Around Tarrant Gunville

Tucked below the slopes of Cranborne Chase, Tarrant Gunville stretches along a narrow lane near the head of the Tarrant valley. The area was traditionally devoted to sheep, the flocks pastured on the higher slopes during the summer and brought to more sheltered meadows during winter, where their droppings provided manure to replenish the soil of the crop fields in the valley. Farming practices have since changed and much of the land is now cultivated, although the wider landscape remains pleasantly broken by small woods and copses.

At the edge of the village, Eastbury Park once surrounded the grandest mansion in the county. Begun in 1718 for George Doddington, Paymaster to the Navy, it was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, by then already established as architect of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace. By the time it was completed 20 years later, George was long since dead. The palatial sprawl had cost £140,000, a staggering £25 million or more today, and was too big to manage. It eventually passed to the 2nd Earl Temple of Stowe, who found he couldn’t even pay people to live there and (resident in Italy at the time) he gave instructions to his steward William Doggett to dismantle two wings to reduce running costs. Anticipating the Earl would never return, Doggett set about its demolition, selling the materials to improve his own finances. But to his horror the Earl did come home, to find only the stable block still standing. Doggett promptly shot himself – and the Earl, rescuing what he could from the rubble, converted it into the more modest house seen today.

It was taken by Thomas Wedgwood, whose father Josiah had founded the famous Wedgwood pottery. Thomas was a pioneer of photography, devising the concept of a camera. He died in 1805, his ambitions unfulfilled, and is buried in the local churchyard. His brother Josiah II (‘Jos’) inherited the family business and had moved to Gunville House a year earlier. Jos is credited with introducing bone china, and one of the village lanes is called China Lane. His daughter Emma married her cousin Charles Darwin, whom Jos encouraged to join Captain Robert FitzRoy’s second survey expedition aboard the Beagle.

The area is rich in prehistoric remains, and the walk passes two Neolithic long barrows which, when excavated in the 18th century, revealed a quantity of human bones. The curious double row of tumuli extending north across the park from Eastbury House are, however, part of an imposing ornamental avenue laid out by the landscape architect Charles Bridgeman in the early 18th century.

Go left along the main street and turn left up School Lane. Where it bends, keep ahead on a track between the houses. At the top, swing right in front of a gate on a path that winds into a wood. Emerging beyond, a fenced path runs on beside an old beech avenue. Through a gate at the end go left and immediately right to continue along a broad track, from which gaps on the right give views of the curious avenue in Solomon’s Quarter.

At the end, cross a tarred track to a wide gap opposite and continue beside the right-hand hedge. Swing left in the corner to find after a short distance a gate into the adjacent field just beyond an electricity post. Turn right beside Chettle Long Barrow, concealed by an overgrowth of hedge and trees. Walk along the field boundary and continue within the edge of Little Wood. Meeting a crossing track, go right, soon following a belt of trees that hides the ditch and bank of an ancient earthwork. It is thought to have been associated with a settlement that lay to the east.

Just after passing a pair of radio masts, turn left through a metal gate and follow the field edge down to another track. Go left past a barn and then right, immediately bearing left again, with the track. Swing left in the next corner and then keep ahead between open fields for 0.5 miles (800m).

Immediately beyond a belt of trees turn left up the field edge and right within the top corner. After 100yds (91m), go through a gap on the left onto a fenced grassy track and walk on past the end of a more obvious long barrow. Leave the field at the top corner to head into trees. Reaching a junction of tracks swing right, dropping past the entrance to Chettle House.

Drawing level with the church, look for a fenced path on the left that leads to a farmyard. Curve left along a short track into a field and keep ahead along its length behind the village. Through a gap in the end hedge, bear right along the edge of the next two fields.

Passing through a gap at the end, follow a track left. Entering the next field, swing right and then turn left within the corner to find the gate near the electricity post passed on the way out. Retrace your route back to the village. Where to eat and drink Although there isn’t a pub in the village, you need only go a couple of miles down the lane to Tarrant Monkton where you’ll find the 17th-century thatched Langton Arms. It is a traditional country pub with an everchanging selection of real ales, and has a beer garden and children’s play area.