In this episode of my series “ New Forest Walks”, I take a 6 mile linear walk along the course of the Dockens Water – a stream that flows East to West from Fritham to the River Avon in Hampshire. Once again I am accompanied by my Whippet, Logan.

I start my journey at the source of the Dockens Water, just North of the village of Fritham in the New Forest. The stream soon goes through private land in Fritham & so I rejoin it at the Southern end of the village as it passes by the South Bentley Inclosure.

The next section is fairly straight forward as it is easy to follow the stream as it passes by Anses Wood, Holly Hatch Inclosure & Broomy Inclosure.

At Woodford Bottom I have to make a short detour away from the stream to bypass private land and rejoin it again at the foot of Great Bottom.

However, the course of the stream then passes through Linwood Bog …. which is impossible to walk through! So I take another detour (passing by The Red Shoot Inn) and follow the road to Moyles Court. I was able to follow a footpath back to the Dockens Water before Moyles Court but I soon had to return to the road as once again I came across bog.

After a quick stop at the sandpit at Rockford (for Logan to have a run), I picked up the Dockens Water one more time at Moyles Court and followed it out of the New Forest National Park to the edge of the Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve.

Whilst the Dockens Water continues on, through the lakes, under the Ringwood to Fordingbridge road and on to the water meadows beyond Blashford Farm and finally into the River Avon – much of that remaining course is on private land.

So I finished my journey (to follow the course of the stream) at the Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve and headed back to Rockford to my final destination – The Alice Lisle pub.

I would not recommend trying to follow the entire course of the Dockens Water due to A) sections of bog & B) sections of private land. However, I certainly would recommend a circular walk from the Royal Oak pub at Fritham to the High Corner Inn (just beyond Woodford Bottom) and back (making a roughly 6 mile walk).


Map courtesy of Google Maps.

Music by Original Spruce (Copyright owner). Permission for me to use this track has been given to me by the copyright owner. 2022. Tracks (in order of appearance in the video): 1) Pembrokeshire, 2) Eko Eko, 3) Marching The Moors, 4) Open The g, 5) No Time For Lillies, 6) Nicely Stone, 7) Pembrokeshire, 8) Martin Down & 9) Marching The Moors . (To download these tracks & other music by Original Spruce go to: https://spruce1.bandcamp.com NB; The track for the “Zoomies” was not by Original Spruce.

For further videos in the series, please go to:    / @daveford   or my website at https://daveford5966.wixsite.com/website

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I use a GOPRO HERO 7, 8 or 10 Black Action Camera (sometimes with a Gimbal) & a Rode microphone (either a “Shotgun” or a Rode Wireless Go) together with a Canon Powershot SX530 HS.