36: Grovely Wood

Hidden Wiltshire Podcast

In this episode of the Hidden Wiltshire Podcast we pack up the recording gear and head for the hills to record the whole podcast outside. You’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out where we were, but suffice to say it wasn’t Grovely Wood!

We begin with our usual canter through what we’ve been up to in Wiltshire since the last podcast. Since we’re now recording once a month you’d think we had loads to talk about but since Paul was in France for the entire time and Glyn has been exploring the Avebury landscape in depth there hasn’t been a huge amount of activity. But we still managed to post a couple of new walks on the website.

The first walk was described in a blog by Elaine Perkins who has rapidly become a popular and valued contributor to Hidden Wiltshire. Elaine did a shorter walk in the Vale of Wardour taking in the pretty villages of Teffont Magna and Teffont Evias. There is a link to her blog below.

Meanwhile Glyn did a seven mile walk from Calne to the Bowood Estate on which he photographed hidden corners of the estate and the wider landscape, including a length of the Wilts & Berks Canal. You will find a link to his blog below.

We also completed our first guided walk of the season for Wiltshire Museum, undertaking a shortened version of the walk around the Fonthill Estate that we posted on 9 April 2021. If you’d like to join us on future walks you’ll find a list on Wiltshire Museum’s website using the link below. Wiltshire Museum has also just launched a new exhibition entitled Hardy’s Wessex and again you’ll find details on their website. The exhibition is spread across four museums – Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, The Salisbury Museum, Poole Museum and Dorset Museum in Dorchester. It runs from 28 May to 30 October 2022.

The main subject of this episode of the Hidden Wiltshire podcast was the walk that Paul and his regular walking buddy Stu did to Grovely Wood. We mentioned it in the last episode but we have a longer discussion about it today. But not before we talk about the location for our recording which prompted a wide ranging discussion about the landscape in this part of Wiltshire and of course its prehistoric past! Francis Pryor’s fantastic book Scenes From Prehistoric Life has been a great source of information for both of us and we discuss the book in this episode of the podcast, hence the link to it below.

Then on to the wrap up:

Steve Dixon’s piece leading into our main subject today is called “Eyes Looking East”. We used this because of Grovely Wood’s role in the Second World War, as you’ll hear in the podcast. As ever the piece in the introduction and at the end of the podcast is entitled “The Holloway”.

Don’t forget to check out the Hidden Wiltshire online shop on the website if you’d like to help us keep the lights on. The first edition of the Hidden Wiltshire book has now sold out but the second edition is still available at a specially discounted price from the website. The book is also available at Devizes Bookshop, Wiltshire Museum in Devizes and now Wiltshire’s libraries. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Hidden Wiltshire Newsletter from the website. You can also subscribe to alerts about new Blogs.

Links:

Glyn’s blog about his walk through the Bowood estate can be found here Bowood - a circular walk from Calne

You can read Elaine Perkins’ blog about her walk around the villages of Teffont Magna and Teffont Evias here A Short Walk in the Vale of Wardour

You can find a list of the guided walks we lead in conjunction with Wiltshire Museum here Wiltshire Museum Hidden Wiltshire Walks

You can read Paul’s blog about Langford Lakes and Grovely Wood here Grovely Wood and the Woodsman

Francis Pryor’s wonderful book Scenes From Prehistoric Life can be found here as well as many other good book sellers Scenes From Prehistoric Life

Glyn’s photographs can be seen on his Instagram feed @coy_cloud

He is also very active on Twitter where his username is @Glyndle

Paul’s photography can be found on his website at Paul Timlett Photography and on Instagram at @tragicyclist

Steve Dixon’s sound art can be found on Soundcloud where his username is River and Rail Steve Dixon River and Rail. His photographs can be found on Instagram at @stevedixon_creative and his graphic design business website is at Steve Dixon Creative

And finally you’ll find the Hidden Wiltshire online shop here Hidden Wiltshire Shop

and a link to Glyn’s blog about the latest book and how to purchase a copy here Hidden Wiltshire from near and far