ITCHEN ABBAS — I left the Royal Yeoman in Grimstone mid-morning in glorious sunshine and headed north for Yeovil and Sherborne. I intended to visit Sherborne’s two castles and so, because it seemed logical, I chose to go Sherborne Old Castle first. Another picturesque ruin, it was originally built by one of the Bishops of Salisbury, and at one stage was owned by Sir Walter Raleigh. After taking a look around the castle grounds I drove over to the neighbouring new Sherborne Castle—which is a bit of a misnomer as it was orginally a hunting lodge—only to find that it was closed for a special event. As it was Saturday there could very well have been a wedding booked.

From Sherborne it was on to Shaftesbury and thence to Salisbury. Before reaching Salisbury I took a detour to visit Old Wardour Castle. The English Heritage handbook said it was two miles southwest of Tisbury off the A30—and it probably would have been if I were a crow (which reminds me that I saw one of those twin-rotor military helicopters on the way to the castle). It was probably more like eight miles once I’d turned off the main road.

Old Wardour Castle was an impressive ruin set in a very picturesque and romantic setting. I arrived about 12:30 pm. and a lot of people were there enjoying a picnic lunch. There were lots of rooms and chambers to explore on several floors in the ruin. Both of the castles I visited today, as well as Corfe Castle yesterday, were slighted during the civil war.

After Salisbury I headed for Stockbridge and, missing the turnoff for the more direct route to Winchester, I carried on towards Romsey. About halfway there, as I still had some time available before my expected arrival at Hatch End, I visited the house and gardens of Mottisfont Abbey. The house was originally an abbey priory that was converted into a Tudor house which itself was subsequently converted into a Georgian house. Some of the rooms had holes cut into the walls to show the underlying detail of the original priory architecture that had been hidden by the alterations. All in all a very interesting house in a beautiful setting. The weather was certainly playing its part to show it off at its best.

After Mottisfont I passed through Romsey (filling up with petrol) and on to Winchester which I tried to skirt around in an effort to get to Itchen Abbas. I managed to get myself in the wrong lane (but luckily managing to avoid the motorways) and found myself going in the wrong direction. Getting myself heading back in the right direction meant I approached Itchen Abbas from the wrong direction as far as the sign for Hatch End was concerned and it took a few nervous moments to locate my bed for the night.