Thelwell, Charcoal, and an estate trail. Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire

As big fans of the paintings and cartoons of Norman Thelwell, we drove (2.5 hours) to Mottisfont Abbey (NT) where there was an exhibition. The house is moderately interesting...

 ...but the exhibition was fantastic. (I know this is a walking blog, but bear with me - the walk happens in a while!) My favourites are the horsey cartoons. Below, "Come along girls, playtime is over")

 There were some landscapes too. This is Mudeford Quay.

From the book "Angels on horseback"

Escaping from the produce tent, this cartoon is called Highly Recommended

  
A close-up of the judges

This is one of my favourites, the Water Jump

A closeup - the children have discarded their riding gear for water-wings and swimming hats

"Now remember what I taught you girls. Never let him see you are afraid"

There is also a connection local to me. Mrs Sue Wright was the curly haired one of the two little girls who inspired the original cartoons. She later became District Commissioner of our local Pony Club (the Albrighton Woodland Branch) 

Anyway, to the grounds.  

I loved this avenue of chionodoxa, the blue flowers sometimes known as "the glory of the snow. "

Mottisfont is by the River Test, famous for trout fishing. Thelwell lived nearby for a while, and many of the fishing cartoons had their roots here

I couldn't resist this bridge.

And on to the walk. There is a trail round the Mottisfont Estate, starting near this old church with its unusual wooden shingled tower. 

These were the only walkers we saw once we'd left the grounds.  

Our first bluebells for this year.

The route passes woods. This is some coppiced birch 

The trees are cut almost to ground level.

The brushwood goes for horse racing and point to point jumps ,..

... while the logs are piled...

  

...ready to made into charcoal in charcoal burners like this. 

The route is well signed, which is good, because it wasn't marked on a map

Stream with celandines

More woodland

A huge log pile!

The path back to Mottisfint

Lovely knapped (cut) flint in the local houses

Another beautiful old house with its lovely brick

Today's walk: the National trust leaflet described the walk as 6 miles, but we only did half of it and that was 5.5 miles on my GPS. We had to cut the walk short because the car park closed at 5.30. However, it was an excellent walk, (woodland, farmland and riverside)  and I would recommend it to anyone in the area. . You don't have to pay National Trust entry fees to do it, but you can get a leaflet from the entrance to Mottisfont. I estimate the whole walk to be nearer 9 miles than 6

The Thelwell Exhibition finishes on April 10th. It's £15 to visit the house and exhibition.