Eversley

We started our walk today in a lane close to St Mary’s Church in Eversley. St Mary’s has been a place of Christian worship for over 900 years and the church dates mainly from the 18th century. There is evidence that it may have been a significant pagan site long before the advent of Christianity.

Charles Kingsley , 19th century preacher, author, naturalist and social reformer, was Rectory of Eversley for 31 years and founded the village school.

We approached the church through an avenue of trees which were quite beautiful. Even more impressive was the large tree in the churchyard, with it’s large, sweeping branches.

Its a fairly plain looking church from the outside, but with a lovely tall tower to the rear.

Inside was quite large, with two separate aisles and beautiful arches leading to the altar.

Heading back outside we walked through the churchyard, past a row of old headstones and onto the footpath.

Following the path we crossed a little wooden bridge and walked alongside an open field. On our left, through the hedge, we spied a field of lovely little white flowers stretching off into the distance.

A bit further on we passed a house and garden which contained quite a menagerie of birds and animals.

At the end of the garden, on the other side of the path, we were greeted by the sight of a herd of deer.

We couldn’t get too close, but it was so lovely to see them.

Carrying on the path led into Bramshill Forest where there were several options to follow. Luckily we found our way through and emerged back onto Church Lane.

It was a very peaceful walk and we only saw five other people, two walkers at a distance, two cyclists who were even more distant through the trees and a solitary dog walker who we passed on the footpath.

It might sound as if we don’t like people, but the peace and solitude of a walk in the countryside is something special (that is peaceful except for our chattering as we go along).

We decided to try the cafe at the nearby Blackbushe Airport for lunch today. It was quite pleasant, if a little busy – obviously a very popular cafe. Mind you, they do proper mugs of tea and coffee and the sausage bap was very tasty.