Lucky Man

LETJOG PEAK No 31: Lewesdon Hill, Dorset (279 metres)

Walk Date: Friday 30 June 2023

What a joy it is to be able to combine a family weekend away in Dorset with the latest of my LETJOG Peaks County Tops walks. Rachel and I were joined last night by our elder son Alistair, and the three of us drove down early this morning to the quiet town of Beaminster in west Dorset for breakfast, before I set off for the first half of today’s walk, up and along the ridge to Broadwindsor. Here we met up again, joined now by younger son Chris and daughter-in-law Mima for the ascent together of Lewesdon Hill and a picnic lunch in the woods. As the others returned to Broadwindsor, Alistair and I completed the walk back to my start-point in Beaminster.

A pleasant hilly walk today: starting out northwards from Beaminster, my path took an anti-clockwise route uphill and then along the ridge to Broadwindsor before our family climb up to the County Top of Lewesdon Hill and an undulating descent to Beaminster via Gerrard’s Hill

Despite the mist and the intermittent showers of light rain this proved to be a fine family ramble, ten miles in total, taking in some interesting landmarks and even an occasional view when the weather allowed. Here are some of the highlights:

The Square in Beaminster, once the focus for the manufacture of linen and woollens on which the town’s prosperity was based . . .

. . . and some sheep in the fields on the edge of town

The path out of Beaminster, along a leafy lane . . .

. . . soon climbing up onto the ridge to the north . . .

. . . for some views back down, just before the mist and rain moved in!

On Horn Hill, now following a part of the Monarch’s Way, rainswept and windswept . . .

Coming into Broadminster – eggs for sale . . .

. . . and the Church of St John the Baptist

Reunited with the full team, setting off for the climb up Lewesdon Hill

On reaching the woods there is this memorial to Belgian pilot Jean de Cloedt who crashed his Spitfire in thick fog at this spot on 15 March 1942

Unusually this peak is within a forest – these polypore or bracket fungi marking the way

On the County Top of Dorset: Lewesdon Hill at 279 metres of elevation has a prominence of 185 metres, and hence qualifies as a ‘Marilyn’: no views today though, with the peak in thick cloud

Our descent off Lewesdon Hill to the east followed the Wessex Ridgeway path along this sunken lane

Looking back at the County Top, lost in the cloud . . .

. . . and up the earthworks to Waddon Hill Roman Fort

Ahead over Chartknolle to Gerrard’s Hill

A good hill walk would not be the same without a trig point – this one on Gerrard’s Hill is at 174 metres (so over 100 metres below Lewesdon Hill)

Our path through the murk and back into Beaminster . . .

. . . to our rather wet rendezvous in the Market Square

It was great to have my family for company on the latest leg of my LETJOG Peaks challenge today, and thank you all for joining me. With the hike over, we now have a fun weekend together to look forward to from our base in Lyme Regis. This part of the country really does have it all; rolling green hills, picturesque villages, and of course the Jurassic Coastline. Now the rain has cleared and a fine few days are forecast, and from our terrace where I am writing this I can see across Lyme Bay to Charmouth and the hills of Stonebarrow, Golden Cap and Thorncombe Beacon, and right along the coast past Chesil Beach as far as Portland Bill in the far distance – a wonderful view, and a great weekend in prospect. A lucky man indeed!

Brightening up now on our arrival in Lyme Regis . . .

. . . and watching the boats on The Cobb

Today’s Blog heading ‘Lucky Man’ borrows the title of an acoustic ballad by Dorset’s Greg Lake, taken from the eponymous debut album by progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer that was released in 1970. Composed by the Poole-born-and-raised Lake when he was just twelve years old, the song has, in his own words, ‘a kind of medieval element and tone to it’. Lake’s previous but short-lived collaboration in 1969 with schoolmate and fellow guitarist Robert Fripp, as two founding fifths of the innovative prog rock band King Crimson, has been held by many as the birth of the prog rock genre that was to prevail in the 1970’s, combining rock music with elements of jazz and folk alongside classical symphonic instrumentation. Despite being played by King Crimson in rehearsals for their seminal album ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’, ‘Lucky Man’ did not make their cut; but speaking in later life about his career in music, Lake described his first composition as ‘being very lucky for me’.

Lucky Man

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