Cycling

Situated on the route of the Pilgrims' Way linking Winchester with Canterbury, the town contains several interesting buildings dating back to the Middle Ages.

A parish church (St Lawrence) still shows signs, in the form of bullet holes, of a Civil War siege which ended with the massacre of 80 royalists who sought refuge there.

Alton also has a helpful cycle shop offering service as well as sales.

Like several other medium-sized towns throughout the country, Alton is surrounded by countryside no more than a mile away in all directions, which explains the presence of an enthusiastic group of CTC members who meet twice weekly for easy-going rides.

These riders gather by the water trough on Butts Green at the south-western end of the town on Sunday mornings, and one of their ways out is along the old main road towards Alresford and Winchester . Once beyond the railway bridge spanning this road in the south-east corner of the green, this becomes a cul-de-sac for vehicles, but a subway beneath the bypass enables cyclists and pedestrians to follow the old route, though a shallow flight of steps means that we are obliged to walk.

This inconvenience is worth it, for the delightful village of Chawton, with its strong associations with Jane Austen, lies just beyond. The author's old home, a detached house with an attractive garden overlooking a sweeping right-hand bend, attracts visitors from around the world.

Another cul-de-sac lies ahead, leading to the imposing village church, rebuilt in 1871, which stands alone in parkland a quarter-of-a-mile away. The road leading to it was the A32 until this was realigned to meet the western end of Alton bypass, and the cyclist can join it by following a short track through a hedgerow.

Once on the A32 we head south-wards for about three miles, passing through Farringdon to a crossroads at the north-east corner of Rotherfield Park. A left turn, sign-posted for Newton Valence, takes us into a quiet lane which gains height gently until Newton Valence is reached, and loses height more abruptly to another cross-roads where we turn left again, for a steeper, tree-lined descent to the B3006 at Selborne.

We are now about halfway round our 15-mile circuit, and have reached a village offering several attractions, making it an ideal spot to stop for a while.

Selborne was home 200 years ago to Gilbert White, now regarded as the world's first environmentalist, whose book, The Natural History of Selborne, has become a classic on the English countryside.

Much of his writings were inspired by walks on Selborne Hanger, a deeply-wooded hillside towering above the village and offering inspirational views from its summit. On a fine day it is certainly worth parking the cycle and taking a half-hour walk through the trees before visiting The Wakes. This 16th centu-ry house in the middle of the village was the author's home for most of his life, and it also contains the Oates Museum, commemorating the glorious but ill-fated Polar expeditions to the Antarctic nearly 100 years ago.

Until it fell a victim to the hurricane in October 1987, a 1,000-year-old yew tree just inside the entrance of Selborne churchyard at the northern end of the village was an added attraction to see.

Alton is now little more than three miles away, but a slightly longer and more satisfying way back to our starting point takes us away from this main road, by turning right at cross-roads in open countryside about half-a-mile past Hartley Park Farm, to West Worldham.

This is a slight misnomer, for it lies more south than west of its larger neighbouring village of East Worldham, on the B3004.

This is a road which provides us with an exhilarating downhill swoop back to Alton, passing under the bypass and then the railway line by the station.

A left turn at crossroads at the top of a short rise between these two under-bridges offers an alternative way back to our starting point, past a tree-lined pond.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.