The Dorset Walk – Blackmore Vale villages
Matt Wilkinson and Paul Quagliana visit Stour Provost, Fifehead Magdalen, Kington Magna and West Stour
Published in August ’18
The cooling shade alongside the River Stour
This route could be said to lie at the very heart of the Blackmore Vale. The four villages it passes through are typical of the Vale and originally owed their existence to dairy farming, which has also shaped the landscape: in the large fields you will see a lot of cows, a few sheep and precious little arable.
Stour Provost takes its name from the fact that until 1925, most of the village was owned by King’s College, Cambridge, whose head is known as the Provost. Fifehead Magdalen is notable for some large and handsome houses. It was assessed at five hides (about 240 acres) in Domesday, which became corrupted to the first part of its name, the second part coming from the dedication of the parish church to St Mary Magdalene.
The Ship Inn in West Stour
Kington Magna is notable for the fabulous view from its churchyard, westwards across the northern part of the Blackmore Vale and into Somerset. The church itself, which is dedicated to All Saints and parts of which are Norman, although the majority is Early English, survived a Victorian restoration comparatively unscathed. The pond just below the church is a medieval fishpond. The only time the village achieved anything other than local fame was in 1952, when the rector made a national appeal for mousetraps to counter a rodent infestation of Biblical proportions. West Stour is a one-street hamlet, but it does boast a 13th-century church and its own pub.
The large coniferous tree on the outskirts of Fifehead Magdalen
View from the church at Kington Magna
THE WALK
1 Walk on down the Street and just after the ‘no through road’ sign, turn left down a track which bends to the left, becomes a grassy path and reaches a stile. Walk down the field, passing to the left of a clump of trees, to a gate rather hidden under a large beech tree. Follow the path beyond into what looks like a private garden. Go through a small gate straight ahead and turn right to a larger gate, beyond which turn right. Cross the river and go through another gate. In about 50 yards go through yet another gate, cross the bridge and turn left to head for the light-coloured gable end of a house on the skyline. Go through an opening into the next field and walk up it to a stile with a lane beyond.
2 Turn right and follow the lane round to the left and down through Fifehead Magdalen. Bear left at a T-junction and in a further 700 yards, opposite My Lady’s Cottage, turn right through the hedge and over a stile. Walk straight across the middle of one field and up the left-hand edge of the next to enter Fifehead Wood through a gate right in the corner. The path ahead is very clear, running alongside a small ditch on the right. At the gate on the other side of the wood, bear
left to a stile about 40 yards to the right of the right-hand of two power poles on the far side of the field. Turn left on a grassy track and follow it round to the right and up to a main road.
3 Cross very carefully and turn left. In less than 10 yards, go through a somewhat hidden gap in the hedge and down a bank to a stile. Bear slightly left across the field to a corner where the right-hand field boundary has curved round to meet the far side. Here cross a bridge and stile on the right and turn left. Walk up a track towards Gains Farm, but just in front of the buildings, turn left on a track. Follow the track round to the right twice, then left onto the farm’s paved drive. Reaching a lane at Kington Magna, turn right, then take the first on the left, at the end of the group of houses. As the lane swings to the left, go through a gate on the right and follow a grassy track uphill. As it bends right then left, bear left, straight towards the church tower, then right to a gate into the churchyard.
4 Having admired the view, leave by one of the gates on the north side of the churchyard and turn right, uphill. In ¼ mile go straight across a cross-roads, then as the lane bends to the left, immediately after Bowden Cottage, go through a gate and over a stile into an open field. Continue ahead in the same direction across the field and on the far side, turn left and follow a grassy track round to the right and down into the buildings of Little Kington Farm. Turn immediately left, along the nearside of the buildings, and follow the track as it bends to the right. Just after the next bend to the right, double back to the left down a track, following the right-hand edge of a field. In the next field, bear right and head for a double stile and bridge about 150 yards to the right of the bottom left-hand corner. Cross them and in the next field bear left to an opening in the left-hand edge, then head up to the top right-hand corner of the next field. Go through a gate onto a junction of lanes; go straight ahead and round the bend to the right. Walk down through West Stour to the main road.
5 Cross carefully into the car park of the Ship Inn, turn right and at its far end, go over a stile. Continue in the same direction towards a line of power poles. Reaching a bridge with a gate at either end on the right, cross it and turn left to walk down the left-hand edge of the field. Near the bottom of the field, bear away from the field-edge to a footbridge over the Stour. On the other side turn left and walk along the left-hand edge of the field to a metal gate. Walk up to the top right-hand corner of the next field. Here cross a stile on the right and follow the path, which becomes a track and then a paved lane that leads up to your car.
Distance: About 5¼ miles.
Terrain: This is the Blackmore Vale, so expect some mud in anything but the driest conditions. The track up to Kington Magna church and the lane to the crossroads beyond is the only steep climb on an otherwise gently undulating route.
Start: The Street, Stour Provost.
How to get there: The easiest, if not the quickest, route is to get onto the A30 Shaftesbury-Sherborne road and to turn south on the B3092 at East Stour. In 1 mile, take the first turning on the right, into Stour Provost. At the crossroads in the middle of the village, turn right into the Street. OS reference ST793215. Postcode SP8 5RZ.
Maps: OS Explorer 129 (Yeovil & Sherborne), OS Landranger 183 (Yeovil & Frome). Because of variations in rights of way, it may be wise to rely on the following route description rather than the map where they disagree.
Refreshments: The Ship Inn at West Stour.
