Things to do in Kingsclere

Watership Down and the Wayfarer's Walk

From the car park and picnic area at White Hill on the Overton road, the signposted Wayfarer's Walk runs along the top of the downs that Richard Adams put his rabbits on. The county path goes seventy miles from Inkpen Beacon to Emsworth, and the Kingsclere to Dummer section is twelve of them.

St Mary's, open every day

Norman in origin on the site of a Saxon minster, and open to visitors most days from 9.30 to 3.30. Look up at the weathervane, which is a bedbug, after the legend that King John spent a bad night here.

The end of the Brenda Parker Way

The seventy eight mile path across north Hampshire finishes in Kingsclere by the church. The last section comes ten miles from Tadley through the Ashford Hill nature reserve.

Cottington's Hill

A track climbs the eastern end of the hill on the Hannington side of the village, under the transmitter, and from the water tank at the top you can carry on to Hannington itself.

Kingsclere Village Club

Community cafe on the last Saturday of the month, 10am to 12.30

A Grade II listed building on George Street run entirely by volunteers, with rooms to hire, classes and clubs most days, and the community library, the parish office and a Citizens Advice desk inside. A cafe on the last Saturday of the month, and a Christmas market in early December.

Kingsclere Community Library

The volunteer run library inside the Village Club, with about forty volunteers behind it and the odd book sale and show put on with the club.

The Fieldgate Centre

The community centre on the edge of the village, run by volunteers rather than the council, and home to the rugby, football and cricket clubs. A floodlit rugby pitch and games court, a cricket pitch with nets, a hall with a stage and a bar, and weekly Pilates, badminton, Clubbercise, Ceroc and a youth club.

The George and Horn

A seventeenth century pub on the corner of George Street and the Basingstoke road.

Saturday coffee at St Mary's

Saturdays, 10am to 12

Coffee and homemade cakes in the church, open to everyone. There are coffee mornings on Tuesdays at Fielden Court and Thursdays at the Methodist church hall too.

Kingsclere Repair Cafe

Once a month at the Fieldgate Centre

Bring a broken toaster, a torn jacket or a wobbly chair and volunteers will have a go at mending it, free of charge.

Kingsclere Local History Association

Monthly talks, September to March, Thursdays at 7.30pm at the Village Club

Talks through the winter, the village archive with archivists on hand most Monday afternoons, and a newsletter called The Bedbug Recorder.

Kingsclere Singers

Mondays, 7.30 to 9.15pm, at the Fieldgate Centre

A choir singing music from the fifteenth century to the twenty first, with a four week trial and no audition.

Kingsclere Gardening Association

Second Thursday of the month, October to March, at the Village Club

Talks through the winter, outings and plant sales, and shows in April, July and August.

Kingsclere and Headley Woodlands WI

Second Wednesday of the month, 1.30 to 3.30pm, at the Village Club

Speakers, discussions and socials, all year round.

Bell ringing at St Mary's

Mondays, 7.30 to 9pm

Eight bells, the tenor cast in 1664, and new ringers welcome.

Kingsclere Parish Paths Group

Usually the last Sunday of the month, 9.45am, from the Village Club

Volunteers who keep the parish footpaths open, clearing them back and rebuilding stiles and gates with the county council.

And the rest

A photography club on the first Wednesday at the Village Club, Kingsclere Players for anyone who fancies being on stage or behind it, a toddler group on Tuesday mornings, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts at the hut on Strokins Road, a twinning association with Cormicy in France, and tennis, cricket and bowls clubs on the Holding Field. The parish council keeps the list.