BOAT: Nursery Lane

• Overall Rating: 3
• Location: Old Basing, Hampshire.
• OS Explorer Map 144, 'Basingstoke, Alton and Whitchurch, Odiham, Overton and Hook'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: SU679521
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 15' 51.95" W001 01' 38.86"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: SU683526
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 16' 09.91" W001 01' 27.82"
• To see: Basingstoke, Civil War earthworks at Basing House and Oliver's Battery, source of the River Loddon.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

There's not much to say and nothing particularly remarkable about this very short BOAT, other than it being a pleasant drive along a field boundary and it having a very shallow, concreted ford over the River Lyde at its northern end.

Turning off of Greywell Road the green lane heads south-east until it hits the M3, which provided us with a poignant yet welcome reminder of how we'd FINALLY managed to 'get away' from the maddened, swivel-eyed, twittering masses! At the M3 the byway turns sharp left and heads in a northerly direction up towards the A30. It's a very well kept lane, with a tarmac surface which, after the bend, gives way to a prepared gravel and, later, a dirt surface. There is a surprisingly dramatic undulation in the lane as it crosses a very small tributary of the River Lyde, and it then continues on, fording (see below) the aforementioned 'river' in a small patch of woodland just before reaching the A30.

When pulling out of the lane onto the A30, do take extreme care. The A30 is a dual carriageway at this point and this junction is quite blind due to foliage. Don't take a chance.

The ford.

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