BOAT: Ashley Wood Lane

• Overall Rating: 3
• Location: Ashley, Hampshire.
• OS Explorer Map 131, 'Romsey, Andover & Test Valley'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: SU399296 or SU400295
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 06' 40" W001 43' 20" or N51 06' 40" W001 42' 90"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: SU392319
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 08' 50" W001 44' 00"
• To see: Roman road, Roman settlement.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

This byway has no name that we can discover, so if you know the correct title please comment below. For now Ashley Wood Lane shall suffice.

Starting from the southern end, this byway begins in one of two places: either as the metalled driveway serving some cottages and a ridiculous palatial mansion or as a sylvan drive through a small copse that thankfully screens the wanton excess on display. After a short distance and on passing the gates serving the mansion (with stone cubes on top, strangely) the two options converge and the track strikes northwards between hedgerows and fields on a surface of gravel and, later, lightly rutted earth with a grassy middle. It's very easy going and suitable for all vehicles. The byway pretty much continues in this vein for its entire length, climbing very gradually on a remarkably straight course that follows the base of a shallow valley. After a fair stretch it ends on a country road called Chalk Vale.

For those interested in history, the route of a Roman road running from Winchester to Salisbury can be seen under the metalled country road . There's nothing to see above ground but it is still awesome regardless! There is also a roman settlement called Ashley Wood Camp to the west of the green lane. Again there is little to see, but if you follow the footpath up the hill it is still possible to see the ditch and bank that encircled the site.

To Hampshire County Council this is Byway 8, Byway 9 and Byway 31, combined for convenience.

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