🥾 Walk 306 - Hook, West Green, Rotherwick and Newnham

On Saturday 11th November, I opened the curtains to some wet and miserable weather. The forecast wasn't very optimistic either. Nonetheless, seven people turned up at Hook railway station for my nine-mile walk. But, as so often happens with wet autumn mornings, the rain died down to a fine Scotch mist as we set off and had stopped before lunchtime.

The walk started soon after the 10:31 had deposited a number of people on the platform, none of which were joining us for the walk. We're occasionally criticised for not starting walks from places accessible by public transport, but experience has shown that when we do start them at railway stations, nobody arrives by train anyway.

Leaving the station and walking down Station Road, we entered Bartley Heath, where we joined the tail end of Holt Lane. This track through Bartley Heath became a proper road as it entered Hook. It ended at the A30, where we took a footpath that passed Hook Mill and the farm at Borough Court.

Crossing the farm, we made our way to West Green House, the gardens of which are open to the public during the summer months. They seemed to be open as we arrived, despite it being November, with Christmas decorations clearly visible in the gift shop. Here we joined the Brenda Parker Way, a long-distance path stretching from Andover to Aldershot, named after a lady who helped maintain footpaths and lobbied for countryside access for more than 30 years.

We followed this long-distance path for about three miles from West Green to Rotherwick, through farmland and woodland, stopping for our picnic lunch by the River Whitewater. We stopped for a drink at the Coach & Horses in Rotherwick before leaving the Brenda Parker Way and crossing a golf course on our way into Tylney Park.

Our route now passed behind Tylney Hall, a Grade II listed mansion house, which is now a fancy hotel. The house, mostly hidden by trees, suddenly comes into view as the footpath passes the end of a very long lawn. There's a short tunnel between the footpath and the lawn. Perhaps this was to keep Ramblers out of view as they passed by.

The footpath became a lane as we left Tylney Park and entered the tiny, picturesque village of Newnham. From there, we followed a footpath through Naishes Farm and Owen's Farm, back into Hook. See our route on Google Maps.

Although I have led this walk a couple of time before, parts of it may look rather different if I lead it again in a year's time. At least two sections of the route pass through land on which houses are planned. The land north east of Hook, and Owen's Farm to the west of Hook, are being developed. We desperately need more housing in this country, so I won't make too much fuss, especially as they have been developing nearby brown-field sites first.

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