Start – Dummer, End – Alresford, Distance – 14 miles, Difficulty – moderate
https://www.hants.gov.uk/thingstodo/countryside/walking/wayfarerswalk-dummer
Written almost a year ago; who would have known that the state of the world would be even worse (yes, even more chaotic mess) and that more unbelievably dangerous words would be coming out of a certain individual’s mouth. Although given that more than 1500 individuals have been pardoned for the 6 January 2021 insurrection nothing should surprise us now. Walking is the perfect antidote to the world’s ills. Plus it’s free; in this country. Back to the Wayfarers Walk…
A glorious blue skied spring day in April 2021 and we’re onto leg 3 – there had been two more national lockdowns since we walked the last leg back in September 2020. Writing this now in the early spring of 2024, it is almost hard to remember the chaotic mess that our country found itself in back then; but I’m writing this as there’s even more chaotic mess in our country with ridiculous discussions over racism and misogyny let alone the wars in Europe and the Middle East and the horrific prospect of an ex-President returning to the White House despite currently facing 91 criminal counts. I digress.
All smiles at the start of the leg from Dummer
From the quiet village of Dummer we followed farm tracks south over Tilley Hill and across Becket’s Down. The photographs show skeletal trees still not in leaf and hedgerows just beginning to ‘green’ up – quite different from the landscape on previous journeys. Along one of the pathways, we found a swing and cat. I don’t think that the two were linked but they were both a bit of entertainment! And still no other walkers.
We arrived in the village of Brown Candover where we found the sign showing how far we’d walked and how far was left ….
From the village we followed ancient paths gently uphill before stopping for a late lunch just past some large farm buildings. Revived, the walk continued through farmland and woodland passing through the hamlet of Abbotstone where we crossed the Candover Stream and walked to Itchen Stoke Down where the Wayfarers Way intersects other ancient trails.
We followed the River Arle into Alresford passing the famous watercress beds, Eel House and Fulling Mill.
The Eel House sits across the crystal clear waters of the River Arle and dates back to the 1820s. It was commissioned by the local Harris family to trap mature eels at the start of their once in a lifetime 3000 mile journey across the Atlantic to return to their spawning grounds to breed in the Sargasso Sea of the Caribbean. For more than 160 years (the Eel House was last used in the 1980s) on a handful of autumnal nights, the river keeper would open the sluices, set the traps and manoeuvre his catch. Once his ‘eel box’ was full he would take it to his keeper’s cottage to sell to merchants who would take the eels to fish markets to be sold live. The journey of the eel is absolutely astonishing and we have been incredibly fortunate to see eels on a handful of occasions in the River Anton in Andover and closer to home in Pillhill Brook in Abbotts Ann – both are tributaries of the River Test. The European eel is critically endangered and at risk of extinction. I believe that the Eel House in Alresford is the only one left in the UK. It has several Open Days during the year with free entry (donations are obviously very much welcomed and on the basis that it really is quite a unique part of British history, its upkeep is critical).
Further along the footpath, there’s also a stone memorial to a terrier called Hambone Jr, who lived in a WWII US army camp having been adopted by the 9th Division of the 47th Infantry who were based in Alresford while preparing for the Normandy invasions. As the soldiers prepared for the invasion, Hambone was accidentally run over. The men were mortified and they buried him with a wooden cross close to the River. In 1962 the local community replaced the cross with the memorial stone. Flowers are regularly left every Rememberence Day. We love discovering these stories.
The river itself was full of wildlife, including a brood of very cute ducklings! And we came across ‘Amy’s Duck Food Table’ set up by local residents Amy and her father – Amy has complex learning difficulties, uncontrolled epilepsy and scoliosis – and organising the duck table has given her a purpose as well as ensuring the local water birds are offered healthy food. Definitely worth supporting.
A little further on we came to the Fulling Mill – an iconic 13th Century thatched, timber building, now a private home, spanning the River Arle. Fulling is the process of washing, cleaning, beating and thickening cloth, tightening and shrinking it to produce a closely woven product. Originally done in shallow streams by human feet using fuller’s earth (a type of clay); water mills built for this purpose were known as fulling mills.
Alresford itself is a gorgeous market town known to us for its Watercress Line station where old steam trains are run, especially in December when Father Christmas appears on certain trains and it’s also a location of the much loved Thomas the Tank Engine – heady days! End of leg 3.
