Around Silchester
A short history of Silchester
The village of Silchester is at the very north of Hampshire at the border with Berkshire. Silchester’s name derives from the nearby Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum.
A large Roman town, some 2000 years old, was built on the site of an Iron Age town, Calleva. The town walls and Roman amphitheatre are some of the best in Britain.
Volunteers from Hampshire Countryside Service have been hard at work in this area, developing a bridleway to allow better access to the countryside.
Key
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- Route
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- Temporarily closed
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- Restricted use
Directions
From Silchester Roman Town car park, follow the path that starts by the information pillars and take the first stile on the right. Go straight across two fields. Turn right along a track, through a gate and continue to the road. Cross the road and follow the path diagonally to your left.
Turn left, then right and follow the footpath past the memorial to the village hall. Cross over to the Calleva Arms and turn first left into Dukes Ride. After 15m take the footpath on the right.
Go past the houses on your left and continue until you reach a gate. Go through the gate and follow the white-topped waymarkers across the common, along a gravel track turning left along the boundary fence until you reach another gate.
Turn left by the information board, along the Pamber Forest bridleway, continue through the gate down the slope and over a bridge. Keep following path past a logging shed and through a gate. Go diagonally right crossing Little London Road.
Go over the stile opposite, through woodland keeping to the left and take the right fork. Follow the field boundary around to the right, until you meet road hedge, where you have to turn left onto Frog Lane. Here turn left, onto Ash Lane. At the road junction turn left to get onto the road, and take the first footpath on the right. Go over a bridge, then after 10m turn left and over a stile.
Continue along this path until the gate, turn right along the road. Take first road on your left, then after 15m, turn left through gate into the water meadow. Follow the hedge on the left side until the bridge. Cross over, turning right along the stream then go through a gate and follow footpath to edge of the field. Turn left and follow the fence to the far corner. Go through a kissing gate and continue straight up the track. At the bend, go straight across the field, to the trees (towards a lookout post).
Here turn right for 15m, then left through the small wood. Go straight across the field towards the Church and onto the road. Turn right along the road, until you are able to turn left through two gates and then right along the top of the wall to a kissing gate. Once through the gate, follow path to your right back to the car park.