BOAT: Queens Road

• Overall Rating: 3
• Location: Weavers Down, Hampshire.
• OS Explorer Map 133, 'Haslemere & Petersfield'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: SU811315
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 07' 80" W000 84' 30"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: SU824318
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 08' 00" W000 82' 40"
• To see: Longmoor Military Railway.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

Who would NOT want to drive this?!

Starting from Longmoor Road, which follows what was once part of the course of the Longmoor Military Railway (nothing of which remains at this point), our byway starts southwards and initially is crushingly disappointing. Almost the entire of the southbound course is covered in tarmac with the dreaded speed bumps, and passes by some truly vile housing that made us wish we could drive with our eyes closed! (How they ever got planning permission...). Indeed, we nearly gave up and turned around, but that would undermine our intrepid reputation! Therefore we ploughed on.

The green lane continues following the eastern boundary of the Old Thorns Golf and Country Club and, where it starts a shallow uphill climb, the tarmac ends and a prepared gravel/compacted sand surface begins. There are a couple of crossings for golfers to get from one side of their holes to the other, so take care when driving and keep a good lookout. Needless to say, it's extremely easy going and is no harder to drive than any country road you might come across.

The 'view'.

On reaching a small spinney the gravel/sand relinquishes its dominion and the green lane turns sharply to the north-west. Take care to take the right course here: the tire tracks seem to suggest that not everyone is doing so. To the west (i.e. right) it is a bridleway, and to the south (i.e. ahead ) a footpath crosses the county boundary into West Sussex. Neither carry rights of vehicular access and both are dead ends so don't be tempted: just follow the obvious sign buy turning left and heading on eastwards.

This is where the good stuff starts. The track runs along the top of a ridge through a very pleasant pine forest and offering stunning views over the valley to the south through the trees. The surface is sandy earth and there are quite a few puddles around, seemingly even in dry weather, but its very easy going and would present no challenge to such as a Freelander. But all too soon it is all over; back on the tarmac (to a degree: it's pretty potholed, most of which have been filled with crushed brick) on passing a newly built house. Its then simply a case of following the trail down hill to the Deer's Hut pub, where you can either turn left to rejoin Longmoor Road or carry straight on and finish the last 100m of byway, should you feel inclined to do so. Not a great byway, but not bad either.

According to Hampshire County Council these are actually two separate byways (Byway 50 and 501), but since you quite obviously can't drive one without the other we are treating them as one and the same in this entry.

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