Hello again I'm Rob The Country Traveller. Today we're taking a walk around the
village of Brockenhurst in The New Forest. No Edith the miniature schnauzer
today I'm afraid as she would have to stay on the lead all the time on the hot
pavements. This short video covers a walk-around Brockenhurst village
centre stopping at some of the points of interest.As you enter Brockenhurst from
the Lyndhurst direction you'll see a very imposing building on the left this
is the Balmer Lawn Hotel and we'll begin our look around Brockenhurst here. Today this is a thriving country house hotel during World War Two it was
commandeered by the army. Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower were
frequent visitors and it's thought that some of the orders on the day of the
D-Day invasion were issued from the hotel. The Brockenhurst cricket pitch
lies in the front of the hotel. As we walk towards Brockenhurst we pass over
the Lymington River. On sunny days like today this is a very popular picnic and
paddling spot known locally as Brockenhurst Beach.
A little further down the road we passed another popular hotel Carey's Manor
which includes Senspa a very popular spa. Here you'll also find Le Blaireau.
Do you know what a Blaireau is?The answer is towards the end of this video.
Passing an attractive row of shops we find the Snakecatcher pub. This is named
after a local snake catcher Brusher Mills who frequented the pub in the late
1800s until his death in 1905. The railway arrived at Brockenhurst in 1847.
Today this is the main line between Weymouth on the Dorset coast and London
Waterloo. Here's the original gatehouse. We'll cross over the railway tracks and
make our way up to the parish church of St Nicholas. The church is closed at the
moment so we won't be able to see inside. This is the oldest Church of The New
Forest and the only remaining Church in the new forest that is mentioned in the
Domesday Book.
There is a war grave cemetery here, beautifully tended as you would expect.
During the First World War a field hospital was established in Brockenhurst,
firstly for wounded Indian soldiers and later for New Zealand servicemen. Sadly
over a hundred men died. 106 of these are buried in this war grave, mostly New
Zealanders.
Brusher Mills of snake catcher fame is also buried in the churchyard here with
a marble headstone paid for by local people. Coming up is a great example of a
traditional churchyard yew tree well over a hundred years old. We're walking
back down to the village centre now. This is quite a narrow lane and the lengths
of tree trunks that you can see on the left are to stop people parking their
vehicles on the verge and blocking the lane.
Coming up to the main road we can see a queue of cars these will be waiting for
a train to cross a level crossing. This queue can get quite long in the summer
and lots of people are here on holiday.
Here's the train. In 90 minutes time that train will be in London.
We cross back over the railway line again past the cycle shop and the
Foresters Arms pub and we come to another beautiful building the Thatched
Cottage hotel this was built in 1627 and is now a grade 2 listed building. A
little further down the road we find what seems to be a random cattle grid. In
fact the famous new forest ponies and donkeys can walk around the centre of
Brockenhurst so we may see some at any time now. We're now heading towards the
main village centre. As we pass the Buttery tea rooms we can see the main
centre ahead of us.
Brockenhurst is the largest village in The New Forest with about three and a
half thousand inhabitants and it's situated pretty much in the middle of
the forest.
The village has two small supermarkets a Tesco Express and a co-op. Unusually the
village also has a very good range of traditional shops.
There's a hardware store a florist a chemist a pet shop health food shop a
greengrocers fishmonger newsagents a butcher's a baker and several more. You'll
also find Chinese and Indian restaurants - a great range of local businesses.
As we arrive at the road junction we are approaching the Ford. The stream
usually runs across the road here but as we've had a very dry spell of weather
recently the water isn't high enough to cover the road at the moment.
Across the road we see the second Church of England church in Brockenhurst. This
is St Saviour's church which was originally a private chapel for the
owners of nearby Rhinefield House. Lieutenant Commander and Mrs Walker
Monro. A very impressive private chapel. St Saviour's was started in 1895 and is
a remarkable example of late Victorian Gothic architecture. As the work
progressed the expense became too much and building work was stopped in 1903. A
temporary wall was erected at the West End. The church was opened for worship in
1905. Through the generosity of the Walker Monro's four grandsons, work on
the West End was resumed in 1960 and the church as
you say it here today was completed in 1961.
We'll cross the road here and make our way around the back of the village
centre and out into the surrounding forest land - beautiful scenery.
As this is the beginning of June we should expect to see some new forest
pony foals and in the distance over there is one that I prepared earlier
enjoying this fabulous weather.
We'll make our way back through the village centre now.
over the dry fort
and past the traditional country butcher's shop.
Now we're in Grigg Lane where we'll find the Brockenhurst football ground. There's
no games on at the moment so some development work is going on.
When we crossed the cattle grid I said that we might see some ponies or donkeys.
We've seen a new forest Pony foal and just up the road I can see some donkeys
and there's even a donkey foal. The donkeys are well aware of the traffic
but if you're driving past you need to take extra care.
We'll carry on up this road and end up back at Carey's Manor Hotel. When we
passed the hotel earlier at the beginning of the video I asked you if
you knew what a Blaireau is. Le Blaireau is French for a badger alternatively a
shaving brush made with badger hair. In this case though Le Blaireau is a very
nice French restaurant one of three restaurants at Carey's Manor. So that's
our wander around the centre of Brockenhurst. I hope you enjoyed the walk.
if you did please subscribe to our channel to see more videos from The
Country Traveller. Bye bye!