A walk through the parish of Tangley takes one through some of Hampshire’s most beautiful countryside consisting of woodland, downland and farmland.  The villages are scattered on the chalklands south of the Hampshire downs, on high land which overlooks the Bourne valley to the north and the remains of Chute Forest to the west.  For the most part this area is little changed from the days when it was a humble agricultural community where men worked on the fields around.

The ancient Roman road which connected Winchester to Cirencester unites the three villages.  A stroll along it from the pond at Little Hatherden north towards Tangley offers exquisite views over distant countryside and emerges close to Hampshire Gate, the parish boundary.  Half a mile further north lies the Chute Causeway – the raised track made by the Romans to circumnavigate the deep Hippenscombe valley. 

In Tangley itself walkers should visit the small Victorian church of St Thomas which is surrounded by its old graveyard with ancient yew trees.  People have prayed here for centuries and three sarcen stones are witness to worship in prehistoric times.  Walks through Wildhern pass numerous cottages built in the traditional local style. The chalk and clay quarries for brick making and flints from the fields around provided the perfect material for the building of cottages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Many of these beautiful houses, often with their thatch, are still to be seen.  A walk through Hatherden passes the church, rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1975 and near it the old village school.  A tablet on the front of the school commemorates a gift of money in 1725 to pay for the education of “twenty four poor children”.

The pubs of the parish pride themselves on their excellent beer, wine and food.  Tangley was the last point for the drovers who walked their sheep over the downs to the famous Weyhill Fair in October each year. Tangley offered refreshment and comfort to the tired drovers and their flocks in the form of five inns or beer houses, of which two remain – The Fox to the south and The Cricketer’s in the centre of the village. Hatherden has the Old Bell and Crown – a charming thatched pub evocative of the old days and which for over 150 years remained in the same family.  Wildhern had three inns in times gone by but now only one remains The Hare and Hounds – affectionately called The Pig and Whistle but no one is quite sure why!

Above all the greatest pleasure lies in walking the footpaths of the parish, experiencing landscape and wildlife that has remained unspoiled over the years.