Volunteering
Parish Open Spaces
We are very fortunate to have many community outdoor spaces in our Parish. There is Castle Hill Country Park, the Longhedge Open Space, the Norman Drive Open Space at Old Sarum, and the Cockey Downs at Laverstock, as well as the Laverstock Water Meadows and Whitebridge Spinney.
As well as over 35 Play Parks including three multi-use games areas we also have several featured Local Trails:
We have lots of lovely walks across trails and footpaths in the parish, many of which are featured in our parish newsletter. For a short distance the Monarchs Way marks the border between our parish and the Winterbournes. Avid walkers might consider joining the Ramblers Association for local walks with like-minded people.
Here are links to a few favourites:
The River Bourne Community Farm Trails
The Devenish Bradshaw Trust: from Country to Country Dog friendly trails
Kingdom of Sticks (Rebecca Twig) Salisbury Bee Trail
The Sarum Way (part of which encompasses Old Sarum and Longhedge)
OUR OUTDOOR HIGHLIGHTS
Bishopdown Farm: Hampton Park, River Down Park/The Hamptons
Wrapping around Bishopdown Farm and buffering the estate from the Village of Ford is the Castle Hill Country Park managed on our behalf by the Land Trust. The Land Trust took over responsibility for Castle Hill Country Park in December 2020 and manages the site in partnership with Wessex Grounds Services who undertake the day-to-day site management and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust who are responsible for developing community engagement. Castle Hill Country Park Volunteers meet on the 2nd Saturday of the month. More information can be found by following the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust volunteering opportunities here – volunteering opportunities. Green Angels also regularly run Conservation and Land Management courses at Castle Hill. Features include a dog agility park, trim trail, miz-maze, replica iron-age hill fort, mountain bike area, dog walks, WW1 memorial overlooking the historic Old Sarum Airfield and nesting areas for the Skylark a protected species.
Also in the heart of Bishopdown Farm estate is the Green at Sycamore Drive ///stewing.prank.corporate an open grassed green with a large play park and the Hampton Park Pavilion.
Laverstock & Milford
Dominating the landscape behind the village of Laverstock are the Cockey Downs, areas of which are managed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and you can walk along the downs to Duck Lane past the area where once a thriving medieval pottery industry was sited, to join Queen Manor Road and the Clarendon Way, taking you to Pitton and Farley or back towards Milford.
In the valley between the Downs and Castle Hill Country Park, winds the river Bourne and the water meadows, accessed from the footpath beside the Laverstock & Ford Sports Club, off London Road or from Cow Lane. The Water Meadows are managed by the Devenish Bradshaw Charitable Trust who regularly see volunteering projects for all ages and are constantly managed in partnership with PlantLife and the Wessex River Trust to protect rare plants, encourage biodiversity and to alleviate flooding which is largely from the groundwater pouring off the hill above London Road. Plans are afoot for a sensory trail providing access for all to the waters edge and there is a dog agility area. The area is a popular walk which leads past the River Bourne Community Farm and Café on Cow Lane at ///monks.bounty.hero, to Whitebridge Spinney at ///matter.simple.digit and Milford.
Ford, Old Sarum & Longhedge
A village of two halves abutting one side of the Country Park and split by the ancient Green Lane that leads from the Bishopdown Farm estate below Riverdown Park and through Ford alongside Old Sarum Airfield to join (not seamlessly) the Monarchs Way as it passes through Old Sarum and the Norman Drive open space (with play park and grassy open space which is ideal for picnics). The older settlement of Ford contains a beautifully restored Mill and a footpath to Hurdcott (and then back on the other side of the Bourne to Ford again) which passes through an ancient arch of Damson hedgerow. Just along from the Old Sarum & Longhedge Community Centre on Pheasant Drive is the old RAF sports field, an open space with a football pitch, play park and trim trail at ///shifters. mailing.cubic. At ///transfers.crispy.trespass, you will find a skate park and you can walk from here along the swale that separates Old Sarum from Longhedge to the Virginia Way play park and on to the Norman Drive open space (underneath which lie evidence of Iron Age settlement), or cross over to the Longhedge open space with its Outdoor Gym and join the Monarchs Way. Longhedge is full of play parks (some very small) and hosts the Greenfingers Community Garden at Liddell Gardens. Longhedge like Old Sarum boasts ancient roots with evidence from digs held by Wessex Archaeology prior to development revealing the site of a a possible, civil war Military Encampment, crossed by two WW2 trenches, as one of the seven camps built by RAF Old Sarum to house operations in preparation for D Day in June, 1944 was sited here also.