Hanbury black walk
If you want to explore further than the Hanbury estate, this trail offers walkers the option of detouring slightly to the Hanbury village church.
Map
Start:
Hanbury Hall and Gardens car park
1
From the car park, follow the hard path up towards the house. Enter the forecourt and pass to the right hand side of the house. The curved path leads to the shop and toilets. Go past these facilities and continue through a kissing gate to the right of a cattle grid.
A view of the hall
Turning the corner after passing visitor reception, you see the symmetrical, red brick house built in 1701 for Thomas Vernon, a successful lawyer from London.
2
Follow the gravelly path across the parkland and look to your left to see a large cedar tree. The path leads to a kissing gate and to the left is the ice house. Follow the path downhill along the avenue of oak trees until you reach a small pond.
Black poplars and cedar
See the 300 year old cedar tree, the only plant to have survived since the original planting. Peep into the dark and cool ice house and see rare black poplars.
3
Turn your back to the pond and take the left hand fork. As you walk up the slope, on your left you will see a small monument. Feel free to leave the path to get a closer look. Returning to the path, continue straight and on your right you'll see a fenced, semicircular feature of trees and shortly after, an avenue of young limes framing a view of the house.
Monument and semicircle
See the stone monument over the graves of Pulpit, a Vernon horse and Allan, a family dog.
4
Continue along the path, which soon runs along a line of trees, up to a wide gate and a kissing gate. From here you can take an optional walk up the hill, and leaving the Hanbury Hall estate through another kissing gate, cross the road and continue up the hill to the church, which is not National Trust owned. There are good views from the church yard. Come back to the wide gate the way you came.
Hanbury park
This part of the walk gives you the option of visiting the Hanbury village church.
5
Turn a sharp right at the gates and walk down the avenue of oak trees. Continue straight, cross a small road and walk along the side of a newly-planted orchard until you pass through a kissing gate and meet Hanbury Hall's front drive. You can then turn left to return to the car park.
Church Avenue & Gosling Croft
Walking along Church Avenue, you may see faint white numbers on the trees which denoted which oaks were to be felled for timber in the 1960s.
End:
Hanbury Hall and Gardens car park
