Copythorne and Cadnam Common

Start: Pollards Moor Road bus stop, Copythorne Grid ref. SU 303145, Post code SO40 2NZ

(S/E) From the bus stop shelter on Pollards Moor Road, keep left and follow this road to Vicarage Lane. Turn left into the lane and follow the gravel track past houses to a waymarked post and kissing gate. Go through the gate and follow along a fenced footpath to a kissing gate and St Mary's church.

(1) At the waymarked post and path junction turn left and follow the field edge past the church. Go through a wooden gate and gravel car park to join Romsey Road.

(2) Turn right and follow the pavement to a parking area in front of Copythorne Infant School. Take care to cross the road opposite the road bridge over the M27. Cross the bridge to a waymarker post and gate. Turn right through the gate into Copythorne Common. Do not follow the path along the fence line beside the motorway on your right, but go straight ahead to where the path splits and becomes a wide grassy track across the common.

(3) Continue on the track through mixed woodland and heathland glades, passing by the Wildlife Trust welcome board, and continue ahead through the reserve. Where the track splits, go left to meet up with the public footpath and a waymarker post near a wide metal gate. Please be aware that forestry work means this track is currently very muddy and uneven, take care.
Turn left onto the footpath and through woodland to a wooden gate ahead. Leave the common through the gate and go straight across the gravel road to follow the rhododendron-edged track ahead, passing Lyndhurst Lodge and a waymarker on your right.

(4) The track then becomes a narrow fenced footpath with fields on your right. Please be careful of the electric fence on your right and keep children under close supervision.
Cross over a stile and continue ahead along a track through woodland and pretty hedge-lined fields. Turn left over the next waymarked stile by a wide metal gate onto Newbridge Road. Continue past houses and turn right at a waymarker post where the road bends left, into Newbridge Farm.

(5) Go straight through the farm past a water utility building on your left to a metal gate and narrow concrete footbridge. Cross over the Cadnam River and turn left onto the common. Follow the path ahead across Cadnam Common and through a small copse of trees to meet a gravel track on your right. Turn left and continue to follow the track through the common to a low metal barrier to join Furzley Road.

(6) Follow the road downhill into Newbridge, passing a pretty tributary of the Cadnam River before leaving the common through a wide gate by a cattle grid. Continue ahead, crossing over the main Cadnam River then turn right back onto Newbridge Road. On your left, 40m past the red phone box, is a hidden footpath entrance and waymarker. Turn left and follow this path uphill along a tree-lined track. You can't miss the huge oak trees which you have to weave between on the path. Cross over the stile ahead and back into Copythorne Common.

(7) Walk through pine woodland and cross over a stile by a waymaker post and wide metal gate. Go straight across the gravel track to the waymarker opposite. Follow the grassy path to your right and continue ahead to a path junction. Turn left and follow the path to the main track. Turn right to return back over the road bridge and across the A31 to Copythorne Infant School. Retrace your steps past the school and turn left to follow the footpath past St Mary's Church to the bus stop on Pollards Moor Road.(S/E)