On Sunday 16th February a lovely group of 12 people met opposite the White Hart Hotel in the centre of Whitchurch, Hampshire, ready for a fun filled ramble around this historic town. 9 regular Berkshire Weekend Walkers were joined by 1 new rambler who hopefully has been convinced to join our merry group and 2 other walkers from more youthful groups. Initially the weather looked fairly bleak and the temperature was typical for a mid February walk, i.e. cold!
We set off out of Whitchurch through the estate named after the author of Watership Down, Richard Adams. With the disused railway line on our left, we exited the estate and entered the Whitchurch cemetery, which has the headstone for the famous author. We were able to enjoy a beautiful carpet of snowdrops as we walked through the older part of the cemetery.
Passing under the A34 we entered our first muddy section of the walk which fortunately didn't cause too many slips. Very soon the noise of the dual carriageway was replaced by a peaceful walk through fields and over little tributaries of the River Test.
We reached the main River Test after walking under a viaduct section of the disused railway line and then crossed the first of many bridges. Once everyone had glimpsed the camouflaged brown trout we continued over a hill on the edge of a field before doing some easy walking on a small lane to the hamlet, or small village of Tufton. There is a lovely 13th century church here which has the remains of an 800 year old painting of St Christopher on the wall.
Our next point of interest, about half a mile further on, was the privately owned Whitchurch Fulling Mill, which was once home to the famous actor James Robertson Justice. He played opposite Gregory Peck in The Guns of Navarone, amongst other films. We had a group photo on the bridge kindly taken by Hazel whilst we continued to spot the lovely trout.
Walking back into Whitchurch along the river Test to complete the first loop of our figure of eight, we passed several recently uprooted trees along the bank of the river and All Hallows church (originally a white church giving Whitchurch its name from the old English, Witcerce, meaning white church).
We exited Whitchurch along the London road and then onto the Mill Trail, passing the Town Mill which is now residential but used to mill flour. Then into the beautiful countryside before reaching Laverstock for a short lunch break in the Millennium Gardens (it's really just a playground with a couple of picnic benches). Across the road is the Bombay Sapphire Distillery which is situated in the building which was previously the Laverstock Paper Mill. This mill was responsible for producing the paper used for the Bank of England notes from the 1720s until the 1960s.
We then made our way to the Watership Down Inn via the little church of St Nicholas in Freefolk, the longest thatched terrace of 18 cottages built in 1939, and then past yet another Church, St Mary's Church. The pub has a couple of lovely wall murals of Watership Down rabbits and a very nice coffee machine. On leaving the pub we experienced a rare event...the sun came out and we were able to complete our walk with the weak February sun.
We passed through a field full of sheep before reaching Bere Mill, which was the site of the first paper mill before it relocated to Laverstock. The historic mill completely burnt down in 2018 but was totally rebuilt again in 2021. We passed a strange sculpture made from the burnt timbers of the old mill which serve to reminder of the tragedy. Re-entering Whitchurch we passed the old workhouse, built in the early 1830s, but has now been converted into beautiful flint and stone terrace cottages. Instead of walking down the London Road we took the high footpath. We were rewarded with lovely views over Whitchurch and the fish farm, which glistened in the sun.
We finally concluded our walk at the entrance to the working Silk Mill. It is a magnificent building which still produces beautiful silk cloth used in many of our period dramas, and is open to the public to view the making of silk.
It was such a pleasure to lead this walk with Hazel, and maybe one day, we'll have another trip to this hugely interesting area.
Thanks go to Anne and Hazel for leading this walk, and to Anne for the write-up.
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