Dear All,

I have at last sorted out a collection of towers and an itinerary for this year’s District Outing, to the New Forest. Please find attached posters for the outing in MS-Word and PDF formats.

Local New Forest Ringers are welcome to join in!

Where we are going: I have chosen Sopley – with apologies to the Lockerley/E. Tytherley band who I know will be ringing there in two weeks’ time – because it has the Woolpack Inn a mere 200 yards away, and it looks like a good place for lunch ……

http://woolpackinnsopley.co.uk/

Trip Advisor gives it seven 5-blob reviews and four 4-blob reviews in the past four weeks, and it’s a Lucky Dip entry in the Good Pub Guide:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g2019505-d1528073-Reviews-The_Woolpack-Sopley_Hampshire_England.html

I’ve also included Lyndhurst, to sharp intakes of breath from one or two people I’ve spoken to, on account of busy-ness on a Saturday morning. But I think Lyndhurst is thereby unjustly neglected, and I have allowed 40 minutes from Eling to Lyndhurst, which should allow time enough for fuming in traffic jams and walking up from the New Forest Visitor Centre Car Park, which is the closest sensible place to stop but still a few minutes’ walk from the church. If we get there crazily early, I’ve asked Mary Sterry if the letter-in doesn’t mind getting there a bit early in case we do, too. Also, the church is a showcase for Arts and Crafts/Pre-Raphaelite decoration, so well worth looking round anyway. It’s in Simon Jenkins’s book about the 1000 best churches to visit.

Once we’ve finished at Ringwood I have allowed an hour for people to get some tea. Ringwood has a branch of the Boston Tea Party, which started out in Honiton, and has spread out in the West Country since then, with branches to my certain knowledge in Salisbury and Ringwood. There is also, in the High Street, Jacqueline’s Tea Rooms. Like the BTP, and unlike a lot of tea rooms, it stays open late, or late enough for our purposes. The cream teas garner plaudits, but be warned, they have a bizarre restriction on people sharing food, so DO NOT order one pot of tea for one and one cream tea, thinking you can share the scone, otherwise Modom Proprietor will be down on you like a ton of bricks. See Tripadvisor for further gruesome details.

Where we are not going: Hordle, which we visited two years ago when Andrew Glover organised the District Outing to this area, and where Lock/Tyth are calling in. Also Christchurch Priory: I’d have loved to have a heavy twelve as our grand finale, but there’s a lot happening on October 21st, including a concert in the evening, so there’ll be rehearsals, an evensong, etc., etc. Maybe some time in the future, if we ever venture to, for example, the Isle of Purbeck, or Bournemouth/East Dorset.

For the itinerary, food ordering arrangements etc. watch this space!

Best wishes meanwhile

Bruce

District Secretary

Woolpack Inn menu 2017