A tale of two valleys - Charminster to Bradford Peverell - 9th February

Faithful followers of my blog will be aware that I had a nightmare walk in November last year from Symondsbury to Broadoak in which I encountered lots of mud and non-existent footpaths. I had drawn out a route for today which consisted of similar paths in the same sort of area and it was niggling me. Maybe I should choose a different route - in a different area?

I'd stuck with the same area, around the A356 for quite a while so chose a different are altogether - Charminster and decided we could combine it with lots of geocaches as the area around Beaminster and the A356 is bereft of caches.

Thus, when Paul returned from work, the sandwiches were made up, the route synced to the phone, the caches downloaded to the GPS, our boots and cameras were at the front door ready to go and I'd even found both his hats in preparation. Naturally, it still took a few minutes to get ready an leave and it took the best part of an hour to drive to Charminster where we sat in the church with our sandwiches and tried not to drop crumbs.

St Mary's Church, Charminster (in spring) - SY6792

From nowhere I was suddenly aware of footsteps padding quietly behind us and of Paul saying hello to someone. I turned as a female figure walked by to the toilet. She reappeared a few minutes later  and walked by us silently again into a shut off room. "Perhaps there's a Bible Study going on," I suggested to Paul. We saw no-one else during our brief stay and we exited into the sunshine eager to start our walk.

Our encounter with the first of our two rivers started immediately as we crossed the Cerne by a bridge where once upon a time we would have had to do so via a ford. I checked for old photos of the ford and there is one by Francis Frith which shows a bridge over the river as early as 1922. This photo is protected by copyright so I cannot include it here - instead here is my own taken on the day.

Ford by St Mary's Church, Charminster - SY6892

The area is well set up for picnickers and walkers with benches everywhere, so it could be a good walk for a group of people if it were not for having to walk along the A352. Some revision would be necessary to the route to do it with a group to avoid that part of the walk.

I'd already photographed the next square into which we stepped ever so briefly. SY6893, but we had already clocked up two caches. Our next one took us slightly off-piste and to another ford - and inTO another gridsquare.

Ford north of Charminster - SY6893

We followed the River northwards past Herrison Cottages and across the minor road leading to Herrison House. Now converted into residential flats, this imposing and massive building used to be the Dorset County Asylum. Prior to its opening in 1863, patients were admitted to a site at Forston House a mile upstream,but when overcrowding became a problem, a new site was proposed and constructed at Herrison House (Charlton Down). At its prime, the hospital was home to 957 people deemed to have mental health problems or learning difficulties.

Anne Brown, the archivist at the Dorset History Centre said that the treatment patients received, "through our modern eyes, was really quite harsh and not very humanitarian." (BBC website). The hospital finally closed in 1997 and the huge complex now forms the village of Charlton Down with a nursing home, a village hall, residential flats, a shop and a fitness centre.

Herrison House, once the Dorset County Asylum - SY6794

We walked on through fields of crops and past the ivy-clad ruined barn near Forston.

Ivy-clad barn near Forston  - SY6695

 A massive oak tree standing alone in the field deserved closer inspection and I took a photograph of its 'foot' planted firmly in the soil and overshadowed by its branches.

Tree 'foot' near Forston - SY6695

Another tree was all spiky, looking as if it had taken fright at something.

Spiky tree near Forston - SY6695

 So we descended into the grounds of Forston House, which  we didn't know at the time was the erstwhile primary site of the Dorset county Asylum. I didn't even take a photograph so will aim to do so next time. I did take a photo of the huge water wheel though.

Forston Water Wheel - SY6695

We had to walk along the busy A352 to Forston Farm which is dangerous as there are no verges. Fortunately we only had to do so for a short stretch before turning left at Watcombe Farm and following a bridleway westwards up Watcombe Bottom. We had walked along here before and remembered finding lots of Fox Moth caterpillars. Once at the top of the first hill, we paused for breath and were glad of a bench, conveniently placed  and overlooking the Cerne Valley and Herrison House.

Towards Herrison House across the Cerne Valley - SY6694

Feeling refreshed we set off once more, looking for a bifurcation in the paths. Strangely enough we were taking the right hand path away from Charminster and towards Stratton. This was new territory for us and my first new gridsquare for the day was approaching!

Bifurcation on Charminster Down - SY6694

It was followed soon after by another new gridsquare, albeit one that we were barely in, and one that sported a flailed hedge looking very sorrry for itself. I hate the way these hedges are brutally attacked these days, sending shards of their bones onto the hard surface of tarmac in some instances where they are likely to puncture tyres. It is a violent attack on a living organism which causes potential damage to many vehicles.

Flailed hedge on Charminster Down - SY6693

The path came out at Stratton Dairy. We had walked further west before but not this far into the village and pong of the farm. Holding ournoses we walked to the railway line, wondering how we were going to get across. Aha, via a tunnel and then another tunnel underneath the A35 - brilliant!

Railway bridge and tunnel under the A35 - SY6593

I'd hoped we'd have time to explore the village of Stratton a bit, but time was marching on and daylight hours were dwindling. I'd just have to leave that for another day as well.

We walked along the cycle track by the A35 until we reached the footpath sign which led now to a footbridge over our second river of the day, the River Frome which began its life at Evershot just a few miles upstream.

Footbridge over River Frome at Stratton - SY6593

We wandered across the waterlogged water meadows, under the pylons to the next footbridge approaching Bradford Peverell.

River Frome at Bradford Peverell - SY6593

As we lingered, looking for a cache I spotted a Grey Heron fly westwards along the river bank. And so we entered the village of Bradford Peverell. I'd like to say it was a sleepy village but any peaceful sounds from the tranquil waters of the Frome were drowned out by the persistent barking of a labrador, its owner's shouting at it to shut up and the owner's radio blaring out some sort of rap music. We hurried by and into the village proper where an unusual bench attracted our attention. The notice was advertising a forthcoming coffee morning.

Bench advertising a village coffee morning, Bradford Peverell - SY6593

We detoured to the spired church of St Mary which  was lit by late afternoon sunshine. At one time this church looked as if it would have been dwarfed by the enormous tree in its grounds. The tree was now pollarded and perhaps dead.

St Mary's Church, Bradford Peverell, - SY6593

After a quick look round the church we left and entered a new gridsquare briefly.

Woodland at Bradford Peverell - SY6592

 Back on a very straight minor road we plodded on to Giles Cross. (Who was Giles? we wondered.) Here we turned left back towards Charminster.

Giles Cross - SY6692

We crossed the River Frome again via another bridge.

River Frome at Bradford Peverell - SY6692

Our final crossing was also over a bridge, although there was also a ford. This was obviously a popular area for fishing as we kept seeing signs about the Wrackleford Beat and there was even parking allocated for this purpose! Shame walkers couldn't use it too; we are always struggling to find car parks for our groups.

By now the sun was setting low in the sky, but all we had to do was wander back by the busy A35 on the cycle path to Charminster and back to the sun-basked church and our little car.

Ford across the River Frome near Bradford Peverell - SY6692

Number of new gridsquares: 4
Number of miles walked: 7.3
Number of times we crossed the River Cerne: 2
Number of times we crossed the River Frome: 4

Godmanstone to Charminster

For my birthday walk, I decided to treat myself with a trigpoint as well as lots of new squares. of course, there's always a risk in drawing a route on a map - it might not turn out to be as nice as it looks on the map. I'm also discovering with circular walks that there's usually half the walk which is particularly scenic and the other half not quite as scenic. That was not the case with John's Ringstead walk (last post) and I told him so - both the coastal route out and the return inland route were scenic. but in Pembrokeshire the same thing happened, we enjoyed walking the coastal path, but as soon as we turned inland we were walking through arable fields, dusting ourselves with pollen as we waded through Rapeseed or corn fields.

Anyway, enough of the negativity. It was a lovely day, I had my new camera (Canon SX60 Powershot) and we saw Ashy Mining Bee at Godmanstone Church as we began our travels. (When I say 'we', I mean Paul and me). This is another historic church in a delightful location.

Godmanstone Church - SY6697

We crossed the River Cerne with its glorious Weeping Willow and turned southwards, ascending Cowdon Hill, where we saw Mistle Thrush and Grey Heron.

Weeping Willow and River Cerne at Godmanstone - SY6697

Ascending Cowdon Hill - SY6696

Mistle Thrush

Grey Heron

We lost the path a little at the ruined Forston Barn, but soon found it again and made our way eastwards across fields towards the north-south minor road between Middlemarsh and Charminster.

SY6796

SY6896

 We crossed one road and went straight into another field, following the edge of a small copse. I caught sight of my first Holly Blue of the year. They are the earliest blues in the UK to emerge.

Holly Blue

We crossed another minor road just west of Little Piddle Farm (delightful name) and continued through yet another field to Charlton Higher Down trigpoint. There's not a lot I can say about this one really. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, it's just not in the most scenic spot, but then we're spoilt by some of the ones we've visited on the Dorset coast.

Charlton Higher Down trigpoint - SY6895 - rapeseed fields in the background

We had to do a tiny diversion to reach the trigpoint so we retraced our steps to the footpath leading east. There are several tumuli and pits (dis) marked on the map in this area and not all of them are obvious. Had the tumuli been ploughed into the ground, we wondered?

Wolfeton Clump made a subject for SY6995 and caused me to ponder on the meaning of the word 'clump'. I mean, is this a genuinely recognised geographical term?

Wolfeton Clump - SY6995

If possible, SY6994 was even more boring than its predecessor with yet more rapeseed fields and just one covert (another unfamiliar term) and a couple of pits (dis) to break the monotony.

Lower Covert - SY6994

SY6993 has at least a blue-bell bordered track (an ORPA - Other Route with Public Access) to make it more interesting and we came across our first fellow-walker here - naturally a dog-walker. This suggested we were approaching Charminster for we have discovered that dog-walkers often stick to paths of only about a mile radius from their hometown.

Bluebell adorned track - SY6993

SY6893 and SY6892 were photographed on our way back. We were now in the bustling metropolis of Charminster. I'd remembered this being quite an attractive town, but the outskirts are really the same as any other small town - housing estates with nothing remarkable to write home about. The centre of the town is attractive though, not least because on this day 6th May 2016 at 12 noon, the new bridge had been opened and we had missed the opening ceremony by a few hours. The original bridge had suffered from severe damage in the 2013/2014 floods and it had taken several years to rebuild. We had commented on its 'newness' as we crossed it, before we saw the flier advertising the opening ceremony earlier that day. I somehow felt quite honoured that this had happened on my birthday, if simultaneously a little disappointed that we had missed it. I was pleased that the old Fooks sign had been replaced on the bridge, warning against wilfully injuring the bridge.

Charminster bridge opening ceremony advert

River Cerne at Charminster and the newly opened bridge - SY6792

I was a little anxious lest the church be closed as it had just gone 5 pm and someone often comes to lock churches at that time, but the door was open and we were able to have a wander round, though not as long as I would have liked as we knew we had a long walk back.

St Mary the Virgin church, Charminster  - SY6792

Windows inside St Mary the Virgin church, Charminster

We revised our return route in order to shorten it. Originally we were going to cross the A352 and walk north, but we decided it would be shorter to walk eastwards of the A road, following the River Cerne on its eastward banks.

We crossed the River via a wooden footbridge, although there obviously used to be a ford here.

Ford over River Cerne - SY6792

Signs for The Lost Garden intrigued me and reminded me of  Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden with its beehive and rusty bike.

The Lost Garden - SY6892

A brief sojourn at a tempting bench in SY6893 and then we were into SY6793 where there is evidence of an ancient farmstead. We were immediately enamoured with this valley walk with the attractive clear river running through it - much more attractive than our outward walk.

Bench by River Cerne - SY6893

Sheep by the River Cerne - SY6793

Old farmstead - SY6793

We continued westwards past the complex at Herrison, which I think is now residential flats and then through a gate into wheat fields.

Wheat fields - SY6794

I managed to miss our brief entry into SY6694 (it's easily done when there's nothing distinctive about a gridsquare!), then we walked through woodland into Forston, a small hamlet just south of Godmanstone.

Footpath to Forston - SY6695

Derelict Pulston Barn near Forston - SY6695

A rather broken rowing boat lay on its side by the banks of the River Cerne as we walked through the extensive grounds of Forston Farm, making an attractive photo. I am always drawn to the ruined, the broken, the derelict and the hopeless. Give me the four (or even two) ruined walls of a roofless cottage by the sea on a Scottish Island any day and I'd take it over an enormous mansion in suburbia. I'd forget about practicalities like keeping dry and warm - as long as I could hear the ocean I think I'd be happy!

Broken boat - the stuff of poetry - at Forston - SY6695

Then it was back into SY6696 and the Godmanstone square itself, SY6697. Our return walk was about half the distance of the outward walk - and much nicer - something to bear in mind.

Distance - 9.7 miles

Trigpoints - 1

Churches - 2

Broken boats - 1

Repaired bridges - 1

Missed opening ceremonies - 1

Gridsquares - 12