🥾 Walk 335 - Odiham Evening Walk

The long evenings are upon us, and the evening before the longest day saw four of us meet up for a four-mile walk around Odiham and the Basingstoke Canal. We started off by following the canal tow path from Odiham Wharf car park in the direction of Dogmersfield. We hadn't gone more than 2/3 mile before we left the tow path to explore the woodland of Odiham Common.

Passing by Wilks Walter, we found the path to be covered with baby frogs. We had to walk very carefully to avoid crushing the tiny creatures. Next we passed by an elaborate looking building known as the Odiham Hunting Lodge, dating from around 1730. The front has a very ornate facade, but as we passed behind the building, the rest of it looked somewhat more convential.

Looping round through the woodland, we arrived back at the canal at Broad Oak Bridge, which we had passed under earlier on the walk. We followed the canal on the other side for a short while before heading south, crossing the A287, into Hillside Common. Passing through fields of horses and then fields of oilseed rape, we made our way west, back into Odiham.

As we approached, we could see a match being played at Odiham & Greywell Cricket Club in the distance, and behind that we could just make out RAF Odiham. It's presence was felt as a Chinook helicopter flew overhead.

Our next stop was to visit the cemetary where we found two almost identical chapels. These Mortuary Chapels, one for Anglicans and the other for non-conformists, are no longer used.

After a brief look at these 19th centuary listed buildings, we continued along Kings Road into Odiham. We followed the High Street before turing off onto the road back to Odiham Wharf, where we had started the walk. See our route on Google Maps.

Along the way, three of us decided to have a post-walk drink at the Waterwitch pub. It was light enough to sit out in the beer garden until gone 9:30pm. While we were there, another member of our group joined us. Having missed the start of the walk, he had made up his own walk before joining us at the pub.

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