Exploring Stour & Avon...

with retired Dorset rights of way officer CHRIS

Winterborne Stickland

Start by visiting the Church. If you go there on a Monday morning you’ll find it full of friendly people enjoying coffee, cake and chat. I recommend the cheese scones! Then walk a short distance south along the road to join a road on your left, leading steeply uphill to the north east.

At the top it becomes a bridleway and you can enjoy the first of many wide views you’ll see during your walk.

After about a mile you reach the parish boundary and a road that takes you north alongside Broadley Wood. Much of the walk follows the parish boundary so keep an eye out for ancient boundary markers such as banks and ditches.

At a T junction at Normandy Lodge, turn right, north east, and in a quarter of a mile, at a bend in the road, join a bridleway on your left that takes you north west then bends to the south west. This section can be rather muddy so tuck your trousers in your socks.

At the bottom of the slope there’s a meeting