hw – the sights of hythe this is the fourth suggested walk ... · around 1994, there were several...

HW – The Sights of Hythe

This is the fourth suggested walk that you can get to without going too far from your home under lockdown rules, assuming you live near the route or somewhere close. It's circular, so you can join it at any convenient place, you do nothave to start where the instructions start. I have added numbers on the map which relate to the bold numbers in the description so its easier navigating. I have taken some pictures of some points of interest and I hope they also help with your navigating. For those that use Viewranger the walk and its instructions can be found by searching for NFWfH0078or HW – The Sights of Hythe. The walk is about 2.4 miles long.

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The walk starts at the Pier entrance walking towards The Marina passing Prospect Place. This is West Street.The house on the right is the former home of Sir Christopher Cockerell

Sir Christopher Cockerell, British engineer who invented the Hovercraft; he began testing his ideas for a vehicle that moved atop a cushion of air in 1955; his first Hovercraft prototype, the SR.N1, was launched in the spring of 1959 and only weeks later crossed the English Channel in 20 minutes. A prolific inventor, he held some 70 patents, including one for an aerial direction finder widely used by pilots during World War II; he was appointed C.B.E. in 1966 and knighted in 1969 (b. June 4, 1910, Cambridge, Eng.—d. June 1, 1999, Hythe, Eng.).

Pass the house and proceed to the Marina entrance (2), the original plan was to walk around the Marina, but it is currently closed to non-residents.

Continue along West Street until it starts to turn left and slightly uphill. Take the footpath ahead with the river/ditch on your right

Follow this footpath for 330yards to meet a footpath crossway (3). At the crossway turn left and follow for afurther 170yards to emerge at West Cliff Lodge. This was the gate house for West Cliff Hall

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West Cliff Hall

A house was built for Colonel Vere Hobart in 1844. When the house was first built, the boundary of the lands was the seawall just before the shoreline and aquay would have been visible from the gardens forming a vista lagoon.The Hall was used as a military hospital 1914-18.

The house was converted to the Westcliff Hall Hotel and in 1934 a north east wing was added. At that time there were 26 acres of woodlands and lawns running down to Southampton Water

In the 1950s, the mud flats were filled in. A path follows the old shoreline with the sea wall now on the landward side. Later the hotel was sold to the Association of British Ports (ABP). ABP wanted to convert it to a Visitor Information Centre but the site was sensitive in the light of Dibden Bay development proposals at that time.

Around 1994, there were several fires and the house became derelict

The ABP proposals for Dibden Bay were rejected at the Public Enquiry in 2004 and Westcliff House was sold for development. West Cliff Hall was sold again toBalcombe Care Homes in 2009, it is now redeveloped and extended into a 30,000 sq ft care home with 56 luxury bedrooms.

Turn left along West Street, cross road and enter EwartRecreation ground, take the right hand path and as it goes off into the houses veer slightly left with the hedge close on your right.

Follow the hedge around to the left (4), it can get a little soft underfoot along the top of the field. Leave Ewart via the gate onto Jones Lane. Turn left and then right into Brinton Lane.

At the end of the lane, continue in same direction through the car park towards the Salvation Army bin. Turn right into Pylewell Road.

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Follow Pylewell Road turning left into the traffic free area. At the end turn right and follow New Road for about 150yards, til just before the fire station

Pass between the Fire station and the houses into Courthouse Close. Go through the bollards at the end of the road and walk passed the South Street Centre to South Street. Turn right go under the railway bridgeand take the path immediately on your left (5)

Follow until you come to a road (Park Close), turn left passing garages with green doors. Soon the path ceases to be tarmac and becomes a dirt track through the trees with the railway embankment on your left. When you come to a path crossing turn left under the railway bridge.

At Shore Road (6) turn left and walk along passing Meerkat Boats in the old boatyard buildings. Just after the old entrance buildings of the boatyard, turn right through the metal railings.

Follow this track through the various sets of bollards all the way to Southampton Water. Admire the view.Turn left and walk along with the water on the right until you can go no further. Turn left and soon after turn right to reach the coast again.

Turn left and walk with sea wall on your right. Until you reach a road. Leave the coast and follow road ahead to a road.

Take the left broader branch of Emerald Crescent. At the end turn right and enter Scott-Paine Drive (7)

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Hubert Paine (later Scott-Paine) was born in Shoreham-by-Sea, England, on 11March 1891.In 1916 Scott-Paine owned the Supermarine Aviation Company Limited, building flying boats for the British Admiralty. Reginald Mitchell (of Spitfire fame) was employed at this time and the company greatly expanded. In 1923 he sold Supermarine (for £192,000). In 1924 Imperial Airways was formed by the merger of Scott-Paine's British Marine Air Navigation Co Ltd and three other airlines. He was a director of Imperial Airways until 1939.In 1927 he bought the Hythe Shipyard, renaming it the British Power Boat Company. Many sophisticated award-winning racing boats were produced, an example being Miss England which is now on display at the Science Museum (London). The Hythe yard employed 2000 workersIn the 1930s the British Power Boat Company supplied seaplane tenders and armoured target boats to the Air Ministry, and tenders for Imperial Airways flying boats. T E Shaw (Lawrence of Arabia) assisted in the testing of these boats.Scott-Paine and George Selman designed and built seagoing MTB with three marinised Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. The boat was launched in 1938, but although no orders came from the Admiralty, orders were received from friendly governments.Scott-Paine lived the post war years in USA and died at Greenwich, Connecticut, on 14 April 1954, aged 63.

At the end of Scott-Paine Drive turn right along Shore Road. Just before the end of the road on the right is a home of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia fame), Myrtle Cottage in Shore Road (second from the end on right) which is marked by a blue plaque.

Turn right into St John’s Street and then immediately right into Sir Christopher Court. Follow the road around and take the path to the coast after the right turn. At the coast turn left into the garden of The Grove (8). There are some lovely seats here.

After admiring the view from the garden, there is a memorial stone to the hovercraft factory that used to be here. The pioneering work of Sir Christopher Cockerell and his team is commemorated. Walk along the main path in the garden to St John’s Street.

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Turn right, walk along keeping the St John’s Church onyour left and later the Waitrose store on your right.

At the end of Waitrose turn right into High Street follow that around to the left. In front of you at the end of the High Street there is an imposing building. This used to be The Drummond Arms, its now flats.

The Pier Entrance is just to the right and the end of the walk(1).

Hythe Pier stretches 700 yards (640 m) from the centre of Hythe to the deep water channel of Southampton Water. It is approximately 16 feet (4.9 m) wide,and carries a pedestrian walkway and cycleway on its northern side and the Hythe Pier Railway on its southern side. During normal high tides the pier is 4 feet (1.2 m) above the surface of the water.Construction started in 1879 and the pier opened on 1 January 1881 having cost £7,000 to construct. Originally there was a toll house at the landward end of the pier, and this was replaced by the present ticket office in the first decadeof the 20th century.In 1922 the current electrified railway was constructed on the southern side of the pier. The track is laid to 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge and is electrified at 250 V DC by a third rail on the seaward side of the track. The line consists of a single track with no passing loops, with two non-electrified sidings at the landward end. One of the sidings enters the line's covered workshop.The line is operated by two four-wheeled electric locomotives built in 1917 by Brush with works numbers 16302 & 16307 (simply renumbered as No. 1 & No. 2 today). They were originally battery powered, being used at the World War I mustard gas factory at Avonmouth. They were transferred to Hythe after the war, where they were converted to collect power from a third rail and had theirbatteries removed.

Source - Wikipedia

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hw – the sights of hythe this is the fourth suggested walk ... · around 1994, there were several...

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