For Health, Friends,

Volunteering ...

Keep Walking

What we do

 

We walk.

 

We encourage everyone, including visitors, to use the paths, particularly the Rights of Way.

 

We enjoy free guided walks each week. Guests are welcome to 3 free trial walks, then join as a member - see the application form.

 

In the Forest at Fritham

We work

 

We cover the 13 Avon Valley parishes from Breamore, Martin and Whitsbury in the north down to Ringwood and Bisterne

 

Our volunteer work groups, in co-operation with Hampshire County Council and local parish councils, help with path clearance and special projects

 

We survey the Rights of Way in "our" parishes on a rolling annual rota, checking the paths for obstructions and access problems, including signposts and waymarks

 

We talk to local councils and authorities, and landowners about co-operation on developers plans, improvements, and maintenance

We meet friends

 

Social events for walking and non-walking members incude:

 

Monthly evening meetings at Greyfriars in Ringwood (from October to March)

 

The Christmas Party

 

The Mid-Summer picnic

 

The Trig Point summer evening party

The Society "adopted" the Trig Point near Whitefield Plantation on Ibsley Common and celebrates that with a backpack picnic every July.

We keep in touch

 

 

Our quarterly members' magazine, “Waymark”, is published on-line in March, June, September and December; download the latest issue now

 

This website keeps you up to date with Society news and events:-

the Guided Walks Programme,

Self- Guided Walks,

Membership Application and

How to Report Problems

 

The email Alert system lets you know about any urgent news

Summer Solstice Dawn Walk from Abbots Well

Our Facebook page is updated daily with the walks for the week ahead and great photos.

 

Please feel free to post photos or comments on our FACEBOOK PAGE.

 

It is good to stay connected and exchange news about how much exercise and good fun we all have.  Facebook is, after all, a way of keeping in touch with one another. 

News

Evening Meeting - Monday 13 October

Our first social evening of the autumn season is at Greyfriars - 7.30 pm on 13 October when our speaker will be

 

Jeremy Houghton Brown

on

George Hayward Sumner

Hayward Sumner, born in 1853, became an important part of The Arts and Craft Movement with William Morris. He was a painter and book illustrator, designer of tapestries, wallpaper, embroideries and furniture and a craftsman on church murals and stained glass windows.  In the 1890s he threw over that life in London and moved to a new home at Cuckoo Hill, near South Gorley.

He spent the next forty years, using his artistic skills and ability to organise, studying the archaeology, natural history, geology and folklore of the New Forest and Cranborne Chase. He was a remarkable man.

 

Guests are welcome - £5 (pay at the door) including tea or coffee.

  Good News on the Avon Valley Path

  

The bridge by the sluice gate on the section of the Avon Valley Path on the water meadows between the Bickerley and Hampshire Hatches has been repaired.

 

Thank you to the Hampshire County Council Rights of Way team who had a difficult job getting access for the heavy load of timbers to the site as these meadows are well known for being boggy.  The dry summer solved that problem for the team.

  

Once again the circular walk is possible from the Bickerley, across the water meadows to the ford at Hampshire Hatches and up the lane to the reopened path back to Christchurch Road near the David Lloyd Club.
 

The Avon Valley Path covers the 34 miles from Salisbury to Christchurch. RFFS looks after 21 miles on our section of the Avon Valley from Hatchet Green to Bisterne. With help from other local Ramblers Groups Rowan Brockhurst and Colin Piper (HCC Rights of Way manager) worked together for several years to plan and create the Path.  They negotiated with landowners and local councils to secure their support and link existing Rights of Way. Success was achieved in 1992.

 

There is no escaping the fact that much of the Path is through water meadows and can get very muddy and flooded in the winter.  Our path clearance team works hard to keep the vegetation cut back.  If you would like to help with that work Bill Morley will be glad to hear from you - 07709 180329.