Around Warsash

From its enviable position at the mouth of the River Hamble, Warsash commands far-reaching views across Southampton Water and the Solent to the Isle of Wight.

Salty traditions at Newtown

Modern Warsash has extended south to encompass the former hamlet of Newtown, right at the mouth of the Hook River. Here, the Warsash Maritime Academy upholds a local tradition that dates back more than six centuries. You’ll see its modern Southampton University campus as you turn inland from the beach, close to the site of a naval dockyard that provided 11 ships and more than 200 men at the time of the Hundred Years War with France.

When the French wars ended in the mid-15th century, Newtown turned its energies to farming, fishing and smuggling, as well as to the production of sea salt. For hundreds of years this was a profitable business along the Hampshire coast – but, in the face of competition from the Cheshire salt mines and punitive taxation to fund the Napoleonic Wars, the industry simply collapsed. By the middle of the 19th century, a chemical works had sprung up in the place of Newtown’s salterns; an iron works soon followed and in 1865 Newtown Road was built to connect the new industries with Warsash.

The new road prompted more development and, meanwhile, William Hornby had bought the neighbouring estate at Hook and built a large country house. A later member of his family, Arthur Hornby, persuaded the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that a new church was needed to serve the area’s growing population. He gave the land and endowed St Mary’s church, which you’ll see at the very start of your walk. It was consecrated in 1871.

In modern times, the River Hamble is a major sailing centre. Warsash supports a sailing club, and the Royal Yachting Association’s headquarters are across the water at Hamble-le-Rice. Every summer the yachtsmen get out of their boats for one of the most eccentric fixtures of the sporting calendar. As the Brambles sandbank rises in mid-Solent on the lowest tide of the year, sailing club crews race out there for an annual cricket match on the sands.

Continue down Church Road with St Mary’s on your left and keep ahead onto the waymarked off-road cycle trail. The trail drops gently, shaded by trees and rhododendrons, then crosses a stream and climbs to a crossways. Keep ahead for 50yds (46m) to a T-junction.

Turn right onto the rutted gravel track, pass a couple of houses on your left and continue onto a residential road. A few paces further on, turn left into Cowes Lane. Follow this pleasant tree-lined road, keep ahead onto a gravelled private road and continue along the waymarked footpath that bends left at the entrance to Hook-with-Warsash Nature Reserve. Go through a kissing gate and bend right, then cross a footbridge to reach the coastal path at a second kissing gate.

Turn right and walk along the beach for about 0.75 miles (1.2km) until the mouth of the River Hamble opens out and you reach the large lake at the mouth of the Hook River on your right.

Double back to the right at the remains of two old concrete buildings, onto the narrow gravel path between the bushes. The path winds briefly around drainage channels, then heads inland in the shade of young oak trees, dogrose and buckthorn.

Keep ahead through the gate at Christmas House, cross a road and continue along the track opposite, past Bridge House. Go through the kissing gate into Hook-with-Warsash Nature Reserve and continue for 130yds (119m) to a waymarker post.

Turn right, then left and follow the faint path across the grassy meadow with woodland on each side. Bear gently right, continue beside the wire fence at the far side of the meadow and into the trees to the kissing gate at the crossways you passed earlier (Point 2). Turn left through the gate and retrace your steps to the church.