Circular walking guide from Romsey

Leave Romsey station and walk downhill to cross Malmesbury Road and continue down Station Road, leading to Latimer Street. At the end, turn right and walk up Market Place. Pass the Town Hall on your left, and keeping Palmerston's statue on your right go under the archway, of Romsey Abbey (visit this on the return leg). Keep straight on to the Meads, leading to Memorial Park on your left and then a narrow lane ahead with fields on your right and cross a mill-race, Saddler's Mill. After the bridge follow the Test Way sign pointing right, and then turn hard right again, through one gate and then on to a second gate. 

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Ahead of you is Romsey Meadows and to your right is Romsey Abbey. Walk along the right-hand field edge, crossing stiles. Head diagonally for a stile at the left-hand edge of Squabb Wood, nearly half a mile away. The path through the woods is clearly marked. Leave Squabb Wood by a wooden kissing gate and go left, slightly uphill along a defined track.

Continue along the path until it meets a tarmac lane and cross. Follow the green and white disc markers, until you reach a stile signed with directions on how to cross the next field. Keep straight on, passing Blue Haze house on your left. You will emerge on a quiet road. Go left and pick up the Test Way sign almost immediately on your right. Follow it behind the houses to emerge on a quiet tarmac lane and go right, passing Lakeside house. Follow signs left over fields and then head through woods to exit at a T-junction after about half a mile. Go right on the B3084, passing the gates to Awbridge House on your right. Reach the entrance to Dummer Farm, about a quarter of a mile on your left. Follow the Test Way sign into the woods on your right. When you emerge, turn right, then turn left, following signs before a level crossing.

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Continue until you come to a finger-post junction. Follow the Test Way right, arriving at a railway bridge. The path continues down through woods, leading to the banks of the River Test. Follow the well-defined path across the meadows to reach St Andrew's Church. According to the guide, there are bees in the east wall and bats in the belfry.

You will see thatched cottages to your left and the church on the right. Turn right at the road junction (ignoring Test Way sign to left) to reach the entrance of Mottisfont Abbey in about 250m. Formerly an Augustinian friary, Mottisfont was dissolved by Cromwell in 1536 and converted into a private house. It is famous for the summer display of roses in the box-edged walled garden laid out by Graham Stuart Thomas and is at its best in June. The return to Romsey retraces the Test Way. Before leaving Romsey, visit the Abbey, founded in 907. The Abbey was parish church since 1544; before the dissolution it was home to a Benedictine community. Inside there are Saxon crosses and 12th-century wall paintings. Across Church Street is a medieval merchant's house from the 13th century - the King John's House museum and tourist information. 

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