Winchfield

Barley Mow bridge

Continuing our exploration of Hampshire, today's walk starts by the Barley Mow pub in Winchfield, just by the Basingstoke Canal. The latter part of the walk involved walking in the reverse direction along a stretch of the canal we walked from Hazeley Heath to Odiham on the Three Castles Path last year.

You initially walk along the canal bank in the direction of Fleet. The characteristic sinuous curves of this wide, shallow canal are immediately apparent. The rhododendrons on the other bank were reflected prettily in the still water.

According to the official website, the canal was built between 1788 and 1794 to link Basingstoke to the Thames via the Wey Navigation. It is 32 miles long with 29 locks and has now been fully restored. This seems pretty quick work, but is probably typical of the great age of canal building. What is not obvious is what was going to travel from or to Basingstoke. Agricultural produce is the answer. By the 1840s of course it was already under threat from the coming of the railway age.

After 1.25 miles you leave the canal and enter Dogmersfield Park, a former country house built in 1728, now a hotel. To the left is the attractive tower of Dogmersfield church.



Soon you reach Tundry Lake. At the far end are a pair of very harmonious triple arched bridges which cut off one end of the lake and join a small island to the park.



You walk through pleasant parkland for a while and then rejoin the canal and again walk in the direction of Fleet to regain Barley Mow bridge. Two more attractive bridges can be seen in a line in a rare straight section of the canal.



From: Pocket Pub Walks: Hampshire by Nigel Vile (Countryside Books)

Map: Explorer 144 (Basingstoke, Alton and Whitchurch).

Conditions: cold, dry, cloudy.

Distance: said to be 6 miles, but actually only about 3. We felt a bit cheated!

Rating: Three and a half stars. Interesting and varied. It is a lovely canal.