The National Rejoin March organised a nationwide Rejoin Ramble weekend to publicise our aims and strengthen our fellowship, with pro-EU groups all over the country each planning their own hike.
Here in Dorset, we arranged ours for Sunday September 6, starting at 10am, from Wareham Railway Station car park and incorporating a Sunday lunch at the Old Granary pub at Wareham Quay. Our previous walk was, for some, a little too taxing on the leg muscles, due to the steep ups and downs along the Purbeck coast so, this time, we opted for a much more level walk. We aimed to cover 5.8 miles in our circular, skirting first the golf course then Northport Heath, before plunging into the woods towards Carey House.
Twelve people signed up for the walk, with a further five wanting to join us for lunch. Sunday dawned warm and sunny, but health issues and other commitments had whittled the number of walkers down to seven; these included county councillors Nick Ireland and Belinda Bawden, so it’s tempting to say that what we lacked in quantity was fully compensated by quality! Belinda was wearing a ‘Devon for Europe’ T-shirt since, hailing from Lyme Regis, she’s involved with the movement in both counties.
We set off a little after 10am, heading northeast to use the pedestrian crossing over the railway lines. Turning right onto a footpath after a roundabout, we soon veered left to meet a side road, which we crossed to enter Tantinoby Lane. Passing a small playpark, we forked left off the tarmac path to cross a field with a solitary football goalmouth – this is Hauses Field of Dreams – presumably where budding Premiership football stars dream of playing on a pitch with two goals! We left the field into a cul de sac (which, incidentally, means ‘arse of bag’ in French), crossed another side road to a track, where we climbed gently to the right onto a path with a golf course on either side. After braving the hazard of errant balls and a sign exhorting us to give priority to golfers, we reached a metal gate through which we took the sharp right option of three paths.
This was where we found ourselves between the woods of Northport Heath on our left and a high hedge shielding us from golfers and their balls. At the end of the woods our broad track turned left to head northwest. We might have looked out for such local fauna as sika deer, sand lizards and smooth snakes, or some less common species of bird, like the Dartford warbler or the nightjar, but we were too busy chatting. A favourite topic was the barefaced effrontery of Reform, at their conference last week, in offering to fix a ‘broken Britain’ which their leader played a huge role in breaking with his Brexit midwifery, and which his donors would further cripple through their tax avoidance and mob incitement.
What we did have to watch out for were tree roots and persistent puddles that required a little bog-hopping, despite the summer drought. The path continued meandering along the edge of the woods, continuing straight ahead when we reached a junction of gravel paths.
The path bent round to the left, after which we turned off right, slightly uphill. Bending left again, the path headed towards a gate, where we turned left onto a grassy track between gorse bushes. This section would certainly entail a good deal of bog-hopping after wet weather, but on Sunday it was almost completely dry. Just over half a mile along this stretch brought us to a walkers’ gate, through which we passed to reach a road, the one that leads from the A35 near Bere Regis to Wareham. We crossed the road to a track opposite leading to Forest Lodge, to the right of which we passed a green barrier bearing a yellow footpath marker. Following the grassy path ahead, we climbed gently, now heading due south, glad of the shade afforded by the trees. Straight over a junction with a track, after another half mile we crossed over a more minor road and through a wooden gate, onto the driveway for South Lodge, Garden Cottage and Carey House. Carey’s Secret Garden, incidentally, is home to the first pair of nesting ospreys in England for over 200 years.
At the three-way fork ahead, the footpath we took was the left option for South Lodge, initially bending round to the left and downhill. Where the path forked again, we took the left option again for Garden Cottage and passed to the left of the building. The wooden fence on our right ended at a gate, where we turned left. Now out of the woods and heading east, there was a large field on our right as we headed towards the buildings of Ferncroft Farm. Just before the farm, we found an old iron kissing gate just off to our right and, once through, we turned right towards a metal grill in the hedge opposite, giving access to a makeshift footbridge over a stream. We then turned right on a track that soon bent left and down to a walker’s gate and a wooden bridge, taken as the option preferred over the adjacent ford. Through this, we were now approaching a railway embankment ahead, with the dwellings of the western side of Wareham away over to our left. We made for the broad arch under the railway, pausing to pick a few juicy blackberries, then turned left at the River Piddle and immediately right, through a gate to cross the river and pass the buildings of West Mills. We turned left to pass a cattle grid and, at the bend, a sign about Wareham Common and access to the riverbank. We paused here to reflect what a pleasant spot this would be for a picnic and perhaps a paddle, if we were on a longer hike and if we didn’t have lunch booked.
Here we turned right to make for the underpass beneath the Wareham bypass. On the other side, we found ourselves on a tarmac road bending round to the left, then climbing slightly first to a gate, then a walker’s gate beside a cattle grid. This led us out onto a road, where we turned left to pass Wareham Community Hospital on our left and school playing fields on the right. Continuing ahead at a junction towards a footpath sign ahead, we followed the road round to the right to a car park, with the embankment of the South Walls of the old town now on our left. This is ‘Bloody Bank’, so named because it was the location where gallows and gibbets were erected.
Wareham has a long, long history, having been a significant port before being overtaken by Poole. There’s evidence of human activity here dating back to 9,000 BCE. The ramparts were probably built under King Alfred in the 9th century CE as a defence against Viking raids. It was here in 1213 that Peter de Pomfret was hanged along with his son. Peter was a hermit who prophesied that King John’s reign would be over by Ascension Day. The king had both father and son imprisoned in Corfe Castle, then each tied to a horse’s tail and dragged from Corfe to Wareham. In his play, King John, Shakespeare tells the story of the prophecy but spares us the gory details of the executions.
Judge Jeffrey’s ‘Bloody Assizes’ are chiefly associated with Taunton and Dorchester, but five or six Monmouth rebels were hung, drawn and quartered here in 1685, their heads then displayed at the crossroads and their quarters on the South Bridge.
We climbed briefly up the bank at the gap leading through to Cow Lane, only to drop down again and cross the main road to Pound Lane opposite. This we followed, bending first left then right again, passing the old Panton & Co brewery en route. We turned right into Tanner’s Lane, then left into Abbott’s Quay to the main road, which we crossed to reach the Quay, with the Old Granary opposite.
We’d been moderating our pace and pausing here and there to drink our water along the way, in part to avoid being too early for our 1pm table booking. Nevertheless, we reached the quay before 12.15, giving us ample time to sit on the benches with views over the River Frome and quench our thirsts with a well-earned beverage.
The seven walkers were joined by six non-walkers but, prior to lunch, one of our number took his leave, preferring to join his wife for lunch at home. This may have been fortunate, because it has been known for head waiters to refuse point blank to set a table for 13, out of superstition.
Suitably refreshed in good company, the route back to the station took us back onto South Street, turning right. Soon after the main street becomes North Street, we noticed Anglebury House on our left. Anglebury was Thomas Hardy’s name for Wareham, and TE Lawrence was in the habit of frequenting the establishment.
After crossing the Piddle bridge, there was a shared use path available off left for pedestrians and cyclists, passing under the bypass once again, soon to join the Northport road leading back to the station car park, where we all parted for home.
