🥾 Walk 253 - Hook, Greywell and North Warnborough

Nine walkers and a dog turned up on Sunday 27th November for a walk that I'd put on the programme at the last minute to fill a gap. This was a walk I had led before in May 2013 as a joint walk with the Berkshire Walkers 20s & 30s group.

From the car park at Hook station, we walked through the village, passing a couple of pubs, a few shops and a war memorial before getting out into the countryside at Owen's Farm. Turning south near Newnham, we crossed over the railway on a road bridge and passed through a small patch of woodland to emerge by the Basingstoke Country Hotel on the A30.

Crossing the A30 and continuing south, we followed Heather Row down to a bridge over the M3 motorway, which we crossed into Gregory's Copse. Following a track through the woods, we came out at Eastrop Bridge over the Basingstoke Canal. This stretch of the canal was left as a nature reserve when the rest of the canal was restored in the 1980s.

Crossing the canal bridge we were soon heading east, following the approximate course of the Greywell Tunnel, through woodland and fields. This tunnel, the longest on the Basingstoke Canal at 1.1km, was closed in 1932 when part of it collapsed. It is now a nature reserve and home to many different species of bat.

We joined the canal towpath at the other end of the tunnel and followed this to King John's Castle, also known as Odiham Castle. We explored the 13th century ruins before stopping for our picnic lunch on some convenient benches. I attempted to take a 360° panoramic photograph from the middle of the castle. One of our group decided she wanted to appear twice in the photo and ran around as I panned the camera!

After lunch, we continued a short way along the canal until we reached a swing-bridge. Leaving the canal, we followed the road down to a ford over the River Whitewater. Crossing the ford on a foot bridge, we skirted Warnborough Green and followed the course of the Whitewater for a short way, leaving it after crossing under the A287. After stopping off for a drink in the nice warm Derby Inn pub, we walked through Bartley Heath, crossing the M3 on a foot bridge, and emerging back in Hook. It was a short walk back to the station car park. See our route on Google Maps.

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