First of all, if mid-January isn’t too late to say it, a Happy New Year to all our followers. And welcome to our first blog of 2025 after a period of quiet from us. Our beloved leader Glyn Coy is still on lay over, engrossed as he is in his not so new job. But he’s shown signs of life recently so he may be coming back, albeit slowly. Elaine has been suffering from the horrendous heavy cold that seems to have beset the nation and has not felt fit enough to do any substantial walks of late. But she’s getting there and is in training. Glyn has also been laid low by the illness that I’ve managed to dodge so far. My only excuse is that I’ve been preoccupied with a host of other things. The weekend of 11/12 January was a busy one for matters loosely relating to Hidden Wiltshire so let me tell you about it.
On Saturday I was invited by our good chum Paul Whitewick to the opening of the studio space he and Rebecca have taken on in Andover. Not only is this a fantastic space for recording and editing podcasts and YouTube films but Rebecca has also built a photographic studio there. Both rooms are available for hire here:
I travelled over with my friend and neighbour Paul Clifton (aka BBC Paul), Transport Correspondent for BBC South. Paul had an ulterior motive as he wanted to film some drive by shots on the A303 and needed a driver. It will be aired on South Today at some point soon. Having arrived at the studios in Andover, apart from Paul and our good mate Hedley Thorne, I was amazed at the number of familiar faces there – almost all of them YouTubers who make films about history, rights of way, transport networks, and walking in the countryside. All subjects close to our heart at Hidden Wiltshire. I’m pleased to say several of them were Hidden Wiltshire followers and we’ve inspired each other in some shape or form over the years.
I don’t know what the collective noun is for YouTubers but there were more there than you can shake a stick at. Darren Spratt of WC21(UK) Productions Ltd suggested a Concern of YouTubers. Let us know if you can think of an alternative noun. Darren had come down all the way from North Yorkshire for the event and John from Tweedy Outdoors had come from London. Tom from Allotment Fox had travelled all the way from the Middle Ages!
I’m going to post links to all their channels below and aside from the YouTube crowd there was also the enormously talented artist Anna Dillon. I didn’t get to speak to everyone so I know I’ve missed a few people. There was at least one more Paul making four of us that I know of and I’m sure I heard him say he had a YouTube channel. But pretty much all these guys have appeared on each other’s channels at some point. Perhaps Hidden Wiltshire should…? Let’s not go there but never say never again. After our Pewsey Vale epic film from a couple of years ago we’ve finally recovered from that trauma so maybe it’s time.
All in all this was a glittering event that just goes to show you don’t need to go to Cannes for showbiz glamour. Andover is where it’s at. Where else would you find this lot gathered in one place?
Sunday couldn’t have been more different but there was a connection between the two days. Long term followers of the Hidden Wiltshire blog and listeners to the podcast will know that we’ve long advocated for better access to the countryside, not least by the unblocking of public rights of way. I’ve heard most of the YouTubers I met on Saturday talk about the challenges of simply trying to walk in the countryside at some point or another. So on Sunday I joined the Wiltshire and Somerset branch of the Right to Roam movement in an attempt to reach the most accessible source of the River Wylye, one of the five chalk streams that meet in Salisbury. We wanted to follow the river from Kingston Deverill to the point where it disappears underground near White Sheet Down. It does re-emerge somewhere near Kilmington but this spot is difficult to access so we did not try. On the way we wanted to do some water sampling, some citizen science, to check on the health of this beautiful chalk stream, one of the rarest of habitats. 85% of the world’s chalk streams are in the UK, a large number of them in Wiltshire.
Fortunately we were able to follow much of this stretch of Wylye on or close to public rights of way but for one short stretch where we wanted to test the water quality we had to deviate from the path across an empty field of pasture. But before starting the walk we wanted to take a look at Egbert’s Stones which can be found in a paddock behind St Mary the Virgin church in Kingston Deverill. In my November 2023 blog entitled “Egbert’s Stone, The Harrow Way and a Splendid Bottom” I explained how we’d tried and failed to find the stones. I now know that at some point I must have been looking at them back then!
You’ll find a link to my blog at the bottom of this one but as a reminder King Egbert was the grandfather of King Alfred. Legend has it that Egbert held court near Kingston Deverill and if true a likely spot would be on the heights of Court Hill west of the village, presumably named such for that very reason. It is said that Egbert stood on a stone to deliver judgement. At some point the stones were brought down to the village and were used as stepping stones over the ford that lies on the edge of the village on the border with neighbouring Monkton Deverill. Scroll forward to the days of Egbert’s grandson King Alfred. We are all familiar with the battle of Ethandun where Alfred’s army defeated the Danes in 878 AD. There are several candidates for the location of the battle and therefore the route that Alfred took to reach it. His army comprised of men from all across the kingdom of Wessex and came together at an assembly point before marching to the site of the battle (thought to be outside modern day Edington). For many the preferred location of this meeting place is the ford at Kingston Deverill where, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Alfred addressed his men from Egbert’s Stone.
At the end of 2024 I received an email via my own website from Martha Bache who owns the paddock where Egbert’s Stones now sit. She had read my blog and said she would be happy to show me the stones next time I was in the area. Whilst the paddock is private Martha is keen for others to see the stones and is thinking of opening it up to the public – she’s exploring ways of doing this. So I contacted Martha to see if our small group could visit the stones on Sunday. Sadly she was away for the day but after she explained where the stones are we were able to see them clearly over the fence. If you want to see them for yourself, from the church follow the road east back towards Hill Deverill. After just a few metres take the turning on the left which I think is sign posted Maiden Bradley. On your left is a wooden post and rail fence around the paddock and the stones can be seen by the wooden shed. You can then take the first left again to follow the fence line down the driveway down to the abandoned and derelict Kingston House to get a slightly closer look and from where you can clearly see that the stones are stacked against each other looking like a dolmen without its capstone. It has been suggested that this is exactly what it was. Please don’t be tempted to enter the paddock without permission.
Returning to the church we followed a little footpath alongside another footpath where alpacas graze. It’s not clear that this is a footpath but I can assure you it is as it squeezes hard by a cottage where it emerges on a quiet lane. Here you will get your first look at the Wylye which is little more than a crystal clear babbling brook flowing past village cottages. You can follow this for a short stretch in either direction.
From Kingston Deverill we crossed a short stretch of meadow to reach the river again where we took our first water sample. The walk leader had a kit that tests for nitrates and nitrites. These kits cost about £5. Ideally we would have tested for phosphates as well but these test kits are around £70. Scooping the water up in a jam jar it was beautifully clear. If it were handed to you as a glass of drinking water you would not hesitate. But the readings for such an internationally important habitat were disappointingly high – around 25 parts per million (ppm) for nitrate and 1ppm for nitrite. These high readings are largely due to pollution from a variety of sources. So, in a major effort to improve the ecology of the Wylye, a project was begun in 2023 led by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust in partnership with Wylye Valley Farmers Group and Wessex Rivers Trust to improve a 20km stretch of the river. To quote from the press release:
“Due to diminished water quality, low flows, and degraded river habitat, species such as river flies, Atlantic salmon, grayling, and wild brown trout have suffered. Additionally, invasive plant species like Himalayan balsam have displaced native flora along riverbanks. Water meadows along the river have dwindled, becoming fragmented and scarce, hampering the flourishing of wading birds such as snipe, green sandpipers, and lapwings.
The collaborative effort aims to rejuvenate the vitality, diversity, and ecological abundance of the Wylye Valley. The focus is on restoring the river's natural connection with its floodplain across a 20km stretch of currently under-utilised farmland.”
As we re-joined the public right of way, across the fields we saw evidence of where the work has begun. There has been a lot of tree planting along the banks of the upper reaches of the river here. The roots will help stabilise the bank, soak up flood waters and capture carbon.
Just south of Dairy Farm on the Maiden Bradley road the footpath passes a substantial Bronze Age bowl barrow (dating from between 2400 to 1500 BC but probably more towards the later date). It has never been excavated so is in remarkably good condition showing just a little erosion from grazing. It is now fenced off to prevent further damage. It’s thought that its location on the floor of the valley will mean that the wet conditions have preserved any archaeological remains in good condition.
From this point we continued along the footpath as far as the driveway to Rodmead Farm. Before this juncture we could see another substantial bowl barrow to the south, north of Truncombe Wood but this was some distance from the footpath so we did not visit on this occasion. Our small party of eight included a two year old who was happily sleeping in a child carrier on his father’s back so we didn’t want to push our luck! But even if we had this would have required another small trespass. And therein lies the problem. 28% of England’s ancient monuments are off limits. Landowners argue that keeping them that way they are safeguarding them. But how many of the remaining 72% have been vandalised? Very few I would suggest including several that can be accessed close to this one. These monuments tend to be in out of the way places that take some effort to reach. How many vandals would go out of their way to cause damage? And would the fact that they are on private land deter them anyway?
There is a right of way down the drive past the farmhouse at Rodmead Farm. It is an impressive albeit not scheduled Wiltshire farmhouse with what looked like a restored dew pond by the outbuildings. Our walk leader had been told that the farmer welcomed visitors by appointment but when she did a recce a few days before hand looking for a place to park she said she was greeted with some suspicion notwithstanding the fact she was on a public right of way.
Back on the footpath heading west across boggy fields we deviated again to take another water sample not far from Coombe Barn Farm. Here the Wylye looked to be in very poor health. We could see that it disappears into a drain beneath the farmyard to re-emerge upstream we think, some three kilometres away at Kilmington. This is the true source of the Wylye but it’s impossible to visit. The stretch of the river between Rodmead Farm and Coombe Barn Farm is little more than a filthy ditch containing a number of plastic sacks of what looked like animal feed or maybe fertiliser. Our jam jar of water looked distinctly uninviting this time. But astonishingly the nitrate and nitrite readings were almost the same as those from our crystal clear sample. We wondered what a phosphate reading would look like. This was all very depressing. We can but hope that this section will be part of the rejuvenation project as, feeding as it does the Wylye from here all the way to Salisbury, it is one of the most critical.
We turned and retraced ours steps through boggy pasture all the way back to Kingston Deverill, a walk in total of about 10 kilometres, still without a peep from young Rafi. It had been a fascinating experience. I won’t share the route as it did involve short sections on private land – a micro-trespass. We were seen but no one seemed bothered by us as we followed a short stretch of the Wylye away from the footpath. In talking to the other members of the group who have been on these walks before involving a short trespass they said they had never encountered any difficulties with landowners. Mostly they seem happy for a chance to chat, a break from a lonely day on the farm and a chance to talk about what they do. Often they even point out other points of interest on their land. If the group didn’t behave responsibly then that would quite rightly be a different story. And whilst this was my first walk with the Right to Roam group, that has almost always been my experience when talking to farmers in the countryside where I haven’t necessarily kept strictly to rights of way. My feeling is that it is the small vocal minority who object, and of course their well organised and well funded representatives in the NFU and CLA whose aim seems to be to keep the general public out of the countryside.
Before leaving Kingston Deverill I went to see if the church was open. On every previous occasion it has been locked. Thankfully this time the doors were open. Dating to the 15th century the church was of course restored by the Victorians, but since they contributed the fine wooden ceiling in the nave we’ll forgive them. In a nod to the Anglo-Saxon king there was a banner depicting King Alfred. In the chancel is a Medieval stone effigy of an unknown man, his feet resting on what looked like an ugly cat. The light was fading by now so it was time to leave. Another church to return to and spend more time in the future.
Comments