🥾 Walk 613 - Hazeley Heath, Mattingley and West Green

On Sunday 3rd December, seven of us met up on a grey and drizzly day in Hartley Wintney for an eight-mile walk. This was similar to a walk I'd led in February except the route was reversed, and with a few changes to avoid the worst of the mud.

We started off the walk with a section of Hartley Wintney High Street before taking a footpath that headed north-west and uphill into Hazeley Heath.

Now on the Three Castles Path, we briefly followed it northwards before heading west and along a wooden board-walk to Hatts Cottage and Purdies Farm.

The path got very muddy between Purdies Farm and Crabtree Lodge, as we skirted the north-east edge of Hazeley Heath. We reached the double gate-house on the driveway to Bramshill House, before following the driveway out to the B3011.

Bramshill House had been used as a police college until it was sold off in 2014. The gatehouse still displays the police insignia in stone on its walls, but the entrances have been boarded up since we last walked here. As a result, you can no longer see the long driveway and the manor house.

The house itself, has many ghost stories associated with it, and ghosts were reportedly seen as recently as when it was a police college! (Read about it on Wikipedia.)

Now skirting the south-west edge of Hazeley Heath, we made our way to Hazeley Heath Cottage where we took a footpath through farmland to Dipley. Crossing a paddock inhabited by alpacas, who kept their beady eyes on us, we entered the grounds of Dipley Mill. We respectfully followed all the sign posts through this private garden.

We stopped at Mattingley for our lunch. It had now started raining, but luckily there was enough space for us to shelter in the porch of the 16th century timber-framed church. We didn't go inside the church.

After lunch, we headed back to Dipley, stopping on the bridge in front of the mill for a picture, and then south to West Green House. A walk though West Green Common and along a quiet lane took us back to Hazeley Heath, by which time the rain had stopped. Crossing the southern tip of the heath, we reached the suburbs of Hartley Wintney and made our way back to the car park. See our route on Google Maps.

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