...This lovely walk crosses typically lush Blackmore Vale farmland with truly ancient woodland and historic tracks. One footpath is a remnant of an ancient monastic route between Sherborne, Lenthay Common, Bradford Abbas and Ryme Intrinseca. Here is the 13th-century Church of St Hippolytus, the patron saint of prison guards and officers, which shares its dedication with only one other church in England, at St Ippolyts in Hertfordshire. In both Bradford Abbas and Ryme Intrinseca there are ‘roses round the door’ cottages, and Bradford Abbas enjoys melodic changes from St Mary’s elegant church-tower’s bells...

...This superb Blackmore Vale country walk takes you through busy dairy farms and ancient woods, visiting three fascinating old churches, and crossing the River Wriggle and its tributaries on the way.

St Peter’s church at Chetnole dates back to the 13th century and nearby Chetnole House is Georgian, dating from about 1760. St Edwold’s 15th-century church at Stockwood is under 30ft long and is pure ‘Thomas Hardy‘. At Melbury Bubb the church font of St Mary’s dates from the 10th or 11th-century, and features exotic carved animals which are all upside down. The original Manor House here was rebuilt in the 17th century...