Yachting Monthly – March 2018

X

M27

Motorway

bridge

Catland

Copse

Dock

Copse

Beach

Pontoon

Historic

Wreck

buoy

Manor Farm

pontoon

Eastland’s

Boatyard

Burridge

Recreation

Ground

YMCA

Boathouse

Horse and

Jockey Inn

YMCA

Fairthorne Manor

Landing

place

End of

navigable river

Mill

Botley Parish

Quay

Botley Ro

ad

Botley Ro

ad

M27

A334

A334

M27

Botley

Curbridge

Bursledon

River

Hamble

Curbridge

Creek or

Cur River

N

River Hamble

Southampton

Portsmouth

ISLE OF

WIGHT

The^

Solent

1000m

As you approach Botley village, on the left will
be seen a slipway at Botley Parish Quay. This
was one of the places in use up to 1914, where
goods were unloaded, such as grain, coal and
building materials, which were poled up the
river by barge on the tide. Timber and flour,
ground at the mill, then went downstream.
Access to the slipway by car needs the assistance
of the Clerk to the Botley Parish council to
pass the locked gate by the Bark Store building.
Above the quay, with more riverside home
construction taking place that seems to
have assimilated the ancient wharf, the river
becomes dark with overhead foliage. A boat
with any form of superstructure may find
the passage tricky from here. Disembarkation
is not easy until right up at the bridge over
the A334 where there is a landing point for
the agile. A horizontal pipe has to be stepped
over before a short, steep, narrow track leading
up to the busy road near to the centre of the
village. There was originally a basin above
the bridge, used as another berthing place
for barges but it has long been converted into
a parking space for vehicles. If the first bridge

is left to port, the navigable river

continues under another bridge

a little further around Botley

Mill, reaching an end where the

mill head pond flows out from

above the sluice gate, known

locally as a ‘hatch’. There is a landing

place here which used to serve the

mill but is now part of the Millstream

House grounds.

Going back the mile down to the

alternative river arm, Curbridge Creek,

or Cur River as some call it, you follow the

channel through attractive woodland with

a good chance of seeing herons, egrets and

kingfishers in close proximity. The navigable

limit to this beautiful waterway, about half

a mile up, is under the bridge a little beyond

the Horse and Jockey Inn. A boat can be tied

up to the landing stage at the inn rather than

parked on the gravelly little slipway and will

enable the crew to enjoy good food and ale,

always assuming the height of the tide will

remain enough to allow passage home. Sadly,

a creature from the cetacean family, a 3.3m

Risso’s dolphin, as it is now thought to have

been, became stranded in the creek on August

5, 1932 and never made it back to the sea.

There is a pleasant undulating public pathway

along the riverbank from the inn which leads

to the Burridge Recreation Ground, accessible

from Botley Road. On the way downriver, it is

necessary to leave the pontoon-moored motor

yachts to port on approaching the motorway

bridge, as leaving them to starboard ultimately

entails doubling back.

THE SCENERY IS PROBABLY MUCH

AS IT WAS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

After the M27, the River

Hamble winds through

peaceful countryside