United Kingdom

Quaint, peculiar, funny: the United Kingdom… our "Wahlheimat".

We actually like it here: the weather (and the food) are not quite as bad as the natives (and the French) make you believe.

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Thinking of our next destination: Italy and Portugal come to mind, or maybe the time has finally come for a US road trip…

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Local Walks

(vero;2021-June-20)

Basingstoke is quite a substantial town with around 115,000 inhabitants; a small and quiet market town until the mid 1960s, it has developed and grown significantly over the years as the town was chosen as an overspill for London and many companies settled there attracting workers and their families. We have lived here since 1998 and have witnessed how fast the town is growing, new houses being built relentlessly and slowly but surely encroaching the surrounding countryside. We are lucky in so far that we live on the outskirts of town and that the M3 motorway still serves as an unofficial "natural" border to the south, a fact which has so far been respected but starts nowadays to be threatened by new planning requests (strongly resisted by the local population, so there is hope). We just need to walk about ten minutes, cross the bridge over the motorway to be in the countryside or drive quite small distances to enjoy great walks.

This gallery is a collection of pictures taken during our walks around Basingstoke and will expand as time goes.

The church in Oakley on a bright autumn day.

Basingstoke Canal. It was built between 1788 and 1794 to connect Basingstoke to the river Thames and London. Unfortunately it was never a success: its construction took longer as planned, water supply was not regular and when completed it could not compete against the arrival of the railway. The final blow came with the collapse of Greywell Tunnel in 1932, which blocked access to the last five miles to Basingstoke, leading to the canal slowly falling into dereliction in the 1950s. After a long campaign led by enthusiastic locals to save it, the canal was eventually acquired by the County Councils of Hampshire and Surrey in 1976, marking the start of restoration works. After about eighteen years of restoration, 32 miles (51 km) of the canal were formally re-opened on 10 May 1991. Greywell Tunnel is still blocked but is now an important conservation area for bats. The canal is now a great asset for the local population: its tow-path attracts walkers and cyclists, anglers try their luck on its banks and it is re-open for leisure navigation.

Basingstoke Canal at the beginning of autumn, the trees are still green but leaves are starting to fall.

Thatched house along the Basingstoke Canal.

Ellisfield church and its graveyard in the spring.

Small country lane leading to Ellisfield church.

View to the north from Ladle Hill over the Sydmonton Estate near Kingsclere.

A right of way through a field of wheat.

Winter in Bedlam Bottom near Farleigh Wallop.

Bluebells in the spring, the area around Basingstoke is full of them.

Go back to Basingstoke and Around, go up to Hampshire or to South East England