Contours, Curiosities and Cromwells West of Winchester

An alternative title was 'From Oliver's Battery to Richard's Territory'. 'Oliver's Battery' is a suburb of Winchester from where Oliver Cromwell is said to have besieged Winchester in 1645. 'Richard's Territory' refers to his son Richard's estate and grave in the village of Hursley. Between the two is a wealth of superb scenery and quaint curiosity which combine at Farley Mount, one of the highest points in Hampshire, our lunch spot, and topped with a monument to a hardy and heroic horse. In addition there is an isolated church with a lost village, the mighty church of a medieval hospital and, hidden away, a huge Georgian mansion housing IBM's main software development laboratory.

The sights:

Oliver's Battery: A suburb of Winchester where Iron Age earth embankments were reputed to have been reused by Oliver Cromwell for an artillery battery for the Siege of Winchester in 1645. However Winchester city walls and castle would have been out of range for 17th-century cannon, so a Parliamentarian encampment is more likely.

Farley Mount: Atop one of Hampshire's high points (174 m) is a white pyramidal monument to a horse called 'Beware Chalk Pit' built in 1740. The sterling steed carried its owner to a racing victory in 1734, just a year after it fell, again with its owner on its back, into a deep chalk pit during a fox hunt. Read more here. We'll have our lunch here while surveying the splendid view.

Farley Chamberlayne: St John's Church (Norman, 18th century windows, fine effigies and Jacobean monuments) stands alone, but with traces of an abandoned village around.

Hursley: A pretty village with Georgian houses and Victorian Tudor-style estate cottages. Hursley briefly became the country seat of the ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland when Richard Cromwell, reluctant and ineffectual Lord Protector (1658-1659) moved there in 1643, and after a spell abroad at the Restoration returned and died there in 1712, aged 86. Until surpassed by Elizabeth II in 2012 he was the longest-lived person ever to have been head of state in Britain. He was buried in All Saints Church. The church was rebuilt in 1846-8 by John Keble, leader of the Oxford Movement which sought to reinstate more reverence and symbolism in the Anglican church. The stained glass windows are fine. Hidden away are the UK laboratories of IBM, occupying Hursley Park, a Georgian house extended in Edwardian times and subsequently by the company. The program Java was created there. 

Possibility: St Cross Church and Hospital: A medieval almshouse founded between 1132 and 1136. The oldest surviving charitable institution in the United Kingdom. The founder was Henry of Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror. It is also the largest medieval almshouse in Britain: it is built on the scale of an Oxford or Cambridge college, although it is older than any of the colleges. Grade I listed, the church is a vast and solid Angevin affair.

The route:

Leaving Winchester via West Hill and Sarum Road, we'll  head out westwards to Farley Mount downland and woodland, where we'll have an early lunch at the monument. After lunch we'll descend Mount Down and Beacon Down alongside Parnholt Wood and then follow lanes south to Farley Chamberlayne and Slackstead. A turn east along Dores Road precedes a turn southeast along Claypit Road through Ampfield Wood, where at Knapp we'll pick up the Monarch's Way which will take us directly to Hursley. After seeing the village and the pub, we'll head northeast again along Silkstead Lane back to Oliver's Battery and Winchester. If we have time we could take a route past Holy Cross Hospital and along the River Itchen back to the city centre, or if we don't have time, directly through Stanmore and Sleepers Hill along the B3040.

(All images are from Google Image Search and are labelled 'Free to share and use'.)