[1] With your back to the metal barrier, turn left for 100 yards then turn right to take a path over a stile by Well House Farm with the fence on your left and keep left of two brick pillars to reach an enclosed path. This path twists and turns until it crosses a bridge over the River Blackwater. One hundred yards beyond the bridge turn left over a stile into a field. Keeping the river on your left, continue over three stiles and a small bridge and a gate, and 40 yards beyond the gate, turn left through another gate and continue until you reach the road at Jouldings Farm.
Cross the road, through the gap in the hedge and cross the stile (ignoring unmarked permitted footpath to the left). Go half left across the field to a stile on the far side. Turn right and continue across several fields keeping the river on your left until you reach the road (Ford Lane). Cross the road, go through a gate then turn half left to cross a footbridge. Turn left, pass through a kissing gate and rejoin Ford Lane. On reaching road turn hard right and 300 yards after a bridge where the road forks, take the left-hand fork. Follow this road for a short distance until you reach the cross roads with Three Gables Cottage on your right.
[2] Go straight over the crossroads then past Banks Cottage, where the tarmac ends, and continue along The Devil’s Highway bridleway.
(A) This was the Roman road from London to Silchester, whose Roman name was Calleva Atrebatum. This was a large town covering about 40 hectares, an administrative centre and an important trading centre specialising in metal, wood, textiles and leather working. It was largely abandoned after the Romans left Britain in the 5th century, and has been “rediscovered” by archaeological investigation in the last 100 years.
This section can be very muddy. On your left is Wellington Country Park, part of the estate of Stratfield Saye.
(B) The Manor of Stratfield Saye dates from the 12th century or earlier. In 1629 it was sold to the Pitt family (cousins of the great father and son prime ministers) and enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries. Following the Battle of Waterloo, a grateful nation wished to give the victor, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a country estate to rival Marlborough’s Blenheim. He was given £600,000 for the purchase and construction. In 1817 Wellington chose the 5,000 acres estate of Stratfield Saye and the Pitt family sold it to the nation. Wellington planned to demolish the existing house and replace it with a more prestigious home to be known as Waterloo Place. However, by 1821 he’d abandoned these plans as too expensive and settled for enlarging and improving the existing structure. The 3rd and 4th Dukes are buried there and it remains the family home, with the 1st Duke’s commemorative column at the eastern entrance.
At the road with Riseley Memorial Hall on the right cross the road diagonally to the left and enter a fenced footpath. Go along this footpath with a field on your left until reaching the Basingstoke Road (B3349). Cross Basingstoke Road to Sun Lane and pass Cold Harbour Cottages on the left. At the end of Sun Lane, turn left into Bull Lane and go through the underpass under the A33. Continue along Bull Lane until the T-junction.
[3] Turn right and follow the road, which swings left, and in about 400 yards, turn right down a marked byway opposite New Barn Farm. This byway crosses the A33 via a wide bridge. Ignore the byway on the right and keep straight on, eventually reaching a tarmac surface (Spring Lane). Continue along Spring Lane to a T-junction and turn left on to a minor road (Barge Lane) and then next right on to Kingsbridge Hill.
[4] Cross the River Loddon and shortly after turn left onto a public bridleway, Lambs Lane. At a metal barrier turn sharp left (N.B. if continuing on to the next stage, do not turn left but continue straight on along the metalled bridleway) and proceed down a bridleway adjacent to the A33 to pass under the A33 and up the ramp on the other side. After 150 yards turn left over a stile into a field. Keep the field edge on your left and cross a wooden bridge with a gate into another field. Aim for the middle of the fir trees, go through a gate, cross the farmyard, through another gate, passing to the left of a large brick building to reach a road by a white house. Turn right up the road for approximately half a mile to the T-junction at Beech Hill.