Walk TP03 (contd. from previous page) gate and cross the river and then through the next gate into Country to Itchen Valley Park.

8. Walk up the hill to the Visitor Centre and café, with picnic tables and barbeque Country Park areas on your left and a children’s play area on your right. You can stop here at the café, open all year at weekends - more frequent opening in the summer months, see A circular walk from Townhill Park Community Centre, to Riverside Park and their website for details. then across fields to the Visitor Centre at Itchen Valley Country Park. The Itchen Valley Country Park has over 440 acres of water meadows, woodland and return is via Allington Lane and Cutbush Lane. open meadows with a Visitor Centre, café and toilets, two children’s play areas, nature trails, horse & bike trails, Go Ape and many picnic and barbeque areas. The Start/finish: Townhill Park Community A more challenging walk to navigate - park also hosts activity days in most school holidays, check their website for details. Centre, Meggeson Avenue, SO18 2FH open countryside with no distinct Walk distance: 3.3m (5.1km) path - beware of cows; very muddy Refreshments: Shops on Meggeson Toilets at Itchen Valley Country Park 9. To return home, walk to the right of the Visitors Centre and then turn right, Avenue and café at Itchen Valley CP Visitor Centre keeping to the footpath alongside the access road. At the exit to the park, turn right On bus routes 7 (First), U9 (Unilink) and This walk uses parts of the onto Allington Lane and continue ahead along the footpath, straight ahead and over 16 (Bluestar) for a short section of the and the Meadow Nature Trail the M27. Go straight over at the small roundabout, and then at the large roundabout route (junction with the A27) cross the road and turn right. 10. Follow this footpath to the end, where you will reach a T-junction with Cutbush 8 Lane. Turn left and follow the lane past the playing fields, , housing 7 and the Cutbush Children’s Centre back to Townhill Park Community Centre. 9

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Toilets & café 3 (Itchen Valley Country Park)

Photos (Inside - Gravel path at , wooden bridge at Itchen Valley Nature 10 Reserve). This page - Mansbridge, bluebells at Itchen Valley Country Park, and the 2 Itchen Valley Water Meadows © Clare Diaper 2016

This walk leaflet is produced by SO18 Big Local. Big Local is run by Local Trust and partners, 1 and funded by Big Lottery Fund. For more information, find us on Facebook or visit www.so18biglocal.org.uk Map of route produced using Leafletjs.com Mapping tiles courtesy of © OpenStreetMap.org 1. From Townhill Park Community Centre take the small access road to the left of The old lock just north of Mansbridge is over 300 years old and when in use would the centre, walking away from Meggeson Avenue. Turn left and follow the road have seen many 20m (70ft) barges pass through its gates on their journey between downhill, with new houses (Pond View) on your left and more established housing and . The lock is unusual in that bricks and stones were on your right. Look out for bat boxes and solar panels on the new build houses. only used to hold the gates in place and not to line the chamber. It is thought that Continue ahead as the path enters the trees and becomes a gravel track. Pass a local chalk was probably used to keep the water in. house on your right hand side and continue straight ahead past Cutbush Hidden Pond on your left. The walk then re-joins a road and you pass Wilmington Close on 5. A few yards further on go through the kissing gate on your right. Cross to the right hand footpath and follow the road to re-join your right and into the Itchen Valley Nature Reserve. Take Meggeson Avenue. care - cattle are often grazing in these fields. Follow the path across the fields, firstly through the hedgerow and 2. At this junction turn right and follow Meggeson Avenue for 10m or so, then take large gate, and then on ahead towards another narrow the next right into Broadwater Road. If you want to visit the shops to pick up some gate and wooden bridge. Continue ahead again with the supplies for your walk you will need to cross Meggeson Avenue to the newsagents fence on your left, following the old field boundary until just down the hill. If you don’t need supplies continue along Broadwater Road as it you reach a well-worn gap in the hedgerow on your left. curves to the left, passing Beverley Heights, Maryland Close, St Helena Gardens and go through the gap to the next field, again keeping the Moat Hill on your right. field boundary to your left, until you reach a metal kissing gate. The next turning on the right is River Walk and you take this road down to the entrance to Riverside Park. Walk around the metal barrier and continue straight The Itchen Valley Nature Reserve is a very special place for wildlife and is ahead, with the old pitch and putt golf course and a fence on your left, open space designated a Special Area of Conservation, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. to your right and the Canal ahead. This section of the walk is part The reserve is an ancient floated water meadow system and the wet grassland and of the National Cycle Network Route 23. ditches create the right conditions for the internationally rare Southern Damselfly, kingfishers, water vole and otters. 3. When you reach the river, turn right and follow the river upstream to the old stone bridge on your 6. Go through the gate and turn right on the path, which then turns left to cross left at Mansbridge. Turn left and cross over the under the with the Itchen Navigation Canal. Turn right through the bridge, and then turn right to go under the road next kissing gate and follow the path ahead, across a short section of boardwalk and bridge, following the signs for the Itchen Navigation on to a wooden kissing gate and a small bridge. From here bear slightly right across to Winchester. the fields towards the wooden waymark. At the waymark turn right and over a low cattle bridge into the next field. 4. Walk along the gravel path at the edge of the WARNING - this section of the walk can be very muddy and churned up by cattle. open ground with a hedgerow on your right and

follow the path into the shrubs, keeping right at the path junction. Ahead you will see a kissing gate and 7. Continue ahead to the field boundary where you then bear left, keeping the field wooden bridge. Cross over the bridge and pass the boundary to your right. Pass through into the next field, past a redundant kissing remains of an old canal lock on your left hand side. gate signposting the Meadow Nature Trail. Continue with the field boundary to your On your right, pass the Northam to Mansbridge stone right until you reach a large gate and bridge over the River Itchen. Go though the waymarker.