I'm planning a ride from Crawley to swanage and trying to keep it off road much as poss ,mine to southdowns way is straight forward ,South Downs to Winchester easy enough but can't find a decent route from Winchester to new forest with out lots of road ,

Anyone live down that way or anyone ridden similar route got any tips .

There's lots of footpaths

I worked on a similar (ish) route last summer. Didn't quite come off as I managed to pick the monsoon week late august and eventually yielded defeat when I got to Portsmouth unable to stop shivering. I came from caterham but hit the south downs at harting downs, went over and down into Portsmouth.

Was planning on getting the ferry to the iow, riding across and then crossing back to the new forest. You still have to do some road but it's along the beach so quite.

I think I may still have the gpx files if you're interested?

Oh, and this is probably a question for the 'routes' bit

New Forest is a big old place - want to narrow it down and I'll see if I can help out with at least part of the route

Well we just want to get to Swanage so most interesting route from Winchester through new forest ,cheers mate

Not massively interesting but if you leave the South Downs Way at Exton the old Meon Valley railway will take you to Wickham. Keep going South through Knowle to Titchfield then south you can pick up national route 2 at Hill Head, then take the ferry at Warsash, head through Southampton and get the Hythe ferry. Hythe to Beaulieu puts you right in the New Forest :)

Not very off-road past Titchfield but probably the best way if you wanted to hit the coast too.

I said 'not interesting' but only because the railway is hidden in trees the whole way unless you come off to visit the towns. Easy miles though.

vaguely exciting cheers for that

richvs wrote:Not massively interesting but if you leave the South Downs Way at Exton the old Meon Valley railway will take you to Wickham. Keep going South through Knowle to Titchfield then south you can pick up national route 2 at Hill Head, then take the ferry at Warsash, head through Southampton and get the Hythe ferry. Hythe to Beaulieu puts you right in the New Forest :)

Not very off-road past Titchfield but probably the best way if you wanted to hit the coast too.

I said 'not interesting' but only because the railway is hidden in trees the whole way unless you come off to visit the towns. Easy miles though.

I'm interested in this as I could use it in the other direction to get onto the Southdowns from the Isle of Wight. Looking on the OS Map just north of Knowle (SU 5563 1007) the bridleway on the old railway line just seems to stop when it reaches the line still in use. The bridleway then starts again south of Knowle when the old line would of come off the existing? I've looked on the google earth imagery but cant seem to spot a way through due to the trees. Have you ridden this section? Is there a way from the end of the bridleway north of Knowle through to where is starts again south of the village?

Sean

I seem to have found the answer to my own question after further research. Wikipedia says that

"The route from West Meon to Wickham is 14.5 km (9 mi); the further 3 kilometre section south-west of Wickham is a dead end."

So I'll have to use the back lanes/roads on the way up to get from south of Knowles to where there is access onto the bridleway at Wickham.

Sean

vaguely exciting I'm liking that route ,goner get the wrt out the way first and if I don't die I'll start planning this ride with more detail,thanks for help

That's right. You can get from Fareham via Highlands Road (Hill Park cutting on OS map) or Titchfield bridleway to Knowle, then as the old line hits the active one you use the perimeter road to get to Mayles Lane. As you get to Wickham cross the main road and you're back on the disused line heading north.

If you don't know it, Knowle is an old asylum that's been converted to residential.

I found out the bit south of Wickham was a dead end while riding my kh36 unicycle back the other way; I had to reverse the route. It was summer and the little used path was choked with stingers. I was wearing shorts. My legs felt like television static for days.

if you are heading south down the rsilway line then after wickham it passes through wickham golf course and there is a path on the right through a vinyard which brings you out on titchfield lane then left down funtley rd and back on the railwayline take a right just after going under the M27, go straight on behind the houses padt a school tgeres a hood little down hill track and you end up in titchfield go through the village and turn right onto coach hill just before the end turn left onto the gravel track and this takes you to the solent and NCR 2. we always stay on the coast and up the river hamble or pink ferry across
if you are down this way let us know we are in Netley