Visiting the Hampshire Countryside
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Visiting the Hampshire countryside This guide represents the sixth in a series of local guides designed to help parents, carers and teachers to engage children with autism and related disabilities with the natural environment. It should also prove useful to those living and working with adults with autism. It begins by introducing the benefits of visiting the countryside, considering why such experiences are valuable for children with autism. This is followed by a guide to ‘natural’ places to visit in the Hampshire countryside, featuring twenty-five places that the authors believe many children with autism might enjoy. The guide concludes with a series of case stories set in Hampshire nature reserves, which describe visits by children from local special schools. Supported by Autism Hampshire ISBN: 978-0-9934710-2-5 a guide for parents/carers and Published by teachers of children with autism David Blakesley and Tharada Blakesley Visiting the Hampshire countryside a guide for parents/carers and teachers of children with autism David Blakesley and Tharada Blakesley Foreword by Debra Harrison-Sales (Autism Hampshire) i Citation For bibliographic purposes, this book should be referred to as Blakesley, D. and Blakesley, T. 2016. Visiting the Hampshire countryside: a guide for parents/carers and teachers of children with autism. Autism and Nature, Kent. The rights of David Blakesley and Tharada Blakesley to be identified as the Authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright © rests with the authors Illustrations © Tharada Blakesley; photographs © David Blakesley, unless stated in the text All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the authors. First published 2016 British-Library-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Cover photograph: Queen Elizabeth Country Park Designed by Pisces Publications Published by Autism and Nature Printed by Gomer Press ISBN 978-0-9934710-2-5 All reasonable efforts have been made by the authors to trace the copyright owners of the material quoted in this book and any images reproduced in this book. In the event that the authors or publishers are notified of any mistakes or omissions by copyright owners after publication of this book, the authors and the publishers will endeavour to rectify the position accordingly for any subsequent printing. David Blakesley (Autism and Nature) is a writer and naturalist. Tharada Blakesley (Autism and Nature) is a writer and illustrator. www.autismandnature.org.uk Disclaimer The information presented in this book on behalf of the authors is believed to be accurate and correct at the time of publication, but this cannot be guaranteed. We cannot be held responsible for any changes in access, or any damage which might result from visitors trespassing on private property. We recommend visitors to obtain maps of the areas, and to seek up to date information from the websites of the various landowners. Readers must take all appropriate steps to ensure health and safety of all users, and to follow their own health and safety policy. Neither the publisher nor the authors can be held responsible for any consequences arising from the use of the information contained herein, including accidents or damage as a result of its use or the implementation of any of the recommendations within this book. ii Contents Foreword ............................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................. v Preface .................................................................................... vi Part 1 Introduction .................................................................1 Part 2 Natural places to visit in Hampshire .................................5 Beacon Hill, Burghclere .........................................................6 Danebury Hill .......................................................................8 Pamber Forest .................................................................... 10 Yateley Country Park ........................................................... 11 Odiham Castle and Basingstoke Canal .................................... 12 Testwood Lakes .................................................................. 14 Swanwick Lakes .................................................................. 16 Royal Victoria Country Park ................................................. 18 Manor Farm and Country Park ............................................... 20 Titchfield Haven ................................................................. 22 Staunton Country Park ........................................................ 24 New Forest National Park ..................................................... 26 Ober Water ...................................................................... 27 Blackwater Arboretum ...................................................... 28 Lepe Country Park ............................................................ 30 South Downs National Park .................................................. 32 Bentley Station Meadow ................................................... 33 Alice Holt Forest .............................................................. 34 Gilbert White’s House and The Lythes ................................. 36 Queen Elizabeth Country Park – Visitor Centre ..................... 38 Butser Hill – Queen Elizabeth Country Park ......................... 39 Old Winchester Hill .......................................................... 40 Beacon Hill, Meonstoke .................................................... 42 Hoe Road Memorial Meadow .............................................. 44 Hinton Ampner ................................................................ 46 St Catherine’s Hill ............................................................ 48 Liss Riverside Railway Walk ............................................... 50 Part 3 Case stories ....................................................................51 Further reading ..................................................................... 62 iii Foreword As Chief Executive Officer of Autism Hampshire it gives me great pleasure to write this foreword for such an inspiring guide written with the aim of supporting people with autism and their families to engage and discover the pleasure of visiting the local countryside. This guide aims to help families to spend quality time together in accessing and exploring natural surroundings. It also helps to open up a whole new world of nature trails, activities and exploration of wildlife to support people with autism in their journey of discovery. For those already engaged in the love of nature this guide provides interesting local information to add to their experience. The authors have identified 25 of the finest natural places in the Hampshire countryside that are particularly suited to families in order to make visits fun-filled, healthy, enjoyable and memorable. Debra Harrison-Sales Chief Executive Officer Autism Hampshire (www.autismhampshire.org.uk) April 2016 iv Acknowledgements This guide has been generously funded by the South Downs National Park Authority (NPA) Sustainable Communities Fund, Hampshire County Council Children’s Services, the Nineveh Charitable Trust, the CLA Charitable Trust and Woodlands.co.uk. We are particularly grateful to Mark Rose (South Downs NPA) and Neil Zammit (Hampshire County Council Short Breaks Team) for their advice during the development of the project. We would also like to thank Debra Harrison-Sales (Autism Hampshire) for writing the Foreword and for the help of Autism Hampshire with the distribution of this guide. We must thank Rebecca Bolton, Melissa Rickets and Abi Peett (Queen Elizabeth and Staunton Country Parks Education Team) and Jess Daish-Miller, Dawn Preston and Grace Hall and their colleagues (Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust) for hosting the countryside visits featured in Part 3. We are indebted to the teachers and teaching assistants who took part in the countryside visits, and provided helpful comments and feedback. They include: Emma Bargetzi, Ruth Bottom and their colleagues from Forest Park Primary School; Kimberley Dance and her colleagues from Forest Park Secondary School; and Karen Bridges and Sandra Woodhouse and their colleagues from Shepherds Down Primary School. We would especially like to thank the children who participated in the various trips and the parents/carers who allowed their children to be photographed for this guide. We must also thank Mary Draffin and Simon Payne for their contribution to the Introduction. We would also like to thank all the organisations who own and/or manage the natural places featured in this guide, for kindly providing comments on our descriptions of their sites. We are grateful to Andrew Powling for reviewing early drafts of this guide. We are indebted to Peter and Barbara Creed (Pisces Publications) for the design of the guide and Alison Brown (NatureBureau), Helen Purchas and Andrew Powling for reading the proofs. Photographs were taken by David Blakesley except where stated; for additional photographs, we would like to thank Tone Blakesley and David Kjaer. v Preface This is the sixth in a series of county guides published by Autism and Nature. It is written to help parents, carers and teachers in Hampshire to engage children