Swanage to Norden

Since I courageously mounted a tandem with my son in August I have been trying to find an excuse to revisit Norden station, take the train to Swanage and walk back to the park and ride. Some fine autumnal weather last weekend finally enticed us to make the trip. It was a very enjoyable 9 and a half mile walk along the beautiful Purbeck hills with stunning views to Studland and Poole and south to Swanage.

We arrived at Norden Station with just enough time to purchase our one way tickets before embarking on this delightful little steam train. I love the sound the train makes as it crosses the gap in the tracks, something Paul explained no longer happens because the tracks are continuously welded together. I'd only ever travelled on the steam train on the Swanage Railway for one stop, between Norden and Corfe Castle, and that was with James in August, so it was lovely to follow the line to its termination at Swanage.

Now, I have to be honest (well, I don't, but I will) - I'd got myself really excited about the most ridiculous thing; something I wouldn't normally get excited about, so I can't really explain it. I'd seen photos of this globe sculpture somewhere at Swanage and I was looking round expectantly for it as soon as we disembarked at the station.

Swanage Railway - steam train at Swanage - SZ0278

Swanage Railway Station - steam train at Swanage - SZ0278

Paul said he had a feeling it was the north side of Swanage, but then admitted he didn't know what I was on about, so I disregarded this 'feeling'. It turns out he must be correct as we didn't encounter the globe. My consolation was discovered upon returning home and submitting my geographs - and this is arguably an equally ridiculous thing to get excited about - I discovered we had entered 'SZ' territory. In fact we were wandering obliviously between 'SY' and 'SZ' on the map throughout our walk. 'Z' is such an underused letter in our alphabet so I like to acknowledge its existence with reverence whenever I encounter it.

We walked seawards towards the pier and the groynes, This is the unfortunate word given to the barriers built to trap sand and prevent it from being carried by wave and wind action too far along the coast. I should probably already have known that, but  I didn't until I told Paul they had those funny things on the Solway Coast and I remembered them as a child walking along the beach at Carsethorn and wondering what their purpose was. I remember them being so high further up the beach that I had to walk towards the sea in order to be able to cross over them. Paul enlightened me as to their meaning - and then I saw that this area is even called 'Groynes' on the map.

Swanage pier - SZ0378

Swanage groynes - SZ0379

Swanage groyes - SZ0379

The coast path turns inland briefly and we trudged through Swanage streets, gradually climbing until we reached a corner shop where we purchased some delicious out-of-date Danish pastries to quieten our rumbling tummies. Then it was onwards and upwards to Ballard Point - along with it seemed half the population of Swanage who had all decided to make the most of a beautiful day, like us.

Towards Ballard Point - SZ0380

We walked cautiously along the footpath along the steep-sided Ballard Cliff, reassured by the number of people we were passing, although, on reflection, maybe this shouldn't have been reassuring given the amount of erosion this was causing. As we cautiously walked, we also observed every butterfly that flitted past in the hope that it would turn into a Camberwell Beauty, a species which had been seen on migration in various places along the south coast. Unfortunately none of the Red Admirals managed this transformation during our walk.

Ballard Cliff  - SZ0380

Once we reached the ridge, however, our sense of fear was replaced by an amazing 'Wow' factor as we surveyed the whole world before us, at least that's how it felt. To our north were unobstructed views of Studland, Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour and beyond to Poole and Bournemouth and south we were looking back towards Swanage. Almost directly east of us we were looking at the Isle of Wight which had performed a miraculous transformation from at least two islands into just one as we gained height and appreciated that the two lumps out to sea were in fact just one island. We worked out that the reason we couldn't see the Needles through my binoculars was not due to their inferior power rating, but because we were looking head on to these famous pinnacles. A photo later confirmed this.  (I also tried looking for that globe sculpture through my binoculars but they're just not powerful enough!)

Studland and Sandbanks from Ballard Cliff - SZ0481

Swanage from Ballard Cliff - SZ0481

The Needles, Isle of Wight, from Ballard Down

To add to our delight, I was going to bag another Dorset trigpoint. We joined throngs of other walkers and cyclists here to admire the view.

Ballard Cliff trigpoint - SZ0481

If I had known that the walk wasn't going to be as long as I'd thought, I would have suggested walking on to the end to view Old Harry's Rocks; it would only have been an extra mile or so and it was a beautiful day so we should probably have done it, but it will be something to come back for on an equally nice day in the future. (There's a gridsquare which consists mainly of sea with just one and a half diamonds of the South-west coast path in it!)

We had our long-awaited lunch here, chasing butterflies and admiring the view and drinking in pure sea air. Then we departed from the South-west coast path and joined the Purbeck Way, walking westwards back to Corfe Castle. We passed a few boundary stones en route, as well as the more modern marker stones which the |National Trust have erected to point out the (rather obvious) direction. Some of these boundary stones had Ordnance Survey benchmarks on them as they would have been the only place available at the time to mark the relative height above sea level.

Boundary stone, Ballard Down - SZ0381

Stone seat - SZ0381

This attractive, and useful, stone bench has a date marked on it - 1852 - SZ0381

The views continued to be wonderful as we  walked westwards towards Godlingstone Hill.

Godlingstone Hill - SZ0281

I began to anticipate seeing the obelisk which we had viewed from Studland last year. You don't actually see the obelisk until you are nearly upon it because it is hidden in a bit of a dip. The obelisk commemorates the provision of a new supply of drinking water for Swanage in 1883. It was taken down in 1941 as it was a landmark that might have aided enemy aircraft during World War II, but was re-erected in 1952.

Swanage Water Works obelisk and tumulus - SZ0281

Swanage Water Works obelisk - SZ0281

In order to pass the obelisk, we had chosen the upper footpath, which, according to the Explorer map is not strictly speaking the Purbeck Way, so we now turned southwards and followed some very steep steps down past a reservoir  to rejoin the Purbeck Way. We walked through a patch of dappled woodland before meeting and crossing the Ulwell road.

Woodland at bottom of Studland Hill - SZ0181

I was hoping we were going to be able to see the Giant's Grave amd Giant's Trencher (whatever that is) that are marked on the map here, but upon subsequent research, discovered that no-one else seemed to have been able to find them either so I'm glad we didn't struggle over gratuitous hills in a futile search. Instead we watched Kestrels, of which there were plenty.

Kestrel near Round Hill

Kestrel near Round Hill

I had to be satisfied with a boring bifurcation photograph for SZ0180, but then the views continued to be stunning, especially when our little steam train steamed past several times.

Bifurcation of paths - SZ0180

Swanage Railway

Swanage from Godlingstone Hill 

There is just one diamond of the Purbeck Way in square SZ0080 so I took a photograph of Knitson Farm which lies more securely within the gridsquare.

Knitson Farm - SZ0080

Then there was a big surprise - a deceased trigpoint. I have normally scoured the maps long before a walk, ensuring I have taken every landmark into account that I want to visit - and this of course includes trigpoints. But this one, named Coringdon on Trigpointing UK, is not marked on the Explorer map. It is marked on the Landranger map for some reason, but not in the spot where it now rests, toppled with great views of Swanage.

Coringdon trigpoint - SZ0081

The final resting place of Coringdon trigpoint - SZ0081

We were now back into 'SY' territory (although I didn't realise it at the time, happy as I was just photographing each gridsquare). I was excited about being on Nine Barrow Down, however, and the reason for its name soon became clear as we passed lots of tumuli (I didn't count!)

Tumuli on Nine Barrow Down - SY9981

View from Ailwood Down - SY9981

View from Ailwood Down - SY9981

Our next Hill was Brescombe Hill, from where we could see Corfe Castle and we knew our destination was not too far away. We talked of walking the rest of the Purbeck Hills some day and wondered where it ended up. It turns out it's a little unclear on the maps, but we decided we could walk from Corfe Castle to somewhere near Worbarrow Tout, the distinctive hill which was now in our view beyond Corfe Castle on the coast.

Brenscombe Hill - SY9881

Corfe Castle from Brenscombe Hill - SY9881

Signpost on Brenscombe Hill - SY9881

I think I managed to miss a photograph from the corner of SY9882 (another one diamond square!) so my next square was SY9782, where the most obvious thing to photograph was theu gly telephone mast on Rollington Hill. This was my last new gridsquare of the day.

Telephone mast on Rollington Hill - SY9782

We walked down the hill towards the village, passing a field with two llamas and a shepherd's hut en route.

Shepherd's Hut and llamas, Corfe Castle - SY9682

Soon we were in the hustle and bustle of this popular attractive village, from where we walked past the Visitor Centre and back to Norden Station, only five hours after starting our walk - not bad at all!

Number of new gridsquares - 14
Number of llamas - 2
Number of dead trigpoints - 1
Number of 'living' trigpoints - 1
Number of times said 'Wow!' - numerous
Number of globe sculptures - 0
Number of miles walked - 9.49

Godmanstone to Grimstone

We have driven through Grimstone many times on the way to Dorchester and, to be quite honest, decided it lived up to its name. There is, of course the lovely viaduct just north of the village, but not a lot else - until, that is, you discover Grimstone Down.

I marked out a circular walk starting from Godmanstone, walking down across Grimstone Down to the edge of Grimstone and back up Hog Hill and Watcombe Bottom to Godmanstone.

We walked up Fry's Lane in Godmanstone to begin our walk. A prisoner of war camp was apparently established on this lane in the early 1940s and prisoners worked in local farms and gardens. The site was demolished in the 1960s and houses were built in its place.

SY6597 - Fry's Lane

At the junction we turned left and headed down Crete Hill.

Crete Hill track - SY6596

We had walked along this track before in search of glow worms last summer and had seen badgers, glow worms and a Barn Owl. This time we saw very little in the featureless daylight.

We only skirted the corner of SY6496, but managed to find a cross dyke and a tumulus, hidden under vegetation in the woodland.

Tumulus in woodland - SY6496

Back on the footpath proper we found Jackman's Cross. Eager to learn the origin of its name, we researched it later when we got home. Apparently there is a lovely old book called 'The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset' by Alfred Pope, who wrote that, ' There is a tradition that a man named Jackman was hanged on this cross early in the eighteenth century for sheep-stealing, but the writer has searched through the Court Rolls which are in his possession as lord of the manor, and date back to 1640, and is unable to find any confirmation of this tradition.

Inscription beneath stone seat at Jackman's Cross - SY6495

Jackman's Cross - SY6495

'Nothing is Distant from God' - SY6495

All that is left of the original cross is the foundation, but the current cross was  commissioned by Christopher Pope, great-grandson of Alfred Pope, author of 'The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset.'  It was created by Andrew Grassby of Grassby (Stonemasons) of Grimstone from a piece of Purbeck Cap, a Jurassic limestone. It was Christopher Pope’s wish that the Cross be made using methods from an earlier era. Bronze chisels were struck with a small boulder covered in leather to shape the monument.

A seat was also made by the same local stonemasons with the lovely inscription 'Nothing is distant from God'  and the inscription on the plaque beneath it reads:

This Wayside Cross is offered in celebration of the SECOND MILLENNIUM of JESUS CHRIST Our Lord on this ancient path from Abbotsbury to Cerne Abbas. It replaces an early cross of which only the foundation remains and was dedicated at millennium midnight 1999-2000 by the Rt Revd John Kirkham Bishop of Sherborne – The seat commemorates the family of Alfred Pope author of The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset which has cared for this land through six generations.

Kestrel at Jackman's Cross

We were now on Grimstone Down and walking through an old settlement. Suddenly we were overwhelmed by stuff to see around Grimstone! Not so grim after all! There is no longer much to see of the settlement which once extended for about 100 acres.

Part of settlement at Grimstone Down - SY6495

Part of settlement at Grimstone Down - SY6494

The footpath ends up at Grimstone Dairy, an attractive building, where it crosses the old Roman road between Dorchester and Ilchester. 

Grimstone Dairy - SY6494

We crossed the railway via a bridge and walked into Grimstone to find an Ordnance Survey rivet that we had looked for for a long time. It is positioned on a bollard at the Old Mill.

Bridge over railway - SY6494

Attractive road sign, Grimstone - SY6394

Ordnance Survey rivet on bollard at Grimstone Mill, SY6394

Grimstone Mill - SY6394

The rivet search had been gratuitous, purely to indulge our penchant for benchmarks, but at least we didn't have to walk back either the same way or along the busy A37; instead we walked under the aforementioned attractive viaduct (which boasts an Ordnance Survey flush bracket - arguably one up on the rivet), past the equally attractive Viaduct cottage and back onto the Dorchester/Ilchester Roman Road.

Grimstone Viaduct - SY6394

Flush bracket on Grimstone Viaduct - SY6394

We crossed the railway again, just for fun and I walked briefly in to SY6593, just to claim the gridsquare, before we walked back in earnest.

Crossing the railway near Stratton - SY6493

Farm near Stratton - SY6593

 I immediately informed Paul that we were now crossing the corner of four gridsquares. I think he panicked, thinking that I would insist on setting foot in all four - now that would be fun, to have each of our four feet in a different gridsquare - but we didn't do that! I've discovered you can end up chasing your tail with the GPS trying to find when exactly you're in a particular gridsquare - even though it looks easy on the map!

We made our way back up Hog Hill on a different path, before rejoining our path just south of Jackman's Cross. We made use of the bench for a second time to have our afternoon cup of flask tea and then headed eastwards, above Watcombe Bottom and in a new gridsquare to the A352 at Forston.

Signpost at Watcombe Bottom - SY6595

I had photographed these last two gridsquares on a previous walk, so these photos are from that occasion in May when the sun was out.

Forston Grange - SY6695

Climbing Cowden Hill, looking towards Godmanstone - SY6696

This part of our walk is part of the Cerne Valley trail, a 26 mile walk which follows the River Cerne from near its source at High Stoy and Dogbury, to its confluence with the River Frome in the watermeadows below Charminster. It is a very pleasant walk and was a lovely way to conclude our eight mile afternoon stroll.


Number of new gridsquares: 8
Number of miles walked: 8
Number of benchmarks seen: 2
Number of viaducts: 1
Number of times crossed the railway: 4