🥾 Walk 109 - An Evening Walk in Swallowfield

On the evening of Wednesday 25th June, eight of us plus a small Jack-Russell terrier gathered by the George & Dragon pub in Swallowfield for a 4¾ mile walk followed by a pub supper. What a pleasant way to unwind after a day at work and to make the most of the long hours of daylight at this time of year.

We started the walk by crossing the pub's beer garden and passing through a gate onto a footpath heading north. This soon joined another footpath running north-east along the edge of Swallowfield Park. We couldn't see the stately home from where we were, just the grounds with sheep and piles of logs.

A short bit of road-walking came next and then we were following a track through woodland going roughly south. This emerged onto a country road, which we followed briefly before turning off onto a track through Clark's Farm.

Leaving the track we crossed between fields where maize was growing. This must have been planted fairly recently as it was still quite small. Some more road-walking on Sandpit Lane was followed by a long track through Wheeler's Copse emerging onto Jouldings Lane.

We only walked a few yards along this lane before leaving it at a bridge over the River Blackwater for a footpath that roughly followed the course of the Blackwater going westward. We followed this for about a mile, during which time the footpath varied in quality from good to seriously overgrown. At one point the path was surrounded by cow parsley and nettles taller than us.

Somewhere along this path the River Whitewater joined the River Blackwater to form the Broadwater. The path then left the river and joined Nutbean Lane, which we followed until it joined Church Road, very close to the pub from where we had started.

A couple of the group left us as we reached the pub, while the rest of us changed out of our boots and went in. See our route on Bing Maps.

We were joined at the pub by another member of our group who hadn't made it to the walk. After getting in a round of drinks, we sat down to a late supper. The walk had sharpened our appetites and the excellent food was much appreciated.

📸 Back to Volume 8

Return to volume index