I'm not including it here.

I really wanted to take a photo of Little Elias Copse because of its name, but that would have meant even more gratuitous walking, so I satisfied myself with a photo of the Celtic enclosure at the north boundary of Watcombe Wood for ST7103 (honestly it was just more lumps and bumps so i'm not including it here.)

This part of the walk was fascinating - full of ancient history and I would like to return (yes, I know, AGAIN) to take photos in the sunshine - it does make such a difference. It was also interesting to view where I'd walked from the west side of the valley. i could just make out the trigpoint on Higher Hill.

On we trotted to Ball Hill and down to Folly where the Fox Inn is no longer a pub, but still has a Fox as its weather vane. That made my photo for ST 7203, which I'll include despite its boringness.

Fox Inn, Folly

Gate detail, Ball Hill

As we entered ST7303 and circumnavigated Nettlecombe Tout, I was back on familiar territory and could stop looking at the map quite as often. After all, we needed all four eyes to look for my hat.

At the Dorsetshire Gap we took time to sign the rather damp Visitors' Book and ponder on the five ancient intersecting routes which meet here. Then on through the mud to the top of Nettlecombe Tout where we could see the fort and made a mental note to return in better weather to have a bit of explore there. We turned past the funny little building again and scoured the landscape for my hat. We eventually found it perched on a gatepost near Higher Melcombe. Yippee!! It was slightly damp, but not too bad considering it had been out in the rain for three days.

We stopped for lunch at Lyscombe Chapel again - this time inside the building. Although it was probably no warmer inside, and definitely damper, the place is beautiful. Very simply decorated and apparently restored in 2007, for which it won awards due to it being in keeping with the original workmanship. It has a thatched roof, a rustic wooden cross and some pillars have been restored and part of the upper storey to show what it would have looked like in its heyday. Apparently there were once bedrooms up there.

It is a most delightful place and I would like to return in each season to admire its different flora and fauna.

We strode out across another gridsquare now - yet more boring fields towards Thorncombe Farm and Whitcombe Hill (two more squares). Then we rejoined the path I had taken from Whitcombe Barn on Thursday, but instead of turning left down Tallon's Lane, we continued past Dole's Ash Farm (a massive, rather posh place), crossed the minor road and walked past New Barn Farm (another gridsquare), through Tokenhills Coppice to the minor road between Piddletrenthide and Plush. Here we saw rather an unusual structure - it looked a bit like a sunken hobbit's house, with just the chimney sticking up out of the ground. We discovered later that it is in fact a hydraulic ram (I'm not entirely sure what that is either, but something to do with water!)

Hydraulic Ram, Piddletrenthide

We wandered through Redlands Coppice, admiring the coppiced hazels and realised we'd strayed form the footpath and needed to fight our way through said hazel back to the road, where we turned off onto the footpath which led back to the church. Another great walk.

Distance: 10.8 miles

New gridsquares covered:  6