Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1

Walk 3 : Netley to Botley

Southampton Water and the River Hamble

Walk Directions

1. Coming off platform 2 at Netley Station, cross over the footbridge, go out of the station the other side for 20 metres, then turn left on the road signposted Royal Victoria Country Park, your direction 145 degrees. In 120 metres this becomes a narrower tarmac path as you continue to the left-hand side of house number 30, past a 'No Cycling' sign, soon with a steep wooded valley below to your right-hand side.
2. 200 metres down this narrower path, turn right on a tarmac road, your direction 235 degrees, past No. 4 Fermain on your left-hand side. In 100 metres, near a notice board with a map of the Royal Victoria Park and take the middle fork road, slightly to your left, bearing a 'No Entry' sign, your direction 165 degrees, marked 'Police and Residents Only'. In 120 metres, having ignored ways off, go between two wooden post on the path, your direction 205 degrees, with the tower of Netley Chapel visible ahead to your south. In 65 metres, go through a wooden barrier and turn left on a tarmac road, your direction 145 degrees. In 60 metres, take a right fork.
3. In 80 metres, enter the park proper, with a Tea Room and YMCA hut (which opened in 1940) to your right-hand side. Head for the chapel, due South, with a miniature railway running parallel to your path. In 200 metres, you come to the Netley Chapel.
4. From the front of the chapel, head straight on for 140 metres to Southampton Water, down the path between lampposts, your direction 235 degrees.
5. At the pier head there, turn left along the shore, and, in 80 metres, by the sailing club entrance, continue along the beach for the next two kilometres, to the pier with pipes and crane in the distance.
6. On the way, you will in due course see ways up into the trees that border the shore, and you can follow paths there which run parallel to the beach, if you so prefer ­ although these are rather zigzaggy paths that are difficult to follow.
7. On reaching the oil refinery fencing you will need to leave the beach up steps to follow the concrete path next to the fence, along the shoreline.
8. Go under the pier with its oil pipelines. At the end of the fence, continue on for 100 metres (ignoring earlier ways off to the left, including one marked 'Solent Way'). You then go half left off from the beach up a wide grassy path, your direction 65 degrees. In 20 metres you come to a Hamble footpath post (marked Hamble Common Circular Trail and with a Green Arrow) at a T-junction and go left on the footpath, your direction 330 degrees, back towards the oil refinery.
9. In 40 metres, ignore a kissing gate on your right-hand side. In 25 metres, by a post, bear right with the path over an open grassy area, your direction 20 degrees. In 50 metres, the path is again clear, follow the trail signs.
10. In 70 metres, cross over a two-plank footbridge. In 45 metres, fork left with the main trail. In a further 80 metres, by a three-armed footpath sign, go right (signposted 'Hamble Village'), your direction 175 degrees.
11. Stay with this main trail, in 150 metres going on wooden boards to the tarmac road. Turn left on this road, your direction 20 degrees. In 40 metres, turn right, on a footpath signposted 'Hamble Village', your direction 120 degrees.
12. In 80 metres, ignore a 'Hamble Point' sign to the right. In a further 85 metres, keep straight on over wooden boards, then bear left, now beside the River Hamble. In 50 metres, bear left with the path and over boards. Ignore a kissing gate to your left-hand side. (Keep going through a copse even when the path thins, is the additional advice of reader 'Ian C').
13. In 150 metres, go over boards past a noticeboard and follow the car track onwards. In 40 metres, by the No Entry signs for cars, turn right downhill on the road passing Oyster Cottage and other Hamble Village houses, your direction 75 degrees.
14. By the water's edge, go left towards the white metal pier, at the end of which you can catch the Warsash Ferry.
15. Once over on the other side, turn left and follow the riverside causeway, heading north, for three kilometres, through the mudflats, ignoring ways off, passing the Crableck Marina, making your way through yachts on the slipways, always keeping parallel to the shore.
16. On reaching the tarmac road at the far end, go left, your direction 340 degrees, soon passing Swanwick Shore Public Hard to your left-hand side. Ignore ways off and you come in due course to the main road, the A27, where you cross the road and turn left, your direction 305 degrees. In 200 metres you come to the Spinnakker pub and restaurant on the other side of the road, the suggested lunchtime stop.
17. Coming out of the pub, continue on the main road. In 150 metres, go over the bridge, and then under the railway bridge. At this point, those ending the walk here can turn left to Bursledon Station, opposite the Yachtsman's pub. The main walk turns right here, up Blundell Lane, your direction 50 degrees.
18. In 250 metres, where the tarmac public road goes left, carry straight on, through Brixedone Farm (a boat repair yard). Soon you go under the motorway and immediately fork right over a stile, your direction 50 degrees, to keep alongside the shore. In 80 metres go over another stile.
19. In 80 metres, pick up the footpath forking half left diagonally across the field, your direction 20 degrees. In 200 metres, you are now beside a channel of water to your right-hand side, that joins to the river, your direction 330 degrees. In 80 metres, go through a potentially muddy hedge gap and in 50 metres, go over a stile on your right-hand side, to cross the channel.
20. At the other side, in 40 metres, at the T-junction, turn right, your direction 140 degrees. In 90 metres, by a fork, turn left on a path, your direction 50 degrees, following the yellow ringed wooden posts and occasional signs for Manor Farm.
21. In 600 metres, you path opens up and there is now a car wide track, with a wooden fence and field to your right hand side, your direction 30 degrees.

22. Ignoring ways off, in one kilometre you come to Manor Park Farm, to bear leftwards through the farm (ignoring the right fork with the large Manor Park sign), downhill, marked 'No Unauthorised Vehicles', past a post with blue and yellow bands, your direction 25 degrees, with buildings to your right hand side. Soon you pass the fieldgate to the Manor Farm entrance on your right-hand side, and then the wheelwrights on your left-hand side, and soon a pond on your right hand side, to emerge through a wooden gate onto an earth road, with St Bartholomew Church, the old Botley parish church, to your right-hand side. You go left on this road, your direction 15 degrees.
23. In 60 metres, you come to a T-junction with the tarmac road, where you go left, your direction 300 degrees. In 120 metres, just 30 metres past the Old Rectory on your right-hand side, go right on a signposted footpath, your direction 30 degrees.
24. In 300 metres, ignore a metal kissing gate to your right-hand side. In a further 50 metres, turn half right on a broad way across fields, your direction 65 degrees.
25. This brings you through an old metal kissing gate and in 75 metres down onto a tarmac road. You turn right for 10 metres, and then left on a footpath through a metal kissing gate, your direction 35 degrees, on a path known as Lovers' Lane.
26. In 40 metres, you cross water on a concrete bridge with metal railings and go up the other side, in a further 100 metres to a road, where you turn right, eastwards.

27. In 30 metres, turn left by the 'No Entry' sign, to go northwards, on Church Lane, into the centre of Botley, coming to the main road in 200 metres.
28. On the other side of the road is the Country Kitchen Tea Rooms, the recommended tea stop.
29. Coming out of the tea room, turn left on the main road, the A334, your direction 105 degrees, and follow it for 1km over the stream and past Botley Mills Craft and Business Centre on your left-hand side, to Botley Station, ignoring the A3051 right turn. By the station is the Railway Inn.
30. The near platform is for Basingstoke, Winchester and London, although the far platform can get you to London via Fareham.