Lurgashall walk on 18th January 2023

The 5.3 mile walk was led by Sally with expert pre walk preparation from Lurgashall. The name Lurgashall means Hall of Leotegar. Leotegar was a Saxon who settled on the site in around 495 AD. His descendants built St Laurence’s Church, which is beside where we started the walk. There had been a heavy frost during the night with all walkers prepared for some good scenery and the odd bit of impromptu skating. Starting at The Noah’s Ark Inn, which is said to have acquired its unusual name because patrons crossing the pond outside the door gave the impression of animals crossing into the Ark. The pond is long gone so we walked on terra firma across the green, past the village shop and down Mill Lane when we took a short cut across some meadows. This meadow was the site of our first synchronised slips, but both participants bravely returned to the fray. Returning to Mill Lane, a right turn took us to Mill Pond where we were impressed by the ducks swimming around the ice, and a natural ice stalactite sculpture. At Mill Farm we crossed fields towards Lickfold but turned north west before we got there so we could see if The Three Horse Shoes (aka The Lickfold Inn) would tempt us to stop. It was too early to succumb so we skated across the ice on the road on Lickfold Road. A left turn took us east across fields, woods and across a stream eventually arriving at Hoewyck Farm and onto the Lickfold Road again where Kathryn demonstrated her Dancing on Ice moves with a terrific recovery. We stopped for a coffee break at a thoughtfully placed bench and table on Upperfold Farm where the generous owner had given Sally her permission to stop there. After coffee we headed north east across meadows, through woods, across streams to the edge of The Blackdown Estate down to Jobsons Lane by the site of what had been the Lurgashall Winery. We stopped and talked with a local tree surgeon and wood sculptor who was sculpting a family crest by eye out of an old ash tree stump. Heading west across Windfallwood Common we turned south through Spring Coppice to view the spire of St Laurence’s Church and into The Noah’s Ark for a well earned and delicious lunch and banter.