BOAT: Clarendon Way

• Overall Rating: 4
• Location: Middle Winterslow, Wiltshire.
• OS Explorer Map 131, 'Romsey, Andover & Test Valley. Stockbridge & Ludgershall'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: SU267324
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 09' 00" W001 62' 00"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: SU251328  
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 09' 40" W001 64' 30"
• To see: course of a Roman road, tumuli.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

Admittedly this lane is a bit of a cheat, as it straddles the border of Hampshire and Wiltshire and is therefore technically outside of the scope of this site, but it's awesome so I've included it anyway!

Clarendon Way follows the course of the Roman road that used to run between Old Sarum and Winchester, and even for that reason alone it is awesome. Leaving a country lane called The Warren just south of Little Buckholt Farm, it takes a very straight (obviously, given its history) westerly track along the northern edge of Lower Noad's Copse where the southerly bank of the Roman road can still plainly be seen in places.

On a surface of earth, chalk and leaf mould, the lane is well maintained and well drained, making it very easy going. On crossing the boundary between Lower and Upper Noad's Copse, the track subtly leaves the alignment the Romans chose and runs just outside the northern embankment of their road for a stretch of around 400m before reaching the border with Wiltshire and resuming their original line. At the border the lane becomes the prepared gravel driveway for numerous cottages in Middle Winterslow and climbs uphill towards its terminus on Mill Lane. A great lane, and well worth a go.

For further historical interest, two tumuli can be found just north of the lane, although satellite imaging shows them to have been ploughed flat, as is unfortunately so common these days.

View Clarendon Way in a larger map