🥾 Walk 261 - Silchester and Pamber Forest

Sunday 12th February was cold and dull, but nonetheless we had thirteen people and a dog turn up for this short walk. This included two members of the Windsor and District group, and a couple who were visiting family members of our group who had persuaded them to come along.

Starting from the English Heritage car park in Silchester, we made our way to the West Gate of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum. There isn't much left of this 2000 year old settlement apart from the sturdy city walls. We followed a footpath along the top of the north wall, stopping at the North Gate to look at an information board with an artist's impression of the ancient town.

As we approached the East Gate, we took a detour to look at the Roman Amphitheatre, which is just outside the city walls. The floor of the amphitheatre is well preserved but the surrounding earth embankments that would have held the terraced seating are now overgrown with mature trees.

We entered the East Gate and took a direct path across the middle of the town, which is mostly farmland now, to reach the West Gate, where we had come in. From there we left Calleva Atrebatum on a footpath crossing several fields. At one point we saw some deer leaping through a field ahead of us. The dog didn't see them but when we passed through that field, he was sniffing away at their trail.

Emerging from a field onto Byes Lane, we followed it for a short while before taking a footpath into Early Bridge Copse and Bridle's Copse. We were now in the woodland surrounding Pamber Forest. We crossed Silchester Road and entered Gravel Pit Copse, where the paths were very muddy.

We entered Pamber Forest on a well maintained path and soon found a nice spot to stop for our picnic lunch, complete with logs to sit on. After lunch we continued on a square loop through the forest, leaving the well maintained path for the more muddy footpaths of the Brenda Parker Way.

This recently opened long-distance path, named after a walking enthusiast who has done much work to maintain rights of way, crosses Hampshire from Andover to Aldershot. We would only follow a couple of miles of it today but we have followed other sections of this long-distance path on several previous walks.

A gentle uphill section of muddy footpath brought us into Silchester village by the Calleva Arms pub. Here we stopped for a drink before finishing the last mile of the walk, which continued to follow the Brenda Parker Way back to the Roman remains before heading back to the car park. See our route on Google Maps.

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