Strawberry Trail

Hampshire

The Strawberry Trail in the Hamble river valley provides a range of distance options for mostly easy riverside, coastal, country park and rural walking, visiting its attractive villages. The Trail is essentially a figure-of-eight from Botley with a first smaller loop around Manor Farm Country Park and a larger loop from Bursledon visiting Netley and Hamble-le-Rice with a section on Southampton Water (coincident with the Solent Way).

This was an important strawberry growing area and Bursledon was where horse-drawn carts would load their baskets of strawberries from the fields of the 'Strawberry Coast' to the Strawberry Special trains to London.

The Hamble riverside has a history of boat building and includes salt marsh and mudflat habitats with a variety of wildlife, as does Southampton Water. There are marinas and boating activity to add interest.

From Eastleigh, Portsmouth and Southampton there are good public transport links. Rail, bus, ferry and local summer riverbus options, along with the ferry link across the River Hamble from Hamble-le-Rice to Warash are covered in the leaflet along with pubs and tea-rooms.

The route was initially developed by Eastleigh Borough Council, with Hampshire County Council and Natural England as partners.

---

Details:

Path Type:	Other Paths
Waymark:	Strawberry logo on red markers/riverside information panels
Attributes:	Easy Coastal River
Start and Finish:	SU512128 - Botley, Hampshire
Open Date:	2005
Web Sites:	Strawberry Trail [YouTube video]

---