Meet at main car park in Brookley Rd, Brockenhurst 8.50 a.m for a 9.00 a.m start.
Following government guidelines and in response to the Corona-virus pandemic this week we will sadly have to eschew our traditional Sunday morning greeting of kissing on both cheeks in favour of the ‘Wuhan shake’. As a further safety precaution, those with sniffles are urged self-isolate at the back.
This week’s route sees us leaving Brockenhurst via Meerut Rd where we turn onto Rhinefield drive all the way to the A35. From here we turn left onto the A35 and then make the right turn up Lyndhurst Rd towards Burley. We avoid reaching the fleshpots of Burley by taking a right onto Forest road and then along Moortown lane towards Crow passing Knave’s Ash also known as Smugglers Rd on the right.
The New Forest is rich in smuggling folklore but Burley and its surrounding area is particularly, some might say given its shady reputation, unsurprisingly notorious. During its peak in the 18th Century the smuggling and selling of contraband was considered by most to be a perfectly acceptable occupation, no different from operating a supermarket chain today.
Knave’s Ash was home to the Warne’s, a family well known for transporting goods along the old smugglers road. Lovey Warne would meet the boats in Mudeford, undress and carefully wrap herself in the contraband Silk or fine laces. After dressing Lovey would show no sign of having the illegally imported goods about her person.
She continued to operate successfully until her luck finally ran out during the flu pandemic of 1820. Suspicious of her burgeoning waistline the Revenue men on the docks challenged Lovey to show them what she was hiding beneath her petticoat. To their astonishment Lovey was found to be in possession of 50 family-sized bags of Andrex and a life-times supply of cheesy crisps.
Nothing much changes it seems except for the severity of the punishment, the judge sentencing her to be hung, drawn and quavered, a joke which didn’t work in the 18th century and let’s face it doesn’t work today.
We arrive at and take Charles's lane on our left and proceed to Ringwood Rd where we head south. Next we turn right onto Harpway lane and then carefully navigate our way between Sopley and Bransgore. At the Lamb Inn we head east along Bockhampton and Harrow Rd. Then head north on Forest Rd before passing through the ‘devil’s basement’, Burley and join Burley and Pound lane. From here it’s back to Brock’ via Wilverley and ten Bends.
If, by the weekend it is still legal to enter a café in groups of more than one we will then head to the Sett for vittles’.
Forecast is O.K. so hopefully another well-attended week. Route downloadable here
