Welcome to our new walk leader guide page. At the heart of the group is our social walks programme. One of the group's primary goals is to encourage its members to lead walks. We’re always looking for new members and new leaders for our walks and want new members/leaders to enjoy their experience. This page is primarily for those thinking of leading walks for the first time, but may be of some help for all leaders, old and new. It is recognised that anyone new to leading walks may not have the confidence and resources to accomplish this task. We want such members to feel they can draw on the experience of long-serving members of the group who are willing to provide the necessary time, and resources built up over many years of long distance walking.

Walks Library

The group has a library of historic walks in various formats that the leader may wish to take advantage of. These range from outline written details, to detailed printed route versions, and electronic versions for hand-held devices. Contacts for this are given below.

In addition to these historic walks, there is a list of pre-planned longer walks in the region of 16-20 miles that may serve as a good starter. These are figure-of-eight walks that centre on the start point, providing a morning section of 10-12 miles and an optional 6-8 mile afternoon section. The current list showing the starting points is as follows:

Buriton, south of Petersfield.

Cheriton, east of Winchester.

Droxford, east of Bishops Waltham.

Dummer, south of Basingstoke.

East Meon, west of Petersfield.

Farley Mount, west of Winchester.

Four Marks, west of Alton.

Horsebridge, north of Romsey.

Hurstbourne Tarrant, north of Andover.

Leckford south of Andover.

Micheldever, north of Winchester.

Overton west of Basingstoke.

Preston Candover, between Winchester and Basingstoke.

Selborne, south of Alton.

West Meon, between Winchester and Petersfield.

Whitchurch, between Andover and Basingstoke.

Winchester (central to city).

Paper Maps

Should the leader wish to use a paper map, these can be made available freely from a number of sources. Contacts are given below.

Help with Planning a Walk

It is expected that people new to leading walks may find the practicalities somewhat stressful, more especially if they are unfamiliar with our walks catchment area. To ease those concerns, there are a number of long-standing experienced members available to assist and guide with the various tasks, particularly walking out the route ahead of the event. We therefore encourage new members wishing to lead a walk for the first time to take advantage of these resources.

Please contact the following for advice or information on any of the above topics:

Tim Johnson admin@eastleighmassagetherapy.co.uk  - Walks secretary.

Andy Fry amfry4864@yahoo.co.uk  - Secretary

Nigel Pickett   stileguru@outlook.com  - Chairman.