A 1.8 mile wander around the nooks and crannies of Woodgreen. There’s lots of upping and downing but you’ll get a true flavour of the village taking in the shop, common, cricket ground and pavilion, two droves, the historic Brook Lane, a stream, wood, the pub, our churches, village hall, and our telephone box museum!
Woodgreen grew into an ‘unofficial’ village on the edge of the New Forest through encroachment. Resourceful incomers set up their dwellings, often overnight, and fenced off some land to scrape a living. Woodgreen’s network of footpaths or droves preserves the imprint of these smallholder strips: The Alley, Love Lane, Grace Lane, Trim’s Drove, and Steels Drove all connect the Avon valley with the elevated common to the south east and the forest beyond.
Directions
| Start/End | Start at Woodgreen Community Shop, leaving by the footpath at the back of the car park. |
| Grace Lane | Cross the road to Grace Lane and then continue on the gravel track to the left, up to the Common, with the houses on your right-hand side. |
| Brook Lane | Cross the road and continue to the prominent tree (New Forest Tree of the Year 2017). |
| Cricket Ground | Make a circuit of Woodgreen’s cricket ground and return to Brook Lane. |
| Love Lane | Cross the road and climb the stile in the corner by a park bench. Continue down to the High Street. |
| High Street | When you get back to the road, by the pub, turn left and continue along the narrow lane. |
| Trimm’s Drove | At the road junction, turn left and immediately climb the stile onto a narrow footpath. Continue back up to Brook Lane. |
| Brook Lane again! | Turn right and continue down the road for 100m. |
| Path to Little Drove | Turn left up a very narrow path and then right as you emerge on Little Drove. |
| The Brook | Continue down to, and cross the brook. Continue up the steep hill opposite into the trees. |
| Woodgreen Cemetery | Walk around the right side of the cemetery and out onto the road. Turn right and continue back down the High Street. |
| The High Street again! | Follow the road around the triangle crossing the grass to the bus shelter and telephone box. |
| Telephone Box | Woodgreen has adopted its telephone box and turned it into a history and information point. Cross the road opposite the pub and carry on back to the shop passing the church and village hall on the way. |
