The Wednesday Walk 15th July 2015

The Plan

A Winterborne valley walk

Who Turned Up

Wendy, Trudy B, Sue, Trisha, Diane and Tony R, Beatrice and Tony H, David

The Walk

The day began muggy and we even had some rain as we drove towards the Winterborrne Valley. We parked in grass parking area alongside the church in the tiny village of Winterborne Clenston. A short walk along the road took us to the start of our field and woodland path. Oddly, the first field we walked through was knee-high with what looked like unharvested rape seed. Trudy investigated and discovered it's harvested in late July. She tells me rape seed oil is almost equal to olive oil.
We continued through Charity Wood and Milton Park Wood before arriving in Milton Abbas.

Now, there’s a village with a bit of history.

In the year 1780, Joseph Damer, Lord Milton, the first Earl of Dorchester and owner of the grand house called Milton Abbey, decided that the adjacent market town, called Middleton, was disturbing his vision of rural peace. He commissioned an architect, Sir William Chambers, along with the landscape gardener, Capability Brown, to design a new village, which would be called Milton Abbas. And there it is today, situated in a wooded valley called Luccombe Bottom, out of sight of the Abbey. Most of the existing villagers were relocated here. The previous village was demolished and the site landscaped. The original abbey and House is now Milton Abbey School.

Aren’t you glad you know that?

After lunch we took the same route back to Winterborne Clenston simply because it was the shortest route. We had a spot of drizzle to start with but the biggest problem was the humid atmosphere.

Thanks are due to Beatrice and Tony for the tea and cakes which rounded off the day.

The Pub

The Hambro Arms, Milton Abbas. A tyical country pub with a friendly atmosphere. The main meals were somewhat expensive so we opted for lunchtime snacks. Very nice, but at £9.50 for a club sandwich, still expensive.

Next Week

Meet at the Boscombe end of Knyveton Road at 1045 for a walk along the shore