Written by Malcolm Price
This month’s walk takes fresh strides through a recent housing development that has maintained a surprising level of leisure areas for people to roam. The chosen start location is The Cricketers Arms, Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh, SO53 3HN (photo 1) or close by in the area reserved for the Stoneham War Shrine, if that car park is overcrowded.
The walk provides good underfoot conditions, while the distance of just over 4 miles (7Km) is not taxing itself.
Walk Description:
- Leaving the pub, we turn right up the slope, beside the road along a wide footpath for approximately 500 metres, passing Highwood Avenue on the opposite side, a good point to safely cross the road at the lights.
- Continue along Chestnut Avenue for 100 metres to turn left and pass round a barrier (photo 2) which proceeds down a wide gravel road that borders a number of allotments on the right and fields on the left hand quickly entering a woodland.
- As we go into these woods we pass a tempting looking path on the left (resist this turn), keeping straight on – walking downhill and then up the far side; all of the track being good quality compacted gravel. Climbing to the top of the hill the path joins a T junction where we turn left along a tempting trail that gradually tapers downhill.
- At this point we are little more than 100 metres from the outer holes of Stoneham Golf Club (through the trees on the right), but you are unlikely to hear anything more than the occasional golf ball ‘thwack’.
- Following the track down further, we weave through a copse and come out on to cross an estate road. A little further down we turn left across a small bridge, then right tracing a good loose gravel path around the edge of the housing.
- We now have the new housing development on our left and woodland behind the fence on our right. This track passes a small play area, where we turn right for 200 metres before another left down a concrete road (with no pavement) for around 400 metres.
