🥾 Walk 357 - Hartley Wintney and West Green

It was a sunny and dry day on Sunday 18th November when Denise led her Hartley Wintney and West Green walk for the second time. She had led this walk a year earlier when the weather was not so kind to us. In fact, the rain was so heavy, we decided to cut short the walk. This time we did the walk in full, and in reverse to freshen it up.

The twelve of us left the car park, crossed through Hartley Wintney Commons and into Phoenix Green, following the Brenda Parker Way (a long-distance path from Andover to Aldershot, named after a leading figure in the Ramblers Association). A footbridge took us over the M3 motorway and into Winchfield.

We followed the Brenda Parker Way through Shapley Heath, passing under the M3 along the way. Then we crossed the A30 London Road and headed toward West Green Common, passing by Wintney Court, where we saw a number of alpacas.

On reaching West Green Common, we stopped in the woodland to eat our packed lunches. Some of us popped in to the National Trust gift shop at West Green House, while we were there.

After lunch, we took a brief diversion from the Brenda Parker Way to look at the Lord McAlpine monument - an elaborately designed 50 foot high column bearing a Latin inscription, which translates to: "This monument was built with a great deal of money which otherwise someday would have been given into the hands of the public revenue."

Soon after leaving West Green, we also left the Brenda Parker Way to head north, crossing White Knights Farm and into the tiny hamlet of Dipley.

Here we took a slight detour to Dipley Bridge to have a look at the picturesque mill that stands on the River Whitewater. This ancient flour mill was listed in the Doomsday Book (circa 1086).

From here, we headed up to Hazeley Heath, where we followed unmarked paths and tracks through the heathland and woodland to the large pond by Crabtree Lodge. Finally, we followed a well-worn footpath through the heath and into Hartley Wintney, where we had started. See our route on Google Maps.

Thank you to Denise for leading this walk.

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