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Ensbury via Stour Valley Way

Difficulty Leisurely

Walking time 3 hours

Length 10.8km / 6.7mi

Route developer: Margaret Kettlewell

Route checker: Ron Roskell

Start location Brecon Close car park, Ensbury, Bournemouth
Route Summary This circular 6.5 mile walk starts from a small car park off New Road, Bournemouth, and forms a Stour Valley Way loop, where the Way runs along the north of the river between Parley and Throop Weir and back along the south of the river.
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Getting there

Public transport.  Wilts and Dorset 13 and Yellow 4d both Bournemouth/Wimborne, stop on New Road near to the car park.  Other routes between Bournemouth and Kinson stop within one quarter of a mile of the start point.  

Description

[1]  Come back out onto New Road and turn right.  Walk along the pavement for about three quarters of a mile, until you come to a finger post on your right.  Cross the metal hand-gate and follow the path ahead, emerging onto Church Lane.  Turn right and follow the lane for about 300 yards until, just before Snooks Farm, you find a farm gate and a stile on the left, which take you onto a double-hedged track.

[2] At the end of the track, pass through two fields with the field boundary on your left and then go through a gate ahead of you so that the field boundary of the next two fields is on your right. You emerge onto a track, where you turn left towards Parley Manor and associated outbuildings.  At the private entrance, skirt round the left-hand side of the perimeter and climb a stile to cross a paddock.  Leave the paddock via a stile at the far end, go across a track and into a scrubby area.  Soon you come to a stile into a field with horses and you cut across the corner on your right to another stile and onto the paved lane to Parley Manor, onto which you turn left.

[3]  Pass the ornamental ponds on your right.  Go straight ahead after the ponds (signposted "1 1/4 miles Merritown"), avoiding the lane on your right.  Soon the path curves round to the right and goes through a golf club.  At the end of the club buildings, meet the river on your right.  Follow it for no more than 200 yards, with the wire fence of the golf club on your left.  You then turn away from the river and continue to follow the high bank and netting of the club on your left.  Be alert: several golf balls from the adjacent driving range were spotted here.  In the field on your right, you will see the very distinctive curve of a water channel.  Where the golf netting and the bank end, cross a stile on your right to enter this field.  There is an unavoidable small patch of very muddy ground in this field.  Following the hedge on your left, two stiles will bring you out onto a paved lane.  Turn right here, as signposted, and walk past the Pony Palace Riding Stables sign, the surface of the lane deteriorating noticeably.  Continue ahead between buildings and paddocks (this is Merritown Farm and over on your left you will see the brightly-coloured rides of Alice in Wonderland Family Park) then leave them behind as you pass through a hand-gate.

[4] 50 yards beyond this gate, ignore the paved lane ahead and take a path into a small wood on your right, waymarked Hurn Link, the path then going on between two fields. The path then crosses three fields along their edges, following the curve of the river, until you come to a weir.  Turn right across a bridge and walk alongside the river and mill ponds with plentiful hungry ducks up to Throop Mill.  

[5]  Go round the Mill, keeping it on your right and come up to the road, onto which you turn right.  Follow the road through the village (ignore Taylor Drive) to a T-junction where you take the minor road down to the right.  Passing the buildings of Muccleshell Farm on your right, go on until you are almost upon the water treatment works.  

[6]  If possible, go through the signposted kissing gate ahead of you but this narrow path can be very overgrown for 50 yards or so so you can usually go instead through the gate in a gap on the left of the kissing gate instead and follow the track onto the very well-trodden, winding, muddy path. Follow it until it bends sharply to your right, then left and then left again, bringing you back onto the river, this time on its south side. 

[7]  The path follows the river for just over 2 miles:  there are various forks in the way, some taking you nearer the water, some further away, but you shouldn’t be able to go wrong if you follow the direction of the river and keep it on your right – if unsure of the way, keep on the paths nearest the river.  En route, there is a fairly lengthy section of boardwalk, then eventually, just before a wooded area, after a short boardwalk and near a rusty old pylon, a left turn away from the river brings you back to the  Brecon Close car park.

 

 

POI information

At waymark 2, you might like to go on along Church Lane for a few hundred yards to have a look at All Saints Church:  this deviation would add about half a mile to your walk.  Parley, now only a few houses, is a very ancient settlement, mentioned in Domesday Book.  All Saints Church, which includes a Norman nave, an open timbered roof and wooden bell turret is probably of Saxon origin.   

At waymark 5, you come to Throop Mill, which was mentioned in the Doomsday Book, but ancient stone foundations indicate that there may have been a mill on the site since Saxon times.  The present building dates from the beginning of the 20th Century. A fire a few  years ago made the interior unsafe so it is no longer open to the public.  There are occasionally local campaigns to get it made safe and re-opened to the public.

About half way along your path on the south side of the river, there is a pleasant arboretum, above you on your left.

 

Notes No details available.
Acknowledgements No details available.
  • Throop Mill
    Throop Mill
    By - Margaret Kettlewell
  • The ponds near Parley Manor
    The ponds near Parley Manor
    By - Margaret Kettlewell
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