Backup Only

This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 21 September 2019

Saturday walk - Petersfield to Alton (or to Liss) - The Hampshire Hangers

Petersfield to Alton - 23.9km (14.8 miles) T=2.11

or Petersfield to Liss  - 16km (10.3 miles): see SHORTER OPTION below

Toughness: 8 out of 10

9.30 train from Waterloo to Petersfield, arriving 10.33

From Clapham Junction get the 9.27 Exeter/Bristol train and change at Woking (arrive 9.45, depart 9.55)

Buy a day return to Petersfield, but on the way back you will also need a single from Alton to Woking (£7.20 with a Network Card)

Looking at the other two walk posts, I see it falls to me this week to choose the longer/adventurous walk. It is also that time of year when the awful prospect of early dusks looms, and the thought that it would be nice to make good use of the daylight hours we still have.

Hence this little combination walk, which was last given an outing in 2016. It involves doing the Petersfield to Liss walk to its midpoint (directions, gpx, map), but then staying on the Hangars Way to Selborne, from where one can hook up with the Alton Circular walk (a GPX and map of this link route is included in the Petersfield to Liss ones: for walk directions click here).

By this route it is 4.1 miles to Hawkley, the lunch stop on the Petersfield to Liss walk, and another 4.1 miles to Selborne, making 8.2 miles in all from Petersfield to Selborne. I mention this because the Hawkley Inn can be very popular and booked up, though some past walk reports suggest that you can eat food in its garden even if it is full within. Otherwise the Selborne Arms is a charming pub, though annoyingly it stops serving food at 2pm. Perhaps with a 10.30 start this will be possible for some of our faster walkers, however.

Selborne also has two cafes - the Selborne Tea Rooms and the cafe of the Gilbert White Museum (which has now been rebuilt and is easily accessible without the need to go into the museum), which are open all afternoon. There are emergency lunch backstops, or if you have lunched in Hawkley they make ideal tea stops.

From Selborne, you follow the afternoon of the Alton Circular walk (directions: from paragraph 61 on page 6, GPX, map). It is 6.6 miles to Alton, though the last 1.8 miles is on lit roads (unless you choose the slightly alternative ending - option b) - over the fields), so it should be easily doable before dusk. Refreshment stops on this walk include the Rose and Crown pub in Upper Farringdon, and the Greyfriar in Chawton.

Trains back from Alton are at 15 and 44 past.

SHORTER OPTION

The 38 bus linking Selborne and Alton no longer runs on Saturdays, so ending the walk here is no longer possible. The only option for a shorter walk, therefore, is to do the Petersfield to Liss walk in its entirety, which is 10.3 miles. The route diverges from the Petersfield to Alton one about two miles after lunch.

Trains back from Liss are at 02 past the hour and your Petersfield return is valid

2 comments:

Walker said...

So that was summer. The last day of w=hot-sun. On it n=19 assembled on Petersfield station and set off for the South East’s very own north face of the Eiger, the vertical grassy wall of Shoulder of Mutton Hill. We shot up it like the proverbial rocket, feeling very fit, only to be passed by a band of teens, who, let’s face it, were neither carrying rucksacks or wearing boots: so it was easier for them, right?

Traversing the lovely semi-wooded territory to Hawkley we got to the Hawkley Arms at 12.15, when there was only one other lunch party there. There was ample space in the sun-drenched garden. The three first to order got their food in about ten minutes. The rest of us, who had ordered minutes later, waited about an hour. When we left, the inside of the pub was heaving, leaving me to suspect they prioritised inside orders over garden ones.

In the afternoon at least ten of us did the longer walk to Alton, meaning the rest presumably went to Liss (separate walk report welcome). We got to Selborne at 3pm and split between the Selborne Arms, the Selborne Tea Rooms and the new outside cafe of Gilbert White’s House, which is highly recommended and even had vegan and gluten-free cakes, plus a charming view of the back of the house. The pub types sneaked off ahead of us, but stopped in the idyllic and busy garden of the Rose and Crown in Upper Farringdon to let us catch up.

We then carried on to Alton, as the golden sun set, never to return before next May, and got the 6.15 train, whiling away the journey to London with wine, chips and dips.

Anonymous said...

Thank you walker for posting the walk. My apologies for dashing of early as I want explore Noar Hill nature reserve. Disappointment. Very overgrown and paths in the reserve needs some maintenance. Meadow flowers suffering from lack of rain. Gentians totally withered away before flowering. Detour to Noar Hill hill itself not on OS map but on GPS (right hand corner of OS explorer map} Nice views and should be good colour when leaves turn colour. Failed to make it to Alton ran out of water. Return to Liss one path was blocked by farmer despite being public right of way. No choice but clim over the gate. Took an easy stroll along the river. Met 3 other SWC walkers at Liss station. Enoyable day out espeically the Hangers and the meadows. Deserve another visit when spring comes next year. Monica