BOAT: Fairacres Drive

• Overall Rating: 2
• Location: Froxfield Green, Hampshire.
• OS Explorer Map 133, 'Haslemere & Petersfield'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: SU701259
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 02' 90" W001 00' 10"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: SU708260
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N51 03' 00" W000 99' 00"
• To see: not much.
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

We drove this short byway from the West. It begins as a stone-chip-covered driveway serving Fairacres Farm. Being a driveway, the surface is obviously in good condition and the hedgerow on either side is kept well clear of the carriageway. But, predictably, on passing the cottage on the southern side the conditions close in.

The driveway surface changes from stone chip to lightly-rutted earth, the foliage either side of the track closes in, and the going is a little trickier, but could still hardly be considered difficult. The occasional light scratch on the paintwork is a risk, however. The byway twists and turns subtly on its way eastwards and, very quickly, it ends up back on the tarmac, next to a pond and crossed by a footpath, on another driveway serving a house called Rapley's Lodge.

It's pleasant and its bucolic, but it's brief, it's not particularly interesting, and it's not really worth going out of your way for a visit to be honest!

To Hampshire County Council, this is Byway 501.