In February 2014 I took advantage of a rare break in the appalling weather that had blighted much of the country. I struggled to think of many places that hadn’t been flooded by the continual…

         On a chilly March day I visited a part of Hampshire that has two of our most fascinating historical sites. Just south of the Berkshire border can be found the stately home of Stratfield Saye and…

         On a dreary Sunday in March I did a 16 mile circular from the town of Alresford in Hampshire. It followed a general line to the northeast along a broad ridge of land that visits the…

       On Easter Monday I found myself in Soberton with a mind to explore one or two undiscovered gems of Hampshire’s Meon Valley. For all of my countless ventures into what is (in my opinion) the most beautiful…

                 At 10:50 on Sunday 31st May I heard my first cuckoo of 2015, the sound that is traditionally recognised as the first sign of spring. These unique birds visit our shores from…

                 Here’s a fine walk for a warm day in the Chichester area of West Sussex. The old Saxon town of Bosham, pronounced bozzum by locals who can’t spell, is a fascinating place…

         The New Forest became Britain’s twelfth National Park on the 1st March 2005 but this ancient infertile heathland of 219 square miles can be a very strange place to go walking. Despite its poor quality acidic…

         On Saturday 15th August 2015 I found myself on yet another train journey to the West Country, I say another as this was my fifth year in a row walking the South West Coast Path. At…

             One fine day in April I departed a train at Overton to search for the source of the River Test which rises in a field south of Ashe and flows for 40 miles to…

         Anyone driving up (or down) the M1 between junctions 37 to 40 cannot fail to notice the dramatic rise of a reinforced concrete tower away to the west. On my way through West Yorkshire I stopped…