The April Green Lane Event took place on Sunday 29th, started at 10am and was attended by 6 vehicles.

I have included grid refs for anyone who might like to repeat this route or any parts of it.

We met at the High Post Hotel on the A345 between Salisbury and Amesbury and after signing in and a bit of a chat we headed out to the first lane at the nearby Hamlet of Lake (SU 129 388), this Byway is wide, dirt bottomed, lightly rutted and heads in a North South direction, after stopping to take a couple of group pictures we split into two groups of 3 vehicles with Jeff & Sharon Harris leading the first group and myself with Rob Fletcher as passenger leading the second. Both groups headed North along the lane, the second group giving the first group a 15 min lead, the lane wound along the bottom of a valley before climbing up past horses in fields and farm buildings or stables, when we stopped at the top of the hill that the lane was climbing, we were rewarded with an excellent view of  Stonehenge directly in front of us. Descending the hill to the end of the Byway at the A303 we turned left onto the A303 but within 10-15 seconds we left the A303 and turned South onto the second Byway (SU 117 418), this lane is slightly more rutted but has a gravel bottom for most of its length and was slightly dusty on the day we used it, although it could be a bit more interesting in winter. The lane ended in a small wooded area as it joined the A360, near some interesting old buildings and a water tower.

We turned South and followed the A360 to a crossroads (SU 101 365) where we turned right and followed the minor road to the village of Stoford turning right onto the A36 and following it to the village of Serrington where we turned right on to the next Byway (SU 067 369) this stone bottomed lane climbed steeply away from the village before levelling out to a gentler climb, we crossed another Byway running East to West just before the Byway became a tarmac surfaced lane that lead up to the A303. We crossed over the A303 and passed Yarnbury Castle (SU 035 403) to the left, following the gravel bottomed Byway to its junction with another Byway and a couple of Restricted Byways (RuPP's). We took the Byway that headed in a North West direction, this dirt bottomed and rutted lane passes a military landing area before joining the B390, turning onto the B390 we went East and followed  the B390 until reaching the second Byway on the left (SU 031 436) we turned onto this Byway and passed through two or three areas that were still slightly muddy even though there hadn't been much rain in a week or more, before heading up hill and crossing another Byway that ran in a South Easterly direction, we then crossed a couple of military roads before skirting round the sides of a small wood and joining up with the guys from the first group who had stopped for a tea break, after a quick chat they headed off, we waited a further 15mins or so before following on along the Byway to its junction with another Byway that came in from the left, following this lane brought us out on the A360 near Tilshead, we followed the A360 into Tilshead village then turned right and followed the road around the outside of Westdown Camp to the next Byway (SU 043 482), this Byway headed North East, we then turned onto another Byway that crossed ours heading North West and following it across West Down Artillery Range. At least that was the plan because as our group entered the village of Tilshead I recieved a call from Jeff and Sharon leading the front group, they told me that the Byway crossing across the Artillery Range was closed due to firing taking place, so Jeff and I quickly decided to skirt round the edge of the Range on the minor roads and to rejoin the route where it left the ranges and join the perimeter road (which is also a Byway in places).  We followed the perimeter track for a short distance before turning left on the next Byway (SU 032 544), this dirt surfaced, lightly rutted Byway drops down hill between farmers fields before entering the village of Easterton near Market Lavington. We passed through the village of Easterton to start on the next Byway (SU 013 556), this lane runs parallel to the B3098 and has a variety of surfaces but is mainly dirt bottomed and rutted, it then becomes tarmac as it enters the edge of the village of Urchfont,  where we joined the B3098 and followed it in an Easterly Direction to a small crossroads at SU 053 572 where we turned right onto a minor road leading back up to a car park on the edge of the ranges, at the car park we turned left onto the perimeter track which is again a Byway along this section and followed the track to a point where the Byway splits off left from the perimeter track, shortly after this the first group who had the more modified vehicles turned left to do a particularly difficult Byway that headed North towards the village of Wilsford, this lane is very steep in places with several Axle Twisters in it making it almost impossible for a standard vehicle, it joins up with the A342 at which point the first group were to turn right and follow the A342 to our pub stop at The Charlton Cat pub. The second group with the mostly standard vehicles carried on along the Byway to a left turn at SU 102 543, we then followed a steep but much friendlier route down to meet the others in The Charlton Cat pub (SU 114 558), when we got there we were joined by Chris Griffin who had driven out to meet us and join in the second part of the Green Lane Event.

After a refreshing pint and a good lunch at the pub we prepared to tackle the second lot of lanes for the day.

Leaving the pub we turned East and headed towards the village of Rushall before turning North to the village of Manningford Bohune where we turned right onto the first lane of the day (SU 141 579). This Byway starts as a concrete road before becoming a hard stoney lane and finally a hard packed dirt track as it follows along the side of a long thin wood, passing through a gate at the end of the lane we found ourselves on another Byway (SU 174 555) running North Easterly, we turned left and followed this Byway to its junction with yet another Byway at SU 183 560 where we again turned left following this Byway until another Byway branched off to the right (SU 181 565) we followed this branch of the Byway crossing a minor road and following another Byway towards Milton Hill farm then skirting round the edge of Milton Hill Farm onto a short U.C.R, that joined up to a minor road at SU 200 587, following this road for a very short distance we turned Right onto the next Byway (SU 201 589), this Byway is another dirt bottomed lane, narrow in places with mild rut’s and a steep hill climb two thirds of the way along, then it joins another Byway that comes in from the left which is a wider stone bottomed lane heading South to join a minor road, we followed the minor road South for a few seconds before turning left where a Byway crosses the minor road. To use this Byway (SU 209 552) we had to open a gate so Rob started to earn his keep for the day as gate opener, we followed the gravel surfaced Byway until it split and we then took the right fork onto a dirt bottomed Byway that in 100 yards or so turn's sharp left through the next gate at SU 218 546 with yet another gate less than 2 vehicles lengths away from it. Safely through these two gates the Byway crossed a field before following a fence line along to the fourth and final gate on this lane where Rob proved his gate expertise once more. We followed the final stage of this lane out through a farmyard and onto a minor road where we turned left towards Collingborne Ducis, from there we joined the A338 and turned South towards Tidworth, following the A338 straight through Tidworth, we next turned off to the right towards Shipton Bellinger, once in Shipton Bellinger village we took a right then the second left following a minor road out the back of the village and onto a gravel U.C.R., this gravel lane soon became a Byway (SU 222 442) as we crossed the County boundary, we followed this potholed gravel lane as it ran parallel to the A303 before crossing underneath the A303 and heading off in a South Westerly direction and crossing a minor road. This next Byway (SU 207 424) was to my mind a classic example of a perfect green lane as it had a hard stone bottom but was narrow and seemed like you were in a green tunnel for most of its length, after crossing another minor road we did a short length of Byway that ended with us looking straight down the runway of Boscombe Down Aerodrome, at which point we turned right taking a minor road that led back to the A303, we joined the A303 heading West but almost immediately turned off again onto a Byway (SU 178 422) that lead to the town of Amesbury, This gravel lane took us down onto a bridge over a disused railway line before we came out in the middle of a residential area to join a minor road running through it, turning left onto this road we passed the gates of Boscombe Down Aerodrome following the road round to the right before turning onto the next Byway at the end of a short straight (SU 167 395), this gravel lane followed along side the edge of Boscombe Down Aerodrome before crossing a minor road and running parrallel to the A345 for a short distance, at the end of the lane it should have been the end of the event as it was now only a short drive back to the High Post Hotel, but instead Jeff and I had decided to investigate a couple of Fords in the nearby village's of Winterbourne Dauntsey and Winterbourne Earls, as these fords were known to be quite deep and one of them followed the course of the river for a short distance. By the time myself and the second group got to the Fords some of the first group had already been through a couple of times, but it still looked quite deep and no one in their standard vehicles wanted to risk it, so we all started to say our farewells and headed back home.

A good day was had by all.

For more pictures of this event click HERE.

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