Winterborne Zelston

St Mary's church, Winterborne Zelston

For today's walk we drove from Poole to the village of Winterborne Zelston. On the way along the A31 we passed the longest brick wall we have ever seen, enlivened by three splendid entrance gates. It turns out to have been the Drax wall which surrounds Charborough Park (at least on the road side). Built in 1841 by the Drax family, it is said to be 3 miles long and to contain 2 million bricks. The present owner is Sir Richard Drax MP (for South Dorset) who was born Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.

We parked by the church and admired the stone tower and the nice display of snowdrops. We headed aw`y from the church and turned left to follow the well-marked path heading west across fields to pass through a farm. Soon we passed the large and imposing farm at Winterbourne Tomson ...

... and then made a detour towards the farm to see the beautiful 12th century church of St Andrew, which was restored in the 1920s. The plain apse was very striking.

We retraced our steps and continued westward to reach Muston Lane (a track really) and made a detour left to get a glimpse of Anderson Manor, built in 1622.

We walked past the Manor and crossed a delightful stream ...

... to reach the 13th century St Michael's church, largely of 1622 like the Manor. It had new windows in 1889 and is now a private chapel. The porch was a bit of a let-down.
 

We returned to Muston Lane and headed north, and then east to join a section of Roman road which continues as far as Badbury Rings.

We turned left through an area of woodland and then right to follow a field path and then a lane to return to the village.

Conditions: bright and sunny.

Distance: 4 miles.

Rating: 4 stars.

Map: Explorer 117 (Cerne Abbas & Bere Regis).

Swanage and Durlston Country Park

 

We are making a flying visit to Poole and decided to take a local walk starting from Swanage. We first did this walk in February 2011 when it formed the third stage of the South West Coast Path. We parked in the long stay car park overlooking the pier and the first thing of notice was the pair of Ionic columns, which mark the entrance to Prince Albert Gardens. They date from the early 19th century and were brought to Swanage by John Mowlem.

The gates were quickly followed by an obelisque. 

 

This turned out to be one that was erected to commemorate the life of Prince Albert and is believed to be the first in the country to be built after his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1861. It was located in the High Street, next to where the British Legion is now, but was taken down in 1971 to make way for a new row of houses. Permission has been given permission to be rebuilt in Prince Albert Gardens, although the work is not yet complete. It overlooks Swanage Bay, close to Peveril Point where the prince is said to have disembarked from the royal yacht in the 1850’s.

 Next there was a nice view of the Pier with Ballard Down behind.

 

Now we passed a rather beautiful tower, which we had looked at from afar in 2011. 

 

The Wellington clock tower was originally built in 1854 in honour of the Duke of Wellington near London Bridge, but was soon found to be impeding the traffic and taken down. George Burt, a nephew and business partner of John Mowlem,  removed the stones to Swanage and rebuilt the tower in its present location. The clock never followed, and a spire was removed in 1904 as it had become unsafe. 

 We headed towards Peveril Point and then enjoyed a nice view along the Coast Path toward Durlston Castle.

 

As we got closer to Durlston we could see that a lot of improvements have taken place since we were last here: the fairly basic path is now chanelled by low stone walls on either side, with occasional places to sit and admire the view. Well done to Durlston Country Park!

We paused for some ice cream and to admire Durlston Castle. 

 

The Castle's website explains that it was built as a restaurant by George Burt (who we have heard of before) and was part of his grand plan to create an exclusive housing estate on his land as part of his dream of transforming Swanage into a fashionable resort. On this occasion we didn't visit the wonderful stone Globe, also installed by the indefatigable Gorge Burt.

We now headed along the Coast Path towards the Lighthouse at Anvil Point.

 

 

Looking back there was a great view of Tilly Whim Caves.

 

 

We passed the Lighthouse and headed inland to locate a pleasant country path which was parallel with Durlston bay and which led us all the way back into Swanage. We loved this gargoyle (one of several) as we passed by ...

At the end we turned into the High Street towards to the town centre and admired several of the buildings: the Congregational Chapel, now United Reformed Church  ...

... the imposing Purbeck House Hotel ...

... and the Town Hall. This is essentially an unremarkable building to which has been added a superb facade by Sir Christopher Wren no less. Inevitably it was George Burt who rescued it from the Mercers' Hall in London's Cheapside.

After this we quite soon returned to our starting point.

Map: Explorer OL15 (Purbeck and South Dorset).

Book: 50 walks in Dorset (which we also used in 2011).

Rating: four stars.

Keyneston Mill

We have started to develop an interest in looking at gardens, inspired by recent visits to the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Malverlys. We found Keyneston Mill on a list of the best gardens in Dorset. Its website tells us that "Keyneston Mill is the creative home of Parterre Fragrances. Here you can explore the Scented Botanic Gardens and surrounding 50-acre working estate, where we grow, harvest and distil unusual plants and ingredients for our luxury perfumes."

After parking the first thing you see is the Long Barn, a combined shop and tea room, with loads of the beautiful cistus flowers above to catch your eye.

There is no sign of an actual Mill, but the gardens are set out in three main areas. The first is the Padua Garden, inspired by the Orto Botanico in Padua, the first academic botanical garden in Italy. It contains plants from the Floral Perfume family, such as roses, nicotiana, stocks, many of which are scented.

This gives way to the Fougere (Fern, from French) Garden.

Beyond that lies the Spice Garden, which contains ingredients associated with oriental perfumes. We loved these massive angelica plants.

At the end of this sequence there is the Geodome and Cocktail Garden. Sadly it was not open!

To the right there are perfume crops fields, while to the left lies the River Stour. We have an affection for the Stour as we did the Stour Valley Way some years ago. (A delightful walk, but we didn't see all that much of the river.)

Here and by the nearby river meadow there were loads of Dragonflies, in particular the dark blue Beautiful Demoiselles.

We enjoyed our visit and wish Parterre Perfumes every success.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Map: Explorer 118 (Shaftesbury and Cranfield Chase).

Cerne Abbas and Giant Hill

St Mary's Church

It was a lovely day and I decided to have a little butterfly outing at Cerne Abbas. I parked near the imposing 13th century church (with 15th and 17th century additions) and walked past it and the delightful 16th century timber-fronted houses facing it.

At the end of Abbey Street is a fine house called Cerne Abbe, mainly 18th century, but dating back to the 15th century.

 

 

I went through a gateway to the right of Cerne Abbey and through the churchyard. To my left there were glimpses of two free-standing buildings in the grounds.  

I emerged into a field and climbed uphill and then up some steps to reach the start of Giant Hill, well known as a butterfly hot spot. My main goal was to see the relatively uncommon Marsh Fritillary.

The site is on a hillside slope with a series of horizontal paths and I strolled along spotting several fairly common butterflies: Common Blue, Small Heath, Chequered and Dingy Skippers and an especially pleasing Adonis Blue .

I passed beneath the celebrated Cerne Abbas Giant (of which more later) and found a very productive area for Marsh Fritillaries, spotting a dozen or so.

I didn't have my camera, so here is one I took earlier.

I retraced my steps and looked this time across the valley opposite to the hill.

To complete my outing I drove round to the car park view point beneath the Giant. The most striking thing since my last visit was the Giant was not as well defined as he used to be and seemed to be in need of some maintenance. According to Pevsner he is 200ft high and 165 ft wide; he holds a club. He is generally agreed to represent Hercules and to date from the late 17th century.

Conditions: sunny and warm.

Rating: four stars.

Corfe Castle and Church Knowle

Corfe Castle

We had arranged to meet up with friends at the pub in Church Knowle, but it struck us that we could make an even better day of it by parking at the NT car park at Corfe and walking the two or so miles to Church Knowle, having lunch and then returning via a different route. Above is the view of Corfe that you see from the area near to the car park. It is the remains of the original Great Tower dating from the 11th century. Further fortification took place over the next hundred years and by about 1280 the castle could be described as fully fortified. It was sold into private ownership in 1407, reverted to the Crown and then passed to Sir Christopher Hatton in 1572 who made some further improvements to the defences.

The Castle was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War, but was captured by Parliamentary troops in 1646. It was then "slighted" i.e. put beyond use by explosives, leaving the picturesque ruin you see today. It remained in the Banks family until 1981 when it was bequeathed to the National Trust, along with the family's more palatial home, Kingston Lacy.

We crossed the road from the car park and walked ahead with the castle on our left. We were struck by the scale of the Castle, never having seen it from this angle.

We climbed a grassy path away from the Castle and soon had this delightful view behind us.

We followed Knowle Hill along a hill top with a valley to the left and the coast in the distance.

After a while we could make out Church Knowle in the valley to our left and managed to find the right path to take us down into the main (almost only) street of Church Knowle. We had a most enjoyable meal and a good chat with our friends and then walked along the street to the church of St Peter.

It dates from the early 13th century. The west tower with its pyramid roof was rebuilt in 1741.

We turned right here and followed a narrow road past a few houses to a track when led us across a grassy area to reach to almost hidden Corfe River. We followed the stream in the direction of Corfe, with the tower of the church at Kingston (the work of the great Victorian architect G E Street) visible on its high point.

We passed an intriguing group of buildings on our left, West Bucknowle House ...

... and gradually moved away from the stream. Soon there was a fine view of the long ridge that runs from Corfe down towards Swanage. It is a really fine walk which we have done a couple of times.

Now the Castle came into view again, but from a viewpoint previously unknown to us. Its natural defensive characteristics are more clear than from any other angle.

This was even more the case as we got nearer.

Having skirted the castle at some distance we entered the village passing the large church of St Edward, King and Martyr (a church dedication I have never previously heard of). It is by T H Wyatt and dates from 1859-60.

Just beyond the church is the Town Hall of 1774. It claims to be the smallest Town Hall in the country.

Not long after this we passed the entrance to the castle and walked down the hill to retrieve our car from the car park.

Conditions: bright and sunny.

Distance: about 4 miles.

Map: OL 15 (Purbeck and South Dorset)

Rating: four stars.

Kimmeridge and Swyre Head

We started this lovely walk from the old quarry car park just above Kimmeridge.  We headed eastwards along a road and quickly turned right along a farm track which led all the way to Swyre Head. It was very hazy to seaward and it was some while before I could take any sort of reasonable photo. The picture below (best expanded by clicking on it) extends from the Clavell Tower on the extreme left to Warbarrow on the right. In the middle ground is the village of Kimmeridge.

After a while we could see Smedmore House in the valley between the ridge and the Coast Path.

Quite soon after this Swyre Head loomed ahead. It is the highest point in the Purbeck Hills at 98 metres.

When we reached Swyre Head we were pleased to discover that since our last visit many years ago a Permissive Path had been mapped out. Previously it had been a contentious issue and we had ended up on one occasion having to walk back along the farm tracks.

From the top of Swyre Head there was a fine view to the east as far as St Aldhelm's Head.

We descended and reached the coast at Rope Lake Head, turning right along the Coast Path. It occupies a fairly narrow strip of long between the fences which demarcate the fields and the cliff edge. We were struck by the amount of evidence of erosion, including one point where it seemed that part of the path had fallen away quite recently. In other places the fence line had been moved inland by several feet - and it seemed that more of this was becoming necessary.

We were particularly struck by the way the cliffs were eroding at an angle from the top.

As we neared Kimmeridge Bay, we encountered again the delightful folly known as the Clavell Tower. It was built in about 1820 and was spectacularly dismantled in 2005 and moved 80 ft away from the cliff edge because erosion of the cliff was threatening its survival. It is now owned by the Landmark Trust and available as a two-bedroomed holiday let.

We continued past the Tower and headed into Kimmeridge Bay. The rock ledges which it is famous for were below water.

We then walked inland and through the pretty village of thatched houses, pausing to enjoy some ice cream at the village restaurant.

We had hoped to visit the The Etches Collection, Museum of Jurassic Marine Life - especially fossils - but unfortunately it was closed. The planned reopening is May 17 2021. It remained only to climb a steep path passing between the church and rectory and then uphill across a grassy field to return to the Quarry.

Map: Purbeck and South Dorset.

Distance: about 5 miles. 

Conditions: hazy.

Rating: four stars.