A walk round Kings Somborne.
Has the sound of a rural community about it and was a place I had heard about for a while as my wife had been there dog training, so when she said she was off there again one Saturday I
said I would come along. I looked on my OS maps for the place to see what was worth visiting and to plan a route to take.
We got to the village hall around 9 and by 9:15 I was checking my map for which way to go and setting the GPS, the offer of going off road in a 4X4 though tempting did not have the allure of the trek I had worked out. First stop was the village church which turned out to be very nice having a stained glass window called the Sopwith Memorial (more on that later) once finished there I had to decide which direction I took and noticed a trig point not far do that was the way I went. The trig point turned out to be at the top of a steep hill nearly hidden in a hedge and could only be viewed from the front the top was hidden in the hedge.
Back towards Kings Somborne then a right turn along a footpath towards Houghton soon took me down hill to the Test way . I had spotted this on the map and thought it looked like a dismantled railway , getting there just proved I was right though any relation to the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line was out. Some photos were in order then off along the path leading to the River Test which is full of privately owned fisheries so no walking along the river side . Once in Haughton it was heading towards the church for more photos and a benchmark I spotted on the old school . The church turned out to be very pleasant with a big rectory beside it. Country vicars seemed well off in the old days.
Back along the road and back to Kings Somborne going over the Test again and joining the old rail line to Horsebridge Station Link
Unfortunately the place is not open to the public and time did not allow me to phone and ask if I could get a few photos of the place, heading off from there and passing a pub that was being painted and did not seem to be open ( I was dying for a drink) it was off along the road to Kings Somborne and a sandwich. On getting back to the hall I noticed two lads playing football, numbnuts would be more to the point as they had no regard for the cars parked behind the goal and I noticed my car get hit so I moved it out of the way; so be warned if you park there, the local numpties don’t care if your car is hit.
After a coffee I went back to the church for a few more internal shots, it was then I looked at the window again then the information typed up nearby. The window was dedicated to Sir Thomas Sopwith who I remember from WW1 and the Sopwith Camel. I noticed no grave in the churchyard when I had been round and found he was buried in Little Somborne. With that I was off on a 2.7 mile walk to the church to get a photo . I got there as it started to rain and found the old church open as well so after getting more photo's the GPS was turned off and I headed back to meet my wife who was waiting for me. I had left the Village at 3:15 an managed to get back at 4:50 quite tired from the walk but pleased with the day.
A Geotrip of the walk can be seen here. Link
- When
- Fri, 23 Mar 2012 at 18:51
- Grid Square
- SU3530
- Chosen Photo
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