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{"id":2432,"date":"2024-10-17T11:45:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T11:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2025-02-28T11:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T11:56:11","slug":"the-clarendon-way-leg-1-salisbury-to-broughton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/?p=2432","title":{"rendered":"The Clarendon Way – Leg 1, Salisbury to Broughton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The spire of Salisbury Cathedral from the Clarendon Way<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Start point – Salisbury, End point – Broughton, Distance – 11 miles, Difficulty – moderate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.hants.gov.uk\/thingstodo\/countryside\/walking\/clarendonway<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here it is, the beginning of our long distance walks – starting with a not-so-long one! And looking back at the photos, it feels like a lifetime ago. The Tribe all look so terribly young and there is a big hole where the Eldest should have been. I\u2019m so glad that we started though – our current walk, The Pilgrim\u2019s Way, is rather longer and it is definitely more challenging to get everyone involved but the fact that they still want to be involved and walk together, makes me very, very happy. Anyway, enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of our decision to embark on a long walk, we agree to begin with a relatively short tramp at just over 26 miles according to the documentation, although when you track it, it comes out at somewhat higher mileage than that! The route runs from Salisbury Cathedral<\/a> to Winchester Cathedral crossing beautiful chalk downs, through pretty Hampshire villages and past fascinating historical buildings. It is well marked and a great long distance walk to start with. Our first leg took us from the Wiltshire start in the city of Salisbury to the pretty Hampshire village of Broughton. You may notice in the photographs that the Boy is carrying rather a large backpack for a day tramp – the reason is that he used the time to practice for his Gold Duke of Edinburgh award. We don\u2019t usually travel with that much stuff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The beginning of our walk – from a Salisbury car park!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We picked a sunny day in early July 2020 to start, as Covid restrictions were lifted, and headed to Broughton to drop one car off at the end of the walk before parking the other car in Salisbury. Public transport can be used but as we had two cars and the Littlest was still quite little, we decided to use both cars. Having parked one car at the end of this leg of the route and the other in the city, the route itself actually begins at Salisbury Cathedral<\/a>. The cathedral is stunning and well worth a visit – I have a separate post on it. Outside the majestic building is Cathedral Close, an area of over 80 acres and a wonderful retreat from the bustling streets of the city. There are also works of art in the grounds. Just a beautiful place. The travel writer Bill Bryson, in his book Notes from a Small Island, wrote, \u201cThere is no doubt in my mind that Salisbury Cathedral<\/a> is the single most beautiful structure in England and the Close around it the most beautiful space\u201d. I concur.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Walking across the Clarendon Estate to Clarendon Palace<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We walked through the city and under the ring road with its impressive mural before walking through Milford Hollow, a tree lined canopied path that took us out to Laverstock and over the River Bourne, before we came to the Clarendon Park Estate where the path cut through a crop field and was quite beautiful with holly blue and chalkhill blue butterflies flitting over the wild flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Holly Blue butterfly<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We then came to the extraordinary remains of Clarendon Palace<\/a> – you could walk past it quite easily as you have to turn off the main path and cut through a gap in the trees to find it. Fortunately we didn\u2019t and what a glorious find it was; together with the very friendly llamas that roam freely around the ruins keeping the weed population under control. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Llama at Clarendon Palace<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Just as a brief aside here, at this point, just 3 miles into our first long distance walk, \u2018we\u2019 discovered that \u2018we\u2019ve\u2019 taken the wrong set of car keys with us \u2026 we\u2019ve left the other car keys in the car parked in Salisbury. We\u2019d probably only been walking for about an hour, so the Boy and I left the other 3 to go for a very quick march back to the car and back to the Palace ruins. Definitely a steep learning curve – NEVER leave any keys behind; ALWAYS check which keys you have!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Walking through woodland<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Beyond the ruins of the Palace we began walking through woods, including Home Copse, Warner\u2019s Copse and Fairoak Copse – as it was early afternoon and warm, it was perfect as the trees overhanging the path gave shade and a beautiful dappled light. In the scrubby growth there were wild flowers and butterflies. It is easy to imagine hunts taking place centuries ago through these ancient woodlands. Under the canopy of trees it was quite silent other than the occasional hammering of a woodpecker and the lazy buzz of insects. No manmade sounds – utter bliss. As we turned a corner before walking down to Pitton, we come across the most spectacular field of blue – a breathtaking sight of echium. A nectar rich Mediterranean flower – the sound that came from the field was extraordinary. It was alive with insect life and totally joyful to hear! Echium is a good source of omega-3 and is rich in oil and stearidonic and gamma – linolenic acid, which are used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. Spectacular in sight and sound.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A field of echium alive with the sound of pollinators<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The track out of Pitton was dry and dusty and the Littlest was getting tired. In a field close to the Church of All Saints in West Winterslow, we found some hay bales to sit on and have a rejuvenating snack of fruit, biscuits and water. The view was quintessentially English Home Counties. And it was still so quiet! Refreshed, we continued along tree lined paths where the Clarendon Way and the Monarch\u2019s Way (a 625 mile long distance path from Worcester to Shoreham – the escape route taken by the young King Charles II in 1651 after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester by Cromwell), join paths taking us into Middle Winterslow. Winterslow has a fascinating connection with truffles – the type that most people think of pigs, France and Italy, certainly not genteel, deepest Wiltshire. But back in the 1920s a famed truffle hunter, Alfred Collins (following from his father Eli) together with his 2 dogs, would find up to 11kg of this rare \u2018black diamonds\u2019 a day. However, Mr Collins, \u2018the last professional truffle hunter\u2019, took his knowledge to the grave.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Another glorious view<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Roman road continues through Noah\u2019s Copse where, if you listen carefully, it\u2019s said that you can hear Roman soldiers marching through. We didn\u2019t! As it was after 6pm and the Littlest was really quite exhausted, we had another pitstop for refuelling. The walk took us through the Buckholt Farm Estate which was glorious in the early evening light, under a blue sky scattered with cotton wool clouds and not another person in sight. Although I don\u2019t think that the Littlest noticed the glory of the English idyll around her! But finally, Broughton and the end of our first leg of the Clarendon Way. We made it, all intact; just!<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Littlest – exhausted!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Start point – Salisbury, End point – Broughton, Distance – 11 miles, Difficulty – moderate https:\/\/www.hants.gov.uk\/thingstodo\/countryside\/walking\/clarendonway So here it is, the beginning of our long distance walks – starting with a not-so-long one! And looking back at the photos, it feels like a lifetime ago. The Tribe all look so terribly young and there is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[434,433],"tags":[431,429,300,430,369,340,396],"class_list":["post-2432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clarendon-way","category-long-distance-walks","tag-clarendon-palace","tag-clarendon-way","tag-good-things","tag-long-distance-walk","tag-salisbury-cathedral","tag-simple-things","tag-surviving-lockdown","wpcat-434-id","wpcat-433-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/MG_0003-32-5-4-scaled-e1708428936191.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4llmx-De","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2432"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions\/2669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}