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The Tarrant Valley


boboneleg

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This is a ride that I've been planning to do for a while but finally got the chance today.  During the first lockdown I watched a lot of old country programmes on YouTube, in particular 'Out of Town'  and one presenter I really liked was Jack Hargreaves, some of you older Brits may remember him ............

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Anyway, he did a programme about the river Tarrant and how it gave it's name to eight villages that it passes through in Dorset.  So today I decided to follow his route nearly 45 years later.

It wasn't a great start as there was freezing fog in Bristol...........

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and 90 minutes later it was still the same as I reached North Dorset............

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Eventually as I climbed up Spread Eagle Hill near Melbury Abbas I got above the fog................

 

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About 5 miles down the road I turned off towards Stubhampton into glorious sunshine.  At Stubhampton you get the first sighting of the Tarrant , it rises up from the chalk hills on Cranbourne Chase but there wasn't a lot of it today...........

 

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and then I came to the first of the villages bearing it's name, Tarrant Gunville...........

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a bit further on in Tarrant Hinton there was a bit more of a trickle.............

 

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After the crossroads at the A354 I made my way towards Tarrant Launceston.............

 

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and then onto Tarrant Monkton where I had a little play in the ford...............

 

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Next up I climbed up the hill to the site of RAF Tarrant Rushton which saw a lot of action in WW11 as it was used for glider operations for D-Day..........

 

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From there I rode back down the hill and through Tarrant Rawston where the Tarrant was begining to look more like a river...........

 

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and then the village of Tarrant Rushton where I went to look at the ford............

 

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at the moment I am not allowed to trail ride (i'm not arguing with my wife)  so I just walked down to have a look at it, there was a steady flow in the middle but I will return in summer for some water sports (oo-er missus)..............

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This part of Dorset is full of chocolate-box cottages like this one in Tarrant Keyneston.................

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and you will also find there All Saints Church, the tower dates back to the 15th century...........

 

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Unfortunately I misssed the last village, Tarrant Crawford but it's very small so easily done .   The Tarrant runs into the Dorset Stour just upstream from this bridge over the Stour at Spetisbury...............

 

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From here I turned towards home and stopped to eat my sandwiches in the sun at Lydlinch.  Last stop was to check out another ford which I will return to later on in the year to ride.............

 

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10 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Brilliant Bob.......great report! Apart from all that water of course! 

What's Blandford Camp?

Blandford Camp is another ex military establishment, I'm not sure what it's used for nowadays but I think it used to be used for motor racing in the past....

 

https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2011/05/the-town-camp-races/

 

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9 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Can you get inside it now?

I'm sure you can , it's not abandoned.  There are several companies work from there and it's even home to the Royal Signals museum

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