beaminster to west bay

in

hardy way

wednesday, 29TH SEPTEMBER 2021

It looks like I'm in for some nice weather today with sun all day long but those temperatures don’t look very high.

weather forecast.jpg

I start the day back in Beaminster but today, instead of heading out on the Wessex Ridgeway, I head along the Hardy Way heading southwards towards the coast at West Bay. It’s a chilly start to the day.

I follow the road southwards out of Beaminster and pick up a gloomy footpath by the River Brit. I come across my first Hardy Way sign next to a footbridge over the River Brit. The fields are shrouded in mist and dew clings to the cobwebs but the cows don’t seem to mind.

The Hardy Way follows the River Brit out of Beaminster and passes Parnham Park and Parnham House. A fire ravaged Parnham House in 2017 destroying the roof and internal structure but new owners have restored the house although I can’t see it because of dense woodland.

As I approach Netherbury the Jubilee Trail forks to the right but I continue following the river and then to the left of Netherbury Church where the clock strikes quarter to nine as I approach. The church is largely late medieval but was restored in the nineteenth century with protected stained glass windows. It contains brasses of the famous local seafaring Hood family from the eighteenth century.

I enter the village of Netherbury which is looking lovely and where I come across a telephone box full of books.

I amble through Netherbury and then leave the village via a track.

I then pass Slape Manor which is the original home of River Cottage from way back in 1999 and I do indeed pass right next to the cottage. I try to take some photographs of the cottage but it is densely surrounded by trees so all I can really get is the chimney.

slape manor

river cottage

I pass through a rather posh Slape Manor housing development before entering Waytown where I pass the Hare and Hounds.

I leave the village via a minor road and then turn right at Pineapple Lane towards Salway Ash before joining a bridleway opposite a barn at the end of a large cider apple orchard at Marles Farm.

I pass Dorset Nectar Cider Farm before leaving the road.

It is now an uneventful walk over farmland to reach Ash Lane where I pass a wind turbine and then pass Ash Lane Farm, Higher Ash Farm and then Lower Ash Farm. They are certainly radical when it comes to naming their farms around here! I photograph some of the flowers by the houses and they turn out OK unlike a lot of the other photos I take today.

wind turbine

I pass through a field where a cow looks rather shiftily at me but luckily she’s behind an electric fence. I found out why she’s not looking particularly friendly when I pass by her calf who is one the other side of the electric fence next to the footpath.

The bridleway continues past Middle Pymore Farm and through the grounds of Washingpool Farm where I pass a herd of red poll cows.

I now have sudden views over Bridport. Who knew it was so close.

view over bridport

The bridleway joins the road at Court Orchard housing estate at Allington and I amble along the B3162 into Bridport where I pass the Oddfellows Arms.

oddfellows arms

The route is now familiar as we have visited Bridport many, many times over the years. It is Wednesday market day today.

I amble along West Street and then down South Street before turning right behind St Mary’s.

st mary’s

I wander through the community orchard here and then pick up a path which passes Bridport Football Club.

I cross the road next to a weir and pass behind Palmers Brewery.

I pass beneath the A35 and cross meadows once used for growing flax and where, unusually, I come across a herd of cows.

I walk through West Bay Holiday Park which is still quite busy even this late in the season, to reach my destination for the day, the harbour at West Bay.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-

  • himalayan balsam

  • cows

  • pheasants

  • horse chestnuts

  • holly

  • hogweed

  • ivy

  • beech

  • quince

  • fuchsias

  • acanthus

  • sheep

  • roses

  • asters

  • dahlias

  • hemp agrimony

  • blackberries

  • apples

podcast logo small.png

PODCAST

The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts or listen using the player below.

9 out of 10.png

MARKS OUT OF TEN?

According to my phone I've walked 9.4 miles which amounts to 21044 steps. It has taken me four hours. I’ve had pretty nice weather all day long, especially for this time of year and the temperature later on in the day has been a lot higher than forecast. Nine out of ten!

WALK DETAILS

Well bugger me! All of my tracking apps have worked for me again today for a third day running. The elevation maps below actually vaguely resemble each other.

map

beaminster to thorncombe

in

wessex ridgeway

sunday, 26th september 2021

It looks like I’m in for some pretty decent weather today despite being very late in the walking season. I should have sun all day long with warm temperatures and not much in the way of wind.

weather forecast.jpg

We’re staying in a cottage near to Bridport for the week so it’s a short drive to Beaminster where I can join up with the Wessex Ridgeway. It’s a chilly start to the day with the temperature outside only 7oC.

Beaminster and its surrounding countryside have long been the subject of poetry and stories. William Barnes, the county’s great 19th century rural poet wrote :-

“Sweet Be’mi’ster, that was bist a-bound
By green and woody hills all round,
Wi’ hedges, reachen up between
A thousand vields o’ zummer green.”
— william barnes - poems of rural life in the dorset dialect

‘vields o’ zummer’! Blimey!!

The town also features as ‘Emminster’ in Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

I walk through the centre of Beaminster, passing the Red Lion Inn and the Greyhound Inn. I then pass Little Toller Books which looks like a lovely bookshop so I’ll have to return here later on in the week.

I leave Beaminster in a westerly direction where I pass the church of St Mary, the town’s oldest surviving building.

There are a complete lack of Wessex Ridgeway signs so I’m going to have to rely heavily on my Ordnance Survey app on my phone today which is fortunately working for a change.

I finally come across a sign but my app is telling me that it is pointing in completely the wrong direction and it turns out that it is. I walk through a very wet field of corn (or maize if you prefer).

wessex ridgeway trail

field of corn

I climb up onto the Wessex Ridgeway where I enter Pucketts Wood, owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. The wood is dominated by native broadleaves such as oak and ash and seems to have been planted up between 1992 and 1995 but there are also some newly planted trees.

At the bottom of Gerrard’s Hill I come across some donkeys munching on grass.

It is a steep climb up Gerrard’s Hill and I have lovely views back to Beaminster where the church clock is chiming and I then head north of Waddon Hill.

Waddon Hill was the site of a Roman fort and dates to the invasion of 43AD.

The lumps and bumps on this hill form part of a Roman fort, which is thought to have been a base for the Roman advance of the Second Legion. A Roman sword scabbard and coins were found here during quarrying between 1876 and 1878. Other artefacts found here include a bronze brooch now in Poole Museum, legionary equipment and 115 shards of glass, pottery, animal and fish bones.

To the south of Broadwindsor I round Lewesdon Hill, which at 915 feet (279 metres) is the highest point in Dorset and is owned by the National Trust.

lewesdon hill

It is thought that there was some kind of settlement on Lewesdon Hill in the Iron Age, possibly a place of refuge for people in times of threat. The site was protected from invaders by the steep natural slope on one side, and a man made ditch and rampart on the flatter side of the hill.

I walk along what my Ordnance Survey map tells me is Lewesdon Hill Lane which is little more than a track but seems to criss cross over the banks and ditches. I walk underneath ancient beech and oak trees. I haven’t seen a soul since leaving Beaminster and come across my first dog walker.

The path joins the B3164 at Cockpit Hill and the ridgeway turns right at Courtwood Farm down along Sheepwash Lane. I’m buggered if I can find any signs or any sign of a footpath at the bottom of the lane. All I find is fields surrounded by electric fences so I retrace my steps up Sheepwash Lane to rejoin the road.

I’ll have to re-route so I continue heading along Cockpit Hill and then turn right along a road heading towards Higher Newnham Farm where I rejoin the Wessex Ridgeway.

I climb up Pilsdon Pen which is covered in Himalayan Balsam. Even following this path up the hill it keeps veering off of the route shown on my Ordnance Survey app and I can’t for the life of me find any discernable correct paths.

pilsdon Pen

Pilsdon Pen has a long history of occupation. Flint tools, over 10,000 years old and two Bronze Age burial mounds confirm that the site was used long before the hillfort was built. From 1964 to 1971, Peter Gelling of Birmingham University and a team of volunteers excavated here each summer. They uncovered and recorded the remains of 14 roundhouses near the centre of the hillfort.

Pilsdon Pen at 909 feet (277 metres) is Dorset’s second highest point and has panoramic views extending for many miles. From the top there are magnificent views of the Marshwood Vale, Golden Cap and the sea to the south, Hardy’s Monument to the east, Exmoor and the Quantocks to the west and Polden and Mendip Hills to the north. You can also see several other hillforts including Lewesdon Hill, Lambert’s Castle and Coney’s Castle.

It was bequeathed to the National Trust by the Pinney family in 1982. For many years it was thought to be Dorset's highest hill, until modern survey methods revealed that nearby Lewesdon Hill was 2 metres higher.

During 1803 Pilsdon Pen was listed as a Beacon site designed to provide advance warning of the arrival of Napoleon’s fleet.

I climb up through a field of sheep and then clamber over one of the worst stiles I’ve ever seen which is leaning over at a sharp angle and falling to pieces.

I briefly join the B3165 at Cole’s Cross where I now need to follow paths into Thorncombe.

cole’s cross

On the outskirts of Thorncombe I head along Saddle Street before walking through this pleasant village where I pass Bonfield Block-Printers. What an odd thing to find in this out of the way village. I continue through the village to the church where my lift awaits. I come across a load of cyclamens in the churchyard where I have reached my destination for the day.

thorncombe

thorncombe

My camera has let me down badly today (or maybe it was just the person using the camera) and the photographs have been rubbish. The walk has either been gloomy making the photos underexposed or I have been walking into a low sun making the photographs way overexposed. Hey ho!

FLORA AND FAUNA

Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-

  • pheasants

  • rooks

  • donkeys

  • red campion

  • foxgloves

  • ferns

  • beech

  • oak

  • holly

  • bracket fungus

  • herb robert

  • himalayan balsam

  • yarrow

  • rosebay willowherb

  • speckled wood butterflies

  • red admiral butterflies

  • comma butterfly

  • chiffchaffs

  • cyclamen

podcast logo small.png

PODCAST

The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts or listen using the player below.

8 out of 10.png

MARKS OUT OF TEN?

According to my phone I've walked 9.7 miles which amounts to 21756 steps. It has taken me four and a half hours. I’ve had pleasant sun and I’ve been going up and down hills all day long so I’m extremely sweaty. Despite being far from the sea it has been a lovely walk today but the signposting has left a lot to be desired. Eight out of ten!

WALK DETAILS

Well bugger me! All of my tracking apps have worked for me again. The elevation maps below actually vaguely resemble each other.

MAP