Bentley to Petersfield on the Shipwrights Way (mostly)

I joined my friend at Woking station and we got the train to Bentley, which is the start of the Shipwrights Way, which symbolically commemorates the trade in timber (Heart of Oak etc) between the Hampshire forests and the RN Dockyards at Portsmouth. It is more or less coincident  with NCN22 between Alice Holt Forest and Havant. I've done a cyclists guide to the Shipwrights Way here. On this ride we followed the Way to Petersfield, with the exception that we went over Liss ranges rather than following the route through Greatham. Here is a map.


From Bentley station we cycled up to the Visitor Centre at Alice Holt Forest. This has recently undergone a major rebuilding programme, with a cycling centre and an improved cafe, where we stopped for coffee. Suitably stimulated, we rode on through the Forest on good tracks, although they are quite gravelly and hilly in parts, so need care. After emerging from the Forest the route follows the Cradle Lane bridleway, which was mercifully dry after last year's very dry summer - usually it can be quite muddy, then onward on a rather sandy bridleway from Picketts Hill to Broxhead.

Bentley station

Path up from Bentley Station to Alice Holt Forest

Alice Holt Visitor Centre

Alice Holt cafe

The ford on Cradle's Lane (actually we used the footbridge to the left of the picture)

Bluebells on Cradle Lane

Sandy track between Picketts Hill and Broxhead

Path to Broxhead

Lunch stop in Lindford

We made a short diversion to grab lunch at the Royal Exchange pub in Lindford, then followed the Way around the outskirts of Bordon to Whitehill (not the most inspiring part of the ride). The Way then skirts the boundary of the Woolmer Military Range on a specially constructed track in the woods between the Range and the A325. There is also a very good military perimeter track just adjacent, and we sampled both. (I understand the new track was constructed because the military would not allow the existing perimeter track to be part of a public right of way, open 24x7, since they might need to close it for certain exercises: however, the perimeter track lies outside the 'red flag' zone, and I have never known it to be closed.) (NB I think the whole range hereabouts is referred to as Longmoor. It is divided in two by the A3. I use "Woolmer Range" to refer to the part north of the A3, where live firing takes place, and "Liss Range" to refer to the area south of the A3.)

Path through the suburbs of Lindford

Crossing the Wey in Lindford

The newly built bridleway carrying the Shipwright's Way around the Woolmer Range

The Woolmer Range perimeter track

We decided not to use the Shipwrights Way through Greatham, partly because it includes busy roads and a very muddy bridleway, and partly because there is a more interesting, if slightly longer, all-off-road alternative, following the perimeter track to a bridge over the A3 and onto the Liss military range. This used to be a training ground for the Army's railway engineers, and has a now-disused railway trackbed which makes a good cycleway. Troops are frequently seen on exercise hereabouts, but they seem happy to coexist with the general public. This railway ride becomes the Shipwrights Way again for the final mile or so into Liss, through pleasant woods designated as a nature reserve.

The muddy bridleway at Greatham (which we avoided by our diversion)

Bridge over the A3 to Liss Range

The disused railway path on Liss Range

The path into Liss

From Liss, we followed the Way to Petersfield, crossing the Portsmouth-London mainline railway on a steep footbridge, riding for a short way on a cycleway beside the busy A3, then following an old drove road bridleway into the village of Steep. From here it was a short descent to the station on Petersfield from where we caught the train home.

The footbridge over the railway

The bridleway into Steep

Arriving in Steep