Morning everybody. It's a lovely day so we've come out for a walk in Winchester. Um we found
a walk on the internet this morning that takes us around the different water areas of Winchester so
we're going to walk along the river. There's a bit of canal, there's some water meadows,
there's a mill. So it's about a four mile walk which should take a couple of hours I think,
so let's see what we can find!
...and that little walk has brought us to the back of Winchester Cathedral
Wow how picturesque are these buildings? Absolutely gorgeous. This is all part of the cathedral grounds
Now we're walking through this gorgeous gateway here
around to the left. OK we're back on track again having found the river we took a slight diversion
to have a look at the college and the cathedral so now we carry on our walk alongside the river
Really lovely and clear at this point
...and these are the water meadows that we've just walked through... very tranquil
Ooh here's a fun bridge, but we're not going that way
Ooh this guy's found a nice little spot to roost. Are you comfy there Mr Pigeon? (giggle)
I think this one might be his mate. He was certainly calling just a moment ago
Ah we found some cows now, found a nice cool spot in the shade.
Ooh Hey lovely cow, how you doing?
Very splendid aren't you?.
Well this is a lovely shady part of the walk. We're just going to come up
in front of The Hospital of St Cross now which is a beautiful old building
um founded as an Almshouse in 1132. A living community of 25 brothers. Let's go and have a look
OK our path is going that way but we are going to follow the path in this direction
just to take a peek. Goodness how pretty is this? I think we can have to stop for a cup of tea
This is the accommodation where the brothers live and I've just been chatting with one
of them which was lovely and this is the chapel which has amazing acoustics
Well it's interesting how easily you can be distracted from your walk by the
prospect of a cup of tea and we've found a lovely little tea house here
um and I've got a nice Earl Grey coming so I'll show you that very soon
...and there it is!
Pretty good eh?
I don't know if you can see all the swifts and swallows flying around?
I'm not quite sure what they are but they keep flying past us and screeching
Well what a lovely stop and I'm so glad we diverted off the path
but now we have to get back on track so out of the gate and back along the path
Ooh this is a rather pretty tree-lined walk here and nice and cool in the shade
Wow this is a gorgeous spot isn't it? A couple of swans there and their cygnets
Let's have a look over the other side
It's a great view of St Catherine's Hill here... through the trees
Ooh now I think this is the old railway that's come along this way, disused now of course.
Look at all that growing on top of it.
Do you like the bench? Isn't that fun? I love it
So here we are at the base of St Catherine's Hill. I remember this very well when it was covered
in snow back a few years and we took sledges up there and slithered our way down the sides. Do you
know it's a bit tempting, I think we might have to climb up it... okay watch this space
OK we're doing it. We're going to the top of St Catherine's Hill
which is where they used to be and still has the remains of an iron age fort
Well we're a little bit out of breath but it was worth coming up here for the views which are
beautiful. So you can see here looking over towards Winchester there you can see Winchester Cathedral
and all the other buildings
Right we're now right in the middle at the top of the hill... sorry a bit out of breath
and we're looking for the maze, I believe there's a maze here somewhere; let's see if we can find it
Hooray we found the maze which really consists of banks of grass with gravel ditches in between
So here i am in the middle...I may have cheated!!!
So what we're going to do now is walk along
the ramparts here and then we'll make our way back down
OK so the descent starts...
Well I must admit, it's easier going down than coming up
Hurrah we made it and we're back on the path again
There we go
So we're back walking alongside the river here and everyone's enjoying the lovely sunny weather
Still walking along the path by the river here and look at this wow
Somebody's got a fun tree house in their garden
Right completely by chance we took a wrong turn and we've now come come across the
ruins of Wolvesey Castle which was the home of Bishop Henry um 11 29 wow look at this!
This is an example of early medieval
plumbing
Well that's the end of our walk for today and we're back in the middle of Winchester
We've traced lots of rivers and canals and muddy ditches and water meadows and lots of watery
things all around Winchester it's been lots of fun. We took an unexpected trip up uh
St. Catherine's Hill and we even found a castle that we didn't know existed so it's been lots of fun
We actually walked about six miles today rather than four but hey it's all good exercise and
now we've earned our lunch so we look forward to seeing you again next time so bye for now...
you