Hermitage to Hampstead Norreys via the Eling Way

(S/E) Go round to the right of the village hall then, when you are parallel with the rear of the hall, turn right on the path into the wood. Go straight ahead, then turn left at the T junction just before the fence, and continue parallel to the fence (note that the fences in the wood are shown incorrectly on the map).

As you reach the motorway, the path turns right and continues just inside the wood. At the end at the next junction, turn left over a stile and go diagonally right across the field to a gate and stile. Continue to Everington Lane along the edge of the field, with the woods on your right.

(1) Turn left along the lane until you reach the track that crosses it. Take the footpath that heads east up the hill between the road and lane, following a strip of unploughed land in the field (if there is an electric fence along this, it is best to keep left of it).

Go through the gate and straight past the house, then turn left along the restricted byway to return to Everington Lane.
Turn right over the motorway.

(2) Once over the motorway, turn immediately left along the bridleway. At the bottom of the ramp, take the right fork up the hill along a grassy path, and continue along this until you reach Narrow lane.

Turn left along the lane until you have passed the entrance to Eling Farm (ignore the old sign pointing into the farm entrance).

Turn right onto to the bridleway along a gravel farm track, past a new farm building on the left.

(3) Immediately after this building, turn left and through the gap to the right of the gates, then follow the bridleway between two hedges. Just inside the wood, the path bends left and then immediately forks. The bridleway is the indistinct path that goes straight down the slope (see photo).

You will soon reach the track at the bottom of the slope. if you have followed the bridleway, there is a post with disk arrows a few metres to the left indicating its continuation. If you have continued on the main path down the slope, turn right along this track to find this post (it has a pyramidal top - there are other posts for a leisure walk with a sloping top). The bridleway continues as a narrow path, crossing several woodland tracks. Go straight across these tracks (the bridleway is marked by more posts with disk arrows), then downhill to leave the wood and reach the stone access driveway to Manor Farm.

(4) Turn left along the driveway until you reach the access road to Hampstead Norreys village hall. Follow the sign pointing up and diagonally left to the start of the Eling Way.

(5) Follow the Eling Way straight ahead back to Hermitage. This is a surfaced permissive path along the route of the former railway, which is popular with families and cyclists. When you reach the road in Hermitage, turn left to return to the village hall. (S/E)

Park at Hermitage village hall (or on neighbouring roads). If travelling from Newbury, go through Hermitage village and, as you leave it, turn right at the mini roundabout into Pinewood Crescent. The hall is the first turning on the left.

(S/E) The Eling Way goes along part of the route of the former railway from Southampton to Didcot. There was a brickworks close to the start of the walk, which had its own siding. See the information board in front of the village hall for details.

(4) The 'mound' marked on the map is the remains of a motte - an early form of castle from the medieval period. The information board near where the bridleway leaves the wood has an illustration of what it might have looked like.