PASSING THE TEST

The timeless Test Valley, criss-crossed with chalk rivers and dotted with quaint villages, sits in a landscape that’s long been revered for its pastoral beauty

WORDS BRENDAN SAINSBURY

Characterised by flower-filled water meadows, elegant weeping willows and gin-clear streams, the surroundings are as distinctly English as cricket and cream teas

Chalk rivers, their clear, sparkling waters gliding over flinty gravel beds, are extremely rare. There are barely 200 of them worldwide, the lion’s share in southern and eastern England. Characterised by flower-filled water meadows, elegant weeping willows and gin-clear channels crowded with darting trout and grayling, their pastoral surroundings are as distinctly English as cricket and cream teas.

Hampshire’s River Test is arguably Britain’s finest chalk river, and the valley through which it flows stretches from the chalk uplands of the Hampshire Downs to Southampton Water on the cusp of the English Channel.

Within its watershed lies a patchwork of landscapes replete with the quintessential motifs of rural Hampshire: thatched cottages, flint-stone churches, curiously named pubs, and somnolent villages whose population counts haven’t changed much in a thousand years.

While the region’s narrow lanes are navigable by car, the main villages are conveniently linked by a long-distance footpath, the Test Way, which parallels the eponymous river from Longparish down to Eling just outside Southampton, some of it along the old Andover to Redbridge railway line.

As you follow the river, its unique characteristics slowly reveal themselves. Timid deer on the river banks, attentive kingfishers atop low overhanging trees, and a smattering of red-bricked watermills that once produced corn, silk and paper but, more recently, have been reinvented as residences, distilleries and museums.

Nestled in a dell in the manner of many English villages, Hurstbourne Tarrant lies on the southern reaches of the North Wessex Downs, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. As befits any self-respecting Hampshire village, it supports a tea-room, a primary school, a pub, timeless country cottages, and a traditional red phone box turned into a book exchange.

The small local church, St Peter’s, is a classic English hybrid: walls from the 13th century, windows from the late medieval period, bells from the early 1700s and a wooden tower dating from 1897. The result is a diminutive but dashingly handsome whole.

Pretty St Mary Bourne, three miles to the southeast, goes one better. The square-towered flint church (also named St Peter’s) guards a rare Tournai-style baptismal font from the 12th century. Originally crafted in Belgium, it’s one of only seven left in Britain.

Stretched out alongside the Test near its confluence with the Bourne chalk stream, Longparish is made up of four conjoined hamlets. The cricket team was once one of the best village sides in the country and the local pub, an old coaching inn, is called The Cricketers in honour of a sport that traces much of its early development to Hampshire.

Previous page: Dawn over the Test Valley Opposite, top to bottom: Wherwell is home to the finest collection of thatched cottages in Hampshire; a riverside pub does booming business near Stockbridge

The local fishing club is the oldest in the country. Membership is restricted to 25 people; it helps if your name is prefixed with ‘lord’

Clockwise from bottom left:Mottisfont's rose garden is at its best in June; Mottisfont is an 18th-ccentury building with a medieval priory at its heart; the River Test runs straight through Stockbridge

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/JONATHAN BUCKLEY/MAURITIUS IMAGES GMBH/ALAMY © PHOTOS: On a lazy summer weekend, follow the sound of leather balls cracking against willow bats to Longparish Cricket Club, where the wooden player’s pavilion is embellished with a thatched roof.

Nearby, on the fringes of the former royal hunting grounds of Harewood Forest, some careful sleuthing through woodland will reveal Dead Man’s Plack, a mossy and haunting monument shrouded by tall trees. Comprising a 70ft-high stone cross atop an inscribed pedestal, it was raised in 1825 to commemorate an event that took place 862 years earlier, in 963, when the Saxon English king Edgar I allegedly slayed his rival in love, an East Anglian nobleman named Æthelwold, by stabbing him in the back.

Edgar also has connections to Wherwell, a small village four miles southwest of Longparish, where his wife Queen Elfrida founded an abbey for Benedictine nuns in 986 as penance for her husband’s crime. Outlasting wars and plagues, the abbey survived until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 1530s. The site today is occupied by Wherwell Priory, a large house and estate with an affiliated fishery. Wherwell also possesses what is, possibly, the finest collection of thatched cottages in Hampshire. A row of terraced dwellings here perfectly reflects the vernacular country style: whitewashed walls, wooden crossbeams, ‘eyebrow’ windows and simple ornamentation atop a curved gabled roof.

Genteel Stockbridge is an anomaly: a town with a wealthy, upmarket air whose population is smaller than most of the surrounding villages. Arranged on either side of a single broad High Street, the place oozes refinement and class. This is a great spot to get more closely acquainted with the braided channels of the River Test teeming with trout as they flow through town. Of all the fishing spots on the river, Stockbridge is the most exclusive. Local institution the Houghton Fishing Club, founded in 1822, is the oldest in the country. Membership is restricted to 25 people, and it helps if your name is prefixed with ‘lord’.

The High Street counts a town hall, a hotel where you can partake in afternoon tea, and a steady stream of well-heeled window-shoppers.

From Stockbridge, the Test Way pitches due south to Mottisfont, known for its grand mansion, a former priory now run by the National Trust. The house contains a small art gallery but is mostly known for its sweeping grounds that include woodland and a famous rose garden that’s at its most exuberant in June.

Romsey, the second largest Test Valley town after Andover, is one of southern England’s great understatements; its glories are often overshadowed by its proximity to the nearby cathedral cities of Salisbury and Winchester. Bisected by the Test – wide and serene at this point in its course, but still crystal-clear – its watermills were mentioned in the Domesday Book while its Norman abbey dates back even further. The church is free to visit, and custodians will enthusiastically impart the details of its long history. Earl Mountbatten of Burma is buried in the abbey, where he was once a regular member of the

Top to bottom: The abbey at Romsey was founded in AD 907 when it was the church of a Benedictine nunnery; the abbey was rebuilt in stone between AD 1130 and 1140

congregation. Nearby Broadlands, his former home, where the late Queen and Prince Philip spent their honeymoon, has sweeping lawns that kiss the banks of the River Test. It’s open for guided tours in April and August. From Romsey, the Test meanders slowly towards the sea, where it becomes tidal and merges with the River Itchen in Southampton. It was from here that the Titanic set sail on its fatal voyage in 1912. Surrounded by ships and industry, the busy, wide estuary feels a long way from the trickling chalk stream 40 miles to the north.

THE PLANNER

GETTING THERE South Western Railway services from London Waterloo connect to Romsey (1hr 30min) and Andover (1hr). Local buses serve outlying villages, although connections can be sporadic. Alternatively, you can hire a car or a bike or – even better – walk along part of the Test Way. It’s approximately 26 miles from Hurstbourne Tarrant to Romsey. www.southwesternrailway.com

WHERE TO STAY AND EAT The White Horse, Romsey is a gorgeously restored 14th-century coaching inn in Romsey’s main square. This historic heirloom has cosy warped corridors and small but comfortable rooms. The adjoining restaurant serves up substantial English breakfasts and delicate afternoon teas. The Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge is a recently refurbished boutique hotel on Stockbridge’s smart High Street. Aside from chic rooms, it has a secluded garden, restaurant, library, bar and fabulous wood-panelled lounge with eclectic furnishings. www.whitehorsehotelromsey.co.uk; www.thegrosvenorstockbridge.com

FURTHER INFORMATION www.testvalley.gov.uk/communityandleisure/tourism

Visit Kirkcaldy Old Kirk

2023 Adam Smith’s Tercentenary

Experience 1000 years of heritage inside Kirkcaldy’s oldest building. Trace your Scottish ancestors and view the beautiful stained glass windows by famous artists. Tour the historic grave-yard for stories from stones of those who are buried there. Birth place and Burial place of Rev. George Gillespie, 17th century Covenanting statesman and orator - view the exhibition! Maintained by Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Trust for the community. Within easy reach from Edinburgh – take train or coach ride along fantastic Fife coast over one of the three historic Forth bridges. • See the Kirk where

Adam Smith’s story began with his baptism as a baby • Climb the 15th Century tower for panoramic views of the sea side town where he wrote “The Wealth of

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