The Wednesday Walk 4th April 2012

The Plan
A walk from Athelhampton to Tolpuddle.

The Leader

Wendy

Who Turned Up
Wendy, Jackie, Ros, Beatrice and Tony H, David

The Walk
Welcome back from the Antipodes, Beatrice and Tony. It is good to see you back in the Dorset countryside. After two weeks of gloriously sunny weather today was overcast and cool. But it wasn’t bad enough to put us off. We drove to Athelhampton and parked in the car park at Athelhampton House. From there we crossed the main road and walked past the village church which claims to hold its services in English. As we were in a small, rural village in the heart of the English countryside, that statement seemed somewhat superfluous. The walk was very pleasant, leading us through woods until we came to open ground with a wide view across the Dorset countryside. Here, we stopped to look at the stone memorial to Adrian van der Weyer, who was killed at the Pas de Calais in 1940 aged just 20. His father, an army major, was High Sheriff of Dorset in 1942 and was also a renowned horticulturist. We continued the walk until we came to Southover Lane which took us up into the village of Tolpuddle. A note here for our good friends overseas: Tolpuddle was the home of a group of men who are often mistakenly believed to have been transported to the Antipodes for forming a trade union in 1834. In fact trades unions were perfectly legal and they were convicted for swearing an oath of allegiance to their union under a law designed to suppress mutinies in the Royal Navy. The effect was much the same... they got a holiday Down Under with free travel thrown in. The names of the men are painted onto one of the beams in the pub where we had our lunch.
After lunch we look the shorter route back to Athelhampton, following a trail that runs parallel to the River Piddle. The cloud cover did get rather dark and we wondered whether we might get wet. In fact the rain didn’t start until we were in the cars driving home.
It was a good walk and rounded off with tea and apple cakes at Jackie’s house. Many thanks, Jackie.

The Pub

The Martyr’s Inn, Tolpuddle. Here we were joined by Sue and Trisha. It was good to see Trisha back with the group after her enforced absence, even if only for our lunch break. And good of you, Sue, to bring her  along. Make sure she joins our walks again soon.
The pub food was good but expensive. A steak and ale pie served with chips and veg, along with a pint of bitter shandy, cost £14.90.

Next Week
Meet and Beatrice and Tony’s at 10am for a Dewlish walk.