In Salisbury: Harnham Slope

August 30, 2022

Here’s another day where we didn’t stick with the morning’s plan. The top item on the agenda was for Rachael to get her bike into the bike doctor’s office first thing. After that she was going to give me a call to let me know what she learned and then we’d either take a bike ride together (if she was to get her bike back promptly) or she’d take a walk and I’d ride the loop I’d planned on riding yesterday.

We’ll, that’s not exactly right. First on the agenda is the laundry. This is our last day in the apartment and we’re using the laundry facilities here before we leave. And this is as good a spot as any for putting in a plug for the excellent Pear Street Serviced Apartments. We’ve really enjoyed our stay in Salisbury and if we come back someday I’m sure we would look at these apartments first.

At 8:30 Rachael biked off to Hayball Cyclesport, a second shop in town that has good reviews and opens earlier than Stonehenge. She wears her bike shoes because she hates biking in her walkers but she takes the walkers too so she can just start walking from there if that’s the plan. Not long after she phones me to let me know they’ve accepted her bike but won’t look at it until later, knowing she needs it back by the end of the day - so she sets off on a hike, carrying her bike shoes with her as an extra workout.

A half an hour later I‘ve finally wrapped up the day’s post and changed into my bike clothes when she calls again. She’s partway into the loop we mapped out for her, patterned after a local hike description she found on the way to the laundry room. It’s an exceptional hike she says, and it’s one I should really consider taking myself.

So I do. I change back into my walking clothes and set off on the same hike myself. And she’s right - it really is a wonderful short hike - about four miles starting right from downtown, it takes you along the river through grassy meadows that flood in the winter, then up a low ridge to the south of town for splendid views across the town and valley. Both of us will walk considerably more than this before the day is done taking some of the many side trails along the way, but we basically cover the same loop and take photos of the same places. The gallery below is a blend from both of our walks.

So, that’s two straight days I’ve walked rather than taken either of the two bike rides I’d mapped out. In retrospect, knowing what I do now I wish we’d slept in the Green Dragon for only two nights and spent six nights here. We’d have had no problem filling our days, or even more.

The walk starts out on “The Town Path” (that’s its name) as it crosses the semi-wetlands at the confluence of the Nadder and Avon Rivers.

On the Town Path. This is a beautiful area, riddled with channels. On the right are the Harmon Water Meadows.

Easier to let you read about it yourself.

The view across the meadows to the cathedral.

There’s a lot to see from the Town Path.

One of the larger channels crossing the Harnham Water Meadows. It’s a great walking area, with paths branching off everywhere. It reminds me of the walking around Amiens - it’s easy to get yourself disoriented following small paths and bridges.

To me it looks like this summer’s drought and heatwaves have been especially hard on the horse chestnuts.

At the end of the Harmon Water Meadows the trail comes to the primary channel of the Avon, crosses it, and then takes us a short ways through the neighborhood streets of Harnham, the suburb of Salisbury on the south side of the river.

Before long we’re out of the neighborhoods and climbing Harnham Slope. Earlier, while I was wandering around half-lost in the water meadows I got another call from Rachael. She’s up on top of the slope looking down at the views and wants to make sure I make it up this far because it’s so wonderful - the best part of the hike she says, which surprises me because it’s been wonderful enough already.

And she’s right. Harnham Slope is remarkable, especially given that it starts right on the edge of town. It’s a north-facing escarpment crisscrossed with trails. Ours diagonals up the face of the escarpment through a dense, complex woods before opening up at the top to long views across the chalky downs.

Climbing Harnham Slope. It’s fairly open here, but most of the way it’s under a dense canopy of maples and beeches.

The view south from the top of the escarpment.

From the top we walk east along the rim of the escarpment. Views to the north are fine alright, but the walk itself is inspiring, much of it beneath a line of splendid old beech trees. I think I stopped at a half dozen of these wildly brachiating giants, looking up and thinking that this was the best of rhem all - until a came to another one even grander.

Looking across the West Harnham Chalk Pit.

The chalk pit has been here a long time. It was the chalk source for the mortar used to build the cathedral.

It’s hard to show the perspective here, but the drop-off into the old pit is precipitous, dropping vertically for maybe 30 feet at what must be about a 50 dregree slope. Alarmingly, there’s a bicycle track etched into it.

Beech trees line the trail along the top of the escarpment.

The views across town and to the cathedral are impressive, when you come to a clearing through the trees.

Mmm! This candy stick looks good enough to eat. I’m sure it’s good for you, but I didn’t test it out.

Now this one. This is definitely the best of the best.

After about a mile of this the trail descends again into the neighborhood of East Harnham; and a half mile later we’re back on the north side of the Avon again, only a few blocks from the cathedral grounds - and, coincidentally, only a few more blocks from The Old Ale and Coffee House which unsurprisingly reels me in again.

Earlier I received another call from Rachael, excited to have finally just heard from the bike shop - they’re done, her bike’s ready to pick up, and she’s off to take it for a test ride. Later on I’ll hear her disappointment that the gears still don’t seem right to her, and the maintenance didn’t make her legs feel any stronger on the hills.

Looking toward the cathedral from East Harnham’s All Saints Church.

Prisoners in the Old School, East Harnham.

Recrossing the Avon. One of the exceptional things about Salisbury is how river and channel ridden it is. You don’t walk far at all before coming to another bridge or streamside trail.

I haven’t figured out what this church is that you can see from the cathedral close. I guess I should have walked over there.

From the gents room of the Old Ale and Coffee House. I’ve found a new favorite charity!

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