Walking Dorset's gridsquares: A foray in the frost - Leigh circular

I was so excited about the prospect of today's walk, not least because the recent spell of absolutely freezing weather would no doubt ensure a mud-free walk. Having nearly exhausted the supply of 'virgin' squares on the extreme west of the county, I decided to venture further afield and so we headed today for Leigh with its mysterious miz maze, lots of geocaches and, well, not much else. It doesn't even boast the River Wriggle as that runs through Chetnole.

After some deliberation about parking - the Village Hall was our final choice - we set off into a hoard of caches. It didn't start well as we couldn't find the first one and subsequent caches were, as predicted, very disappointing. So was the miz maze.

There is little evidence now of what is possibly the earliest documented miz maze. Don't be enticed by the megalithic portal's description

The remains of a mizmaze can still be traced and marked on the OS map. All that is left is a hexagonal earth bank which surrounded a circular labyrinth in the middle of a field. It was a meeting point for local games and was scoured every seven years by the local men. It was also the meeting place for witches and is possibly the earliest mentioned maze in documentation. It became overgrown 200 years ago.

It is barely visible and a photograph turns out like a garden lawn!

Miz Maze, Leigh - ST6208

We walked along by what I later established was a tributary of the River Yeo to emerge at the delightfully named River Wriggle Lane which starts at Batcombe about a mile and a half further south.

Sign for the village of Leigh on River Wriggle Lane (although the bridge is over a tributary of the River Yeo) - ST6208

Heading for Bolter's Drove, we turned right and photographed an attractive farm sign.

Riverside Farm sign - ST6208

We turned onto Bolter's Drove, a Byway Open to All Traffic. I haven't been able to find out the origin of the name 'Bolter's', but it would appear from the apostrophe that the 'bolter' in question was singular. We were very grateful for the frozen nature of our byway. A week ago this would have been a deluge in mud!

Bolter's Drove - ST6207

After Bolter's Drove, about which little can be truly said, we ventured onto Long Bridge Drove, another BOAT, which re-crosses the aforementioned River Yeo tributary.

Long Bridge Drove and footbridge - ST6207

The drove continues in a very straight manner to the road from Minterne Magna. We commented that this would be particularly attractive drove in late spring and summer.

Long Bridge Drove - ST6208

Our conversation today was pretty minimal though due largely to Paul's feeling quite under the weather with the onset of a bad cold.

At Totnell corner it was tempting to turn left and walk back into Leigh, hand so almost circumnavigate the village. We resisted this temptation and walked up Bailey Ridge to Higher Totnell awhere we turned off onto another BOAT which quickly becomes a bridleway. At this point we were looking for somewhere to sit with a cup of tea and found a home-made bench under a tree overlooking a pile of rubble. That would do nicely.

Byway near Higher Totnell Farm - ST6308

From our view of the rubble we surveyed our options. There were three - two bridleways and a footpath. We wanted the left-most (a word that isn't really a word but should be) of the bridleways and this was currently hidden by said pile of rubble. We saw our gated exit upon standing up and thus gaining some height. The bridleway led us onto Higher Sweethills. How these places get their names I've no idea, nor even what Sweethills is - a farm perhaps? There was none in evidence.

I could see that we would have to cross a stream/river in the next gridsquare so hoped for a picturesque subject as we walked through pretty dreary landscape. As you can see my hopes were pretty much in vain. Again, the 'river' we crossed does not appear to have a name

Bridge near Higher Sweethills - ST6309

It looked slightly more appealing from the other direction.

Bridge near Higher Sweethills - ST6309

We continued walking in a north-easterly direction towards Gordon's Gorse and passed some rusty farm machinery which is always a good subject for a photograph. I was delighted to see my first frog spawn of the year too in a ditch by the bridleway.

Farm machinery near Higher Sweethills - ST6309

Frog spawn near Higher Sweethills - ST6309

Gordon's Gorse was pretty and the photo looks almost springlike with its abundance of evergreen holly trees.

Gordon's Gorse - ST6309

We reached the T-junction at White House Lane and were in the next square for a few yards before turning off at Seven Ash Farm onto Seven Ash Common - no sign of the seven ashes though!

White House Lane - ST6409

Seven Ash Common - ST6410

The name of the next drove was a bit weird - Cancer Drove.

Cancer Drove - ST6410

We walked on to the T-junction at Holm Bushes, which was a new gridsquare. At this point I asked Paul if he'd rather take the short cut or continue on my planned route. I had 'drawn' an extra mile on the map for the sake of gaining two new gridsquares. You see, that's what I'm like so be warned anyone who is foolish enough to agree to go on a walk with me!

Paul wisely said he'd be happy to go the extra mile for me. That's what love does to you! So on we plodded.

The Holm Bushes - ST6310

After a short walk down the road we turned onto a bridleway towards Holmbushes Farm.

Holmbushes Farm - ST6310

It's one thing going the extra mile when there's something other than pride to be gained from doing so, like a good view, less mud, a pub, a seat to eat lunch at - anything really, but, no - just boring fields and leafless trees.

Towards East Wood - ST6210

We managed to find our way onto Stockbridge Drove, a track which looked as if it had not been walked in a long time. This was actually quite an attractive path and the Shetland ponies that shared it with us were real cuties.

Stockbridge Drove - ST6211

Shetland ponies on Stockbridge Drove - ST6211

We soon discovered that we were definitely not the only ones to use Stockbridge Drove. Nearer the road there was a static caravan with attached wooden awning and a car parked outside. At the road end there is a sign for 'Stepping Stones' which we assumed was the name of this humble habitation.

Higher Stockbridge Farm - ST6311

Sign for Stepping Stones at Higher Stockbridge Farm - ST6311

We were now back where we would have been if we hadn't had the detour and we needed to find somewhere to have lunch. I'd made the mistake of estimating we would be at Lillington by 1 pm for lunch.It was now 1.40 pm and we still had at least a mile to go before we reached Lillington. Paul suggested sitting on a bank at Stockbridge Wood, so we did.

Stockbridge Wood - ST6411

We entered Leweston Wood and admired the view south.

Gate into Leweston Woods - looking south - ST6311

Paul spotted a Red Kite flying overhead in the school grounds.

Red Kite, Leweston School - ST6311

Leweston is a very elite public school with its own swimming pool (from whence we could hear the echoing sounds of whistles, splashing and shouting).

Leweston School swimming pool - ST6312

Leweston Chapel and school - ST6312

Leweston School sign - ST6312

We started going wrong at this point because we couldn't imagine having to walk over a deeply trenched and furrowed muddy field - but we imagined wrong. So up and down we went right across the field, the footpath having well and truly disappeared over the winter.

Muddy field, Leweston - ST6312

We had almost circumnavigated the school now and suddenly I realised what the tower was we oculd see in the distance. "That's the helter skelter!" I exclaimed. "Yes," Paul replied, as if he'd realised that ages ago.

Helter skelter, Leweston School - ST6312

and were on our descent to Lillington. "This is where we saw all those joggers running down two years ago when we helped build the wall," I said to Paul as we struggled down the hill on the icy bridleway. The view of the village was idyllic.

Lillington - ST6312

St Martin of Tours Church, Lillington ST6312

After admiring our wall we went to see if the church was open. Despite having spent three days building the dry stone wall two years ago I hadn't been inside the church and I wasn't going to again today as it was firmly locked.

The wall we helped build at Lillington - ST6312

As we headed south we entered new territory and joined the MacMillan Way. An unusual barn took my eye.

Unusual barn at Lillington - ST6212

We left the road and headed into more fields and once more enjoyed glorious views south. We then continued on road and through fields past Knighton and Whitfield Farm and woods back to Leigh.