There are people from a wide number of nations buried here, although the majority are British, there are also members from all the Countries of the Commonwealth, particularly Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. One of the min parts of the graveyard, along a path and uphill from this little shady mound, is the open area that contains most of the soldiers who died in WW1, this area is marked by a suitable memorial cross.
Once you are in you will see a grassy Knowle to your right with a group of grave stones, including a number belonging to Polish Soldiers. (Sounds like a metaphor for life eh? A Broad Path, going downhill, with the odd marker along the way?)Īt the bottom of this broad path you will come to an old gate, and some fencing along the side aimed at keeping the local deer out (although whether this is successful or not is hard to say). The path to the cemetery is broad and slopes downhill with the occasional low concrete marker post along the edge, numbered, and showing the boundaries of the Military land with the “Broad Arrow” of the Royal Ordnance on them. If you are coming back from the Chapel, then you will see a fork in the path, with the path to the cemetery to the left, and the path back to Hamble going slightly uphill to the right. If you are walking from Hamble towards the Chapel you will find a sharp right turn about halfway along your journey. The Green circle lower right (south-east) shows the start point on Hamble Lane, the red circle middle left (north-west) shows the Chapel, and the yellow circle in the centre shows where the path sharply diverges to lead to the cemetery, the yellow arrow shows the direction (roughly north-east) to take down the path (it does actually slope downwards) to reach the cemetery. So how d’you get there? Well, based on my last blog ( short walk from Hamble to Royal Victoria Country Park) the route to the cemetery is halfway along the route, as marked on the map below (courtesy of Ordinance Survey Map OL22:
īut there is actually another point of interest on this walk, and although the thought of a cemetery may not be everyone’s idea of a nice day out, I can assure you that this one is both beautiful and poignant, and lends itself well to a quiet walk, or a relaxing place to sit and chill out. In the last blog entry I described a short walk from Hamble to Royal Victoria Country Park to visit the beautiful Royal Victoria Chapel Restoration. Not just a Cemetery but a tribute to bravery and dedication for men and women from all over the world, civilians and military.
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