Wickham to Havant

My hosts dropped me off again this morning in Wickham, and from there I walked to Southwick. 

Walking is well away from the coast now, so everything looks more rural. This long stretch of straight footpath in between fields could be called 'The Pilgrim's Highway'. 

 

I could therefore make good time and arrived first at a small village Boarhunt. With a small village comes a small church: St Nicholas:

A lovely little church. In the porch someone had left a card and a bunch of tulips on the floor in the porch.

As I sat down for a break, a lady came in with the card & the flowers. Turned out that this was in memory to the Queen. She arranged them nicely in the 12th C baptismal font. 

After that Southwick. Everywhere lots of signs with Southwick Estate, and "no entry". In Southwick there's the church (St James).

 

Very nice and bright. Note also the condolences register for Queen Elizabeth. 

Southwick is known as the place where the army commanders for D-Day were based :

Only one wall remains of Southwick Priory, it was an excellent lunch stop:

 

From there the journey continued to Havant, and autumn signs are visible:

 

But forest makes place for towns, so quite a bit is now through housing estates or in between schools, recreation grounds and parks :

And in between signs of human suffering and death. These two impromptu memorials were only five minutes apart:

A good reminder that as the country is mourning the death of its monarch, other people die too. Loved ones in a smaller circle, but both in the prime of their lives... 

On the outskirts of Havant, my first Catholic Church. 

It probably was Anglican before, as the Church is is older than 2007.

Havant's town centre church is St Faith's, hidden behind trees. 

 

Fortunately, someone made a maquette so we cam still appreciate it:

 

And finally Havant URC, my final destination of today! 

 

As usual some more details of today's walk:

The mileage and hours are not correct, as my app stopped recording a number of times... 

Hamble to Wickham

Before my walk I just wanted to share more of the Priory Church in Hamble. 

It is quite a narrow church without side areas, except for the Chapel at the top of the church 

You can also clearly see the development of the church. In the front the arches are rounded (Romanesque) while further down the arches are pointed. 

The rounded arches are older often from around 1100 AD, while the pointed arches were a discovery of later as they are able to carry more way with less material. 

The history is that this church was originally part of a small monastery (priory) and the chapel was narrow as the monks would sit facing each other, like in a college chapel. Once the church became a proper church it was extended, hence the Gothic windows. 

Below is also a photo of the stairs to the bell tower. In the end I didn't go up. Half up I realised I had to down as well... And the stairs were a bit too open... 

These photos I took after sharing morning prayers with Revd Graham, also the host. It was good to this according to the traditional Anglican liturgy. Like a good breakfast it sets you up for the day! 

On the walk I first had to cross the Hamble with the foot ferry, which only goes when there are customers! 

After that a 7 mile walk along the Solent towards Titchfield Haven. Lots of oil imports, with ships like these :

After Titchfield Haven the route went inland alongside a canal through a nature reserve. The weather became better as well and less wind. 

I finally got to Titchfield (I was very tired at that stage) to meet my host as we were going to walk to Wickham together.

It turned out that due to a miscommunication, he was dropped off in Titchfield Haven, instead of Titchfield! So he had to walk an hour to catch me up. Which allowed me to have a nice lunch! 

Beyond Titchfield we visited Titchfield Abbey - another ruined monastery cum manor. 

And from there we had quite a pleasant walk to Wickham, where we were picked up to go home.

At that time we heard that Queen Elizabeth was very ill and later that day she passed away. Quite a different ending to our day. 

I am glad that she did not had to suffer long, but we will miss her. Not only was she the Queen; she was very open about her faith, especially at difficult times. And therefore an example and encouragement to us all. We pray for now King Charles and and the whole Royal Family, as they mourn the loss of mother and grandmother, as well as doing all the matters of state expected of the Royal Family. 

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The track recording stopped just before Titchfield, so the map is not accurate

 

Southampton to Hamble

After a nice break in which I could recover and also visit our family in the Netherlands, today is the first day of the 'Old Way' Pilgrims route from Southampton to Canterbury.

Ada dropped me of at Canterbury West for a smooth journey to Southampton.

I arrived around 11am and almost the first thing I encountered was a sharp rain shower. The weather of today was a bit like that, warm, windy and occasional showers! So I left my rain cover on my rucksack. 

The official route starts at St Mary's:

 

And there was a short walk from the station to there, pleasantly via various parks. Once I left there the route included various highlights from Southampton.

A lovely church was St Michael's, which was almost a Victoria shell built around a Norman tower. There were two ladies who welcomed 

me as well and told a bit about the church. 

 

I also came across Bernard Street! 

 

I didn't do all of the recommended sites: the route was quite confusing and I also wanted to get going as I had a late start.

So I left Southampton and crossed the Itchen to go east across a large road bridge 

And then through suburbs along side the Solent to Hamble

On the way I stopped at Netley Abbey, a ruined Cistercian monastery which is very extensive: 

And then I also visited the former Chapel of Royal Victoria Hospital, which was a huge military hospital mainly used in the 1st WW. It could threat 4,000 patients. 

 

It was quite impressive even though a little remained. 

On the floor of the museum was an OS map from the nineteen thirties ...

 

...which gives an impression of the original size of the hospital and the grounds. 

Now I am in the Priory Church of St Andrew the Apostle, in the hall. 

 

This is the first sanctuary church on the route. I was made very welcome and could join in with a men's social evening as well!

Tomorrow I hope to get more pictures and hope to climb the tower!