Breamore House is a magnificent Elizabethan manor completed in 1583, set in beautiful parkland overlooking the Avon Valley just outside the north-western edge of the New Forest. (Note: Breamore is pronounced Bremmer.) It was bought by Sir Edward Hulse, physician to Queen Anne and Kings George I and George II, in 1748. It has been in the same family since and is open to the public from April-October (guided tours can be booked online) as is the Farm Shop & Countryside Museum. The latter is one of the finest countryside museums in the country and depicts traditional village life with recreations of a dairy, blacksmith’s, school, village cottage and more. Old farm machinery features too, with a collection of tractors and steam engines. There is also a café and a couple of small shops which are open all year.
Next door to Breamore House, to the right of the entrance, is St Mary’s Church, one of the most notable churches of Saxon origin in England, dating from about AD1000. On the walls inside are the Hulse family funerary hatchments (a hatchment is a coat of arms of a noble family), which are believed to be the largest collection relating to a single family in the country.
Of note, too, is the Saxon inscription carved into the arch of the south porticus: ‘HER SWUTELATH SEO GECWYDRAEDNES THE’ which is believed to mean: ‘Here is manifested the word to thee’. In the churchyard is an ancient yew tree with a hollow trunk, which may pre-date the church. The walk starts from here and takes in woodland and rolling downland, and the ancient Breamore Miz-Maze, with its quartered circular labyrinth cut in the turf on Breamore Down. Those familiar with St Catherine’s Hill in Winchester will know that there is also a miz-maze atop the hill there, which is of similar design but cut into the chalk. Breamore’s is about 84ft in diameter and thought to have been cut in the 12th or 13th centuries. As the information panel at the site tells you, the design is Christian and a similar design can be seen on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. The Miz-Maze has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is fenced to protect the unique and fragile site (the raised grass sections form the path, which is prone to erosion, if used). However you can walk right round it.
THE WALK
1. (SU151187) Turn right out of the car park and follow the lane round to the left. Take the first turning on the right, Rookery Lane, and follow it to its end, a cottage on the left.
2. (SU147184) Bear left to go through a gate, with a yellow footpath waymark on the post alongside, and follow the path across the field, gently ascending, then descending to go through another gate. Bear left at the junction (with a bridleway that joins from the right) to reach a lane at a bend, with a track turning on the right.
3. (SU143183) Turn right along this gravel track/bridleway (called Long Steeple Lane). When the track curves round to the right (to Down Farm) keep straight on past a barrier along an earth and grass track for less than half a mile to a stile/footpath turn on the right.
4. (SU134201) Cross the stile and continue uphill (Breamore Down), keeping ahead on joining a track by a barn and carry on up to a kissing gate at the top of hill.
5. (SU141205) Turn right along the bridleway (South Charford Drove), soon forking right across the grass at a waymark post to visit the Miz-Maze situated within a yew grove. Afterwards, exit the woodland and bear right to rejoin the bridleway which leads down through Breamore Wood, carpeted with bluebells in spring, to Breamore House, passed on the left. Note the clock tower, originally built in 1860 as a water tower, rebuilt in 2015. Follow the drive down to a crossing track by ornamental gateposts. Turn right back to the start, but before doing so, detour left to visit the fine Saxon church..
COMPASS POINTS
Start/finish: Breamore House car park – open all year (SU151187).
Map: OS Explorer OL22.
Distance: Four and a quarter miles (6.9km).
Terrain: Country lanes, field and woodland paths and tracks, rolling downland.
Time: Two hours.
Refreshments: Pantry Barn Café, Breamore House (01725 511955)
Public transport: Morebus X3 from Salisbury to Bournemouth, two-thirds of a mile/1km from Breamore House.
Further information: breamorehouse.com
1
2
3
4
5
