Walk 6

Parley Cross – Brecon Close – Throop Mill – Parley Court Fm – Church Lane – Parley Cross (approx. 8 miles)

Directions and local information, a a printable map (pdf)

You can start this walk from a number of points: on foot or by bus from Parley Cross, from car parks off the Ensbury roundabout, in Muscliffe Lane, Bournemouth, by Throop Mill or at the Bournemouth Aviation Museum on Parley Lane. Details below are from Parley Cross.

From Parley Cross you can walk south on New Road to Brecon Close or take a No 13 bus (check the Morebus timetable) from Parley Cross to Avebury Ave (opposite Brecon Close).

On the east side of New Road is a huge new housing development on land that used to be a Stewarts Nursery, one of the first businesses to grow and supply potted plants to garden centres.

Ensbury Bridge, that you have just walked or driven over, was only built in 1910 as the fast expanding Ferndown needed to be connected with Bournemouth. West Parley then went from being a quiet backwater isolated on the north of the River Stour to being on a busy route north and south as Bournemouth and Ferndown grew. The river could previously only be crossed on horse / cart or boat but in 1908 2 sisters drowned trying to cross the river showing that a safe road crossing was needed.

Turn left into Brecon Close and take the footpath (FP) on the right at the end to the River Stour.

Here you join the Stour Valley Way (SVW) – a 64 mile footpath following the River Stour from its source at Stourhead, Wiltshire to Christchurch Harbour. For most of the walk on the western side of the river, good views of the river and local wildlife can be seen. The walk by the riverside has ornate wood carvings of wildlife.

Follow this riverside gravel path to Redhill. Due to the River being straightened in the 1970s to aid the flow of the river there is a small part of your route that is on the south side of the river but is part of West Parley Parish to the north.

At Redhill there was a crossing point from the prehistoric era. An ancient track from the north crosses the river and continues south up Sandy Way then goes south up the hill to Ensbury Park then to the high ground at Parkstone, one of the earliest settlements in the area.

In more recent times the crossing, known as Riddles Ford, was served by a boat that was pulled along a rope and from 1903 there were tea gardens at this point serving ferry customers. This closed in the 1940’s.

Continue on the SVW on the riverside path towards Throop.

An alternate start point for this walk is the car park on Muscliffe Lane on the corner with Granby Road (SP Stour Valley Nature Reserve). The Kingfisher Barn Visitor Centre is across the green area and access to the Stour Valley Way is at this point. It is worth a look round the Centre as it is an excellent source of information on the local nature reserve. Turn right at the SVW and continue to the end of the riverside path until you reach the lane at the Wessex Water Sewerage Treatment plant. Continue along the narrow tarmacked lane noting Muccleshell Farm and Hicks Farm on your left. These are both ancient Stourside farms serving their local community for hundreds of years.

Walk along Throop Road. Disregard the footpath/cycleway to the left 50 yards before the car park and continue a little further and pass behind Throop MilI on your left. The path goes round the Mill building.

The Mill, is a Grade II listed building and has stood at this location since the 11th century and is featured in the Domesday Book. It has lain derelict since 1974. Throop Mill is a large building, four storeys high. It is a traditional water mill fed by a mill stream tapped off the main River Stour. There is a single chamber through which the water flowed. The original 50” turbine made by Armfields of Ringwood is now sat rusting away on the grass immediately in front of the mill. The path from the mill down to the River Stour leads over the top of a set of water gates controlling the mill pond depth. Prior to the mill’s closure, Parsons and Sons owned and operated the mill until it was sold in 1957 and their name can still be seen on the outside wall.

Continue across the footbridge over the mill stream and on to the larger bridge which crosses the main river Stour at a weir. You now have 2 options: option 1 is to turn left after crossing the bridge and continue along the riverside path. After about half a mile, the path bends right away from the river, eventually joining a lane, turn left to come to the rear of Merritown Farm. Option 2, if you wish to make a longer walk, is to turn right after crossing the Stour after Throop Mill, follow the riverside path and then the footpath as it bends left away from the river. This meets Pig Shoot Lane, then Hurn Court Lane and Dales Lane to Merritown Farm.

Off Pig Shoot Lane is Hurn (formerly Heron) Court. The site was once occupied by a medieval grange belonging to Christchurch Priory, Earliest parts of the building date back to 16th century. It has been altered and added to many times. Since the 1790s it was owned by the Earls of Malmesbury: when the 5th Earl died in 1951 it was purchased for £6000 and opened as a boarding school for boys interested in farming. It closed in 1989 and the house and outbuildings are private residences. The building was the inspiration for Rookington House in Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Hand of Ethelberte’.

Back on the main walk, pass through Merritown Farm. The farmhouse is another Grade II listed building but with 18th century origins: it is unusually tall and rectangular with prominent quoins (external angles).

Adventure Wonderland adjoining recently celebrated 30 years of being one of the leading adventure parks in Dorset. It has the 3rd largest hedge maze in the UK and a huge range of family entertainments. It is closed temporarily. Just up the lane at the side of Adventure Wonderland edging the main road to the north is the Bournemouth Aviation Museum. Visitors are encouraged to climb into the cockpits of a range of military and commercial aircraft and look at a wide range of static displays from the early days of flying.

Follow the SVW signs on the path across the golf course and over a new concrete road passing to the rear of the Driving Range and clubhouse.

Continue down the Golf Club driveway until you reach a staggered junction; carry straight on and to your left is a folly of Perleigh (so named because of the pear tree that grew on the village green) Abbey close to the river. This was the site of an abbey that was ransacked in Henry VIII’s reign: the nuns were thrown out and the treasures taken. The building then fell into disrepair. There is a comprehensive sign board for further information. These buildings and many others to the north once formed part of the village of East Parley. Much of the village was lost when Hurn Airport (now Bournemouth Airport) was built in 1941 and at the end of the War it became a temporary London Airport before Heathrow was available.

Continue straight on along the road to approach Parley Manor. Just before the cottage, at the "No access please follow footpath" sign, turn right to a stile which stands back from the lane (Stour Valley waymarked).

A little further on is Parley Manor, a fine Georgian building built in the early 1700s. It was once at the heart of a large country estate stretching from Hurn Forest to the river Stour. The Manor, now set in 4 acres of parkland and gardens is a popular wedding venue.

After the stile take the footpath which goes round the back of the cottage and the farm buildings and on to a gravel farm track.

Follow the track 150 yards to a stile and gate on the right which leads across 3 fields to Church Lane (stile on to the road).Stour Valley Way markers are replaced with usual Dorset Council signs at these points.

Church Lane is one of the oldest parts of West Parley. The walk turns right here but it is worth turning left to go to the end of Church Lane to see All Saints Church, parts of which date from the 12th Century. At the entrance to the church there is a gravestone on the left where the 2 girls who drowned in 1908 are buried. On the right of this path is a sundial (now in shade). The base is a part of a gibbet that used to stand on East Parley Common.

Note the signpost outside Appletree Cottage showing the way to Riddles Ford mentioned earlier, the ancient local crossing point of the Stour.

Go back up Church Lane until you meet a footpath on the left just before the MS Day Centre. This is a temporary change to the path that headed directly to New Road. If you joined this walk anywhere apart from Parley Cross take this path to New Road and turn left to return via Brecon Close to where you started.

If you started at Parley Cross it is worth continuing up Church Lane and turning left at Christchurch Road to return to Parley Cross.

Hope you enjoyed this walk.