On the soldiers' trail
Sue Gearing enjoys a close encounter with the country's
oldest chalk horse and explores the secrets of the army's
-
training ground near the ghost village of Imber
HIGH open downland, wide- spread views, wild flowers,
butterflies and birds surr- ound the famous Westbury White
Horse, the oldest of all the Wiltshire horses, and it's all
yours on this easy circular walk.
It starts above the horse and follows the Mid Wilts Way and
the Wessex Ridgeway before a drop downhill to a pretty church
in a wooded valley at the back of Bratton.
Dogs can enjoy themselves but need to be kept on a lead up
on Bratton Down. There are a few stiles. Walking is on downland
paths, along the Imber Range Path, quiet village paths and
fields.
START
Beside an information board about the White Horse, said to
be the oldest in Wiiltshire, go through a kissing gate and out
to the edge of the hill to get a great view of the horse.
1. HORSE VIEW
There's another information board before you turn left along
the hill edge until you reach a toposcope at 754 feet above sea
level, showing distances to various landmarks. Continue on
(don't turn back up) with the hill edge on your right and
descend into a bushy hollow and then continue on the narrow
grassy path and go up and over a stile. You are on the Wessex
Ridgeway and Mid Wilts Way. After the stile, maintain direction
with the hill edge and fence on your right. Continue through to
another field and carry on. At the fence corner, turn left up
across the field and cross a stile at the top.
2. LANE
Reach the lane you may have come up from Westbury. Turn left
uphill. At a junction with a large chalk quarry on the right,
go straight ahead on the Imber Range Path.
3. RANGE
Turn left at the hut at the range entrance and walk along
the wide stony track. Since the 1940s, the army's vast Imber
Range on Salisbury Plain (16,000 acres) has been closed to the
public. For a few days each year, from December 18 to January
4, and on selected bank holidays, the roads across the plain
are opened to the public. The Imber Range is a region of
poachers and gunfire, of army tanks and abundant wildlife, of
descending paratroopers and manouevres, and of numerous
butterflies.
You are turning back on yourself and may be able to see soon
the car park over on your left. Ignore a side-path and byway,
and pass a farm on your left.
4. FARM
A few minutes past the farm, take the first bridleway on
your left heading towards the hill edge again. Go through a
gate and the path continues to wind its way towards the hill
edge. Continue on, dropping gently between banks of grasses and
wildflowers. Reach a wooden gate across the path. Don't go
through.
5. HILL EDGE
Turn up right and now walk along the edge of the hill with a
fence on your left, getting lovely views over Bratton and the
church settling in the wooded valley. Go through a gate and
continue on with the fence on your right. Some way along, watch
for the footpath arrow sending you left on a grassy path down
the side, heading towards the wooded valley and church. Keep on
down and, as you near the foot, make sure you stay over to the
left, so that at one point you have a line of bushes and trees
on your right. Go through a metal kissing gate ahead (not
left). Go along a narrow path and then follow an arrow left.
Don't go through a second kissing gate. Walk along with a steep
wooded valley down on your left. Come to the church on your
right.
6. CHURCH
St James's is a pretty, tranquil church in a beautiful
setting. It used to be at the heart of the community of
Littlestoke, but the rest of the hamlet has disappeared and
resettled in what is now Bratton. The church was almost
entirely rebuilt in about 1400. Go down the stone flag church
path and out of the wrought-iron gate. Carry on downhill to
cross a stream and then climb steeply up on the attractive
cobbled and flagged path all the way to a junction with a lane
in Bratton.
7. BRATTON
Turn right going past houses and then at the oratory of St
Giles, bend left on the lane and eventually reach the main road
in the village. Turn right to the village store/post office and
the Duke pub on the other side of the road, an attractive old
inn created from three cottages (curiously, it is a pub not
marked on the Ordnance Survey map). Continue past the Duke for
a few yards and, at the memorial cross, turn off the road and
then turn left on the footpath going along the back of the pub,
passing a school on your right. Reach a road near the school
entrance and turn left. Go on to pass a Baptist chapel on your
right and then turn right down a public footpath. Come out to a
crossroads of paths opposite a side entrance to the chapel and
turn left on a Tarmac path under trees. This leads on past
pretty cottages to Bury Lane. Turn right passing Scott's
Farm.
8. THATCH COTTAGE
Reach a crossing lane with a beautiful thatched cottage
opposite. Go ahead following the footpath down the side of the
cottage. This leads into a field. Maintain your direction. The
downs are up on your left. Continue on a path all the way to
the right corner of the field and cross a stile. Follow the
path on and go over another stile under a willow and on, as
before, along the left edge of the field which may be rather
overgrown. Cross a stile to a small yard by a modern barn/shed.
Go straight across on a small path alongside an allotment.
Cross another stile on to a lane and turn left, now back on the
Mid Wilts Way. Turn left on the lane and come back on to the
main road.
9. MAIN ROAD
Cross with care. Follow the bridleway opposite along the
left hedge, climbing. After a few minutes reach the corner.
Don't go ahead into the next field but bear right on a broad
grassy swathe, still climbing. At a choice of paths, take the
right-hand one – the Mid Wilts Way – which takes you up steeply
towards Bratton Camp.
10. BRATTON CAMP
Bratton Camp, also known as Bratton Castle, is the site of
the Battle of Ethandun, and one of a group of Iron Age defences
around Salisbury Plain. Within the centre of the hillfort a
much earlier monument can be seen – a Neolithic long barrow
dating from between 2,500 and 4,000 BC.
Climb up on to the bank of the camp, continue on along the
edge and then bend round left and come along above the White
Horse – you can even touch his ear. Carry on and make your way
out of the camp area and across to the car park.
The Duke, Bratton, open daily. Tel: 01380 830242.
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