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New Year’s Eve, and a reflective time for me to look back over the past year, and to look forward to what 2010, and the decade might offer us.  Many people I’ve chatted to over the holiday have said that they don’t really keep New Year – I suppose they mean throw a party or such occasion.  You can’t keep the Old Year, so you might as well mark its passing, and welcome the New.

I went for a walk today, but first a good cooked breakfast, and then a drive down the Ringwood Road from Salisbury to Burgate.  The MG was humming nicely, and I parked up by Burgate School, just on the Salisbury side of Fordingbridge.  I crossed the road and headed out towards Frankenbury, an Iron Age Hill Fort I’ve not visited before.  We’ve several around here – Clearbury, Figsbury, and of course Old Sarum.  Appropriately for a New Year walk, I had several bridges to cross, marking passing from the old to the new.  The first was an amazing suspension bridge crossing the Avon.  I took a photo, as I was so surprised to see a full suspension bridge in such a local, and rural location.  It sprung nicely as you walked across it!

Turning right at Folds Farm, you  descend into a gully and then rise up towards the Hill Fort.  It suddenly became very still and quiet, and offered superb views across the Avon water meadows.  It was suggested that the leader of the Romano-British, Natan-Leod camped here with his army around AD500, before he was defeated by Saxon invaders led by Cerdic on the banks of the Avon at nearby Charford.  It was easy to imagine the hundreds of men, quietly making their preparations here, with fresh water, good defences and visibility, and fresh meat walking around too.  I saw deer and cattle and horses a’plenty. Not to mention chickens, ducks and geese.

A little further on and I heard the sound of a high pitched motor cycle.  I don’t like the thought of bikes on footpaths – you can hear them, but usually they don’t see you as they travel so fast on the footpaths.  I cautiously stepped onto the grass verge, and was pleasantly surprised to see a very small child, sitting on a very small bike.  They carefully slowed down, and said good morning, before throttling up and away.  The dad was not far behind and I chatted to him about the bike, powered by a 50cc peewee engine, and can be governed to go at a maximum set speed.  Jealous? – well only a little bit!

I walked on up the Avon and came to Breamore, where there is a lovely mill set by two spans of bridges, the first an three arched brick affair, and the second a white painted girder bridge.  The water was passing through at a fair pace, and I wondered if the occupants of the mill easily adjusted to the sound of rushing water.  I noticed the natural defences of the divided river were augmented by two WW2 pill box defences, built either side of the mill’s building complex. 

I then walked back towards the A338, and crossed another bridge, this time a road bridge over the old Alderbury – Ringwood railway line.  The old Station Building is the only surviving one on this old line, and Hampshire County Council who own the site have restored the building beautifully.  Shame we can’t have access to it really, although there is talk about a footpath running along the old trackbed.  Back to the car at Burgate and the conclusion of a very pleasant stretch of the legs before the New Year celebrations this evening. 

Lots of bridges, lots of water flowing under them.  I hope that you will look back and be glad for all the good memories of 2009, and be able to let go of the less good memories.  May the New Year and all that it will offer us be full of opportunities and blessings for you, and may you cross your bridges with confidence and gratitude.