Away from the Hurly-Burly around Sway and Burley

Most of the walk will be away from the hurly-burly, but Burley itself, a rather scattered settlement in the western New Forest, can teem not just with free-roaming cattle and ponies, but with walkers and cyclists who visit its numerous pubs, tea shops and gift shops. We'll have plenty of time to avail ourselves of them too. "When the hurlyburly's done", Macbeth's witches intoned, and that's rather appropriate because one Sybil Leek, a white witch who wore black, lived in the village in the 1950s. The gift shops sell witchcraft-themed souvenirs in commercial tribute. Our route between Sway and Burley covers a typical New Forest landscape of heathland and woodland, stream and pond.

The sights:

Sway: Farms and smallholdings surround quite a suburbanised place on the edge of the heathlands and woodlands of the New Forest. At a slight distance we'll see Sway Tower, 66 metres tall and Grade II listed, built as his mausoleum and an advertisement for Portland Cement by Andrew Thomas Turton Peterson from 1879–1885, Inspired by Mughal architecture, and at the time, the first major building in Britain to be built entirely from concrete, it remains the tallest non-reinforced concrete structure in the world. The perpetual light intended for the top was vetoed by Trinity House.

The New Forest: Neither new, nor wholly a forest. Our second-newest National Park is one of the largest remaining expanses of open pasture land, heathland and woodland in the country. Whereas other royal forests such as Arden, Dean, Epping, Sherwood and Windsor are just fragments, the New Forest occupies roughly the same area as it did in the days of its founder, William the Conqueror. Part of its character are centuries-old traditions including the rights of commoners to collect resources and graze their cattle and ponies (and pigs - a practice called called 'pannage'), which leads to livestock ranging across roads and thronging public spaces. The range of lowland habitats, lost elsewhere, which have survived are rich in wildlife: heathland birds such as the Dartford warbler, curlew, nightjar, stonechat, redstart and tree pipit, and there are woodland birds such as the wood warbler, hobby and buzzard; reptiles and amphibians, all three native snakes, sand lizards and the great crested newt; and wild mammals include numerous deer and the European otter. 

Naked Man: Sorry to disappoint, but formerly an old oak tree that once resembled a naked man, described in 1924 as ‘a trunk with two arms…its spine wood even now repels a knife.’ However, other lore describes how the tree was used for hanging highwaymen and smugglers, a gallow tree (or 'grief tree’), the name coming from the bareness of the bodies swinging from its boughs. The original tree has mostly gone. The site has been used for pagan rites in the C20, notably ‘Operation Cone of Power’, a ritual carried out by the New Forest Coven of witches in August 1940 to stop the Germans from crossing the sea.

Burley: Once part of the Royal Lands of the New Forest, by C13 the family of de Burley held them although the manor belonged to the Crown. A scattered village that grew up in the C19, mostly dating from 1847 when the railway from Brockenhurst to Ringwood passed by. Church from 1839. Railway Station (now a tea shop we'll visit on the way back) from 1847. The village has a long connection with witches; in the late 1950s, Sybil Leek, a white witch, lived there. She could be seen walking around it with her pet jackdaw on her shoulder before she moved to America. Some of the gift shops now sell witch-related gifts and ornaments. 

The route (please click the link to see it):

We'll go through Sway north along Station Road, Mead End Road and Adlam's Lane which will take us into the Forest. We'll head north through Set Thorns Inclosure then enter into the open at Long Slade Bottom where we'll cross Wilverley Inclosure, Burley Road and the A35. Crossing Scrape and Holman's Bottom and heading northwest will bring us to Cott Lane to enter Burley along Wilverely Road. After lunch in the village, we'll head southeast across Turf Hill to follow the old railway line to the Holmsley Tea Shop. Passing under the A35 we'll go through Brownhill, Wootton Coppice and Broadley Inclosures. At Boundway Hill, we'll get back onto Mead End Road then Station Road which will take us back to the station.

Dogs:

I love having dogs on my walks and this walk is suitable for them as it's not too long. The livestock are free-range and there are a few roads to walk along and cross. A dog off the lead must be under control.

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(All images were taken by the walk leader on his recce, or are from OutdoorLads member/leader Alex Young and are used with his kind permission.)