The best family-friendly hikes and walks around Stanton St Bernard

What a lovely point of view

Amazing point of view

I only rested for a short time, behind a tree, in a little gully. The weather was bad, and didn't want to risk getting any colder. But I imagine the views on a clear summers day would be something to admire.

The church dates to at least 1267 when it was owned by Wilton Abbey, but a Norman font in the nave suggests an earlier church on the site. The west tower was added in the 15th century. By 1831 the medieval building was in poor condition so Rev GJ. Majendie had the entire building pulled down, with the exception of the tower. The rebuilt church was poorly constructed and had to be rebuilt again in 1859. By far the most eye-catching feature is a colourful wall painting in Arts and Crafts style over the chancel arch. The painting depicts Christ in Majesty, surrounded by angels. It is based on the visions of St John in the Book of Revelation. The wall painting was executed around 1900 by Maude Berry. The faces of the angels may be those of a prominent local family. One of the angels on the north side of the arch is a self-portrait of the artist. The scene was painted on linen in Berry's studio, then fixed in place with wooden battens. Maude Berry also painted a mural on the east wall above the altar, but this has not survived. On the north wall of the nave is a fascinating war memorial in the form of a triptych with hinged doors. The outer face of the doors reads 'To the memory of the brave boys of this village who gave their lives for their country'. If you open the doors you see a list of 10 names flanking a central panel with a Pre-Raphaelite figure of a woman grieving before a wall plaque. On the opposite wall is a more typical war memorial plaque with the names of 21 men of the parish who served in WWI, while by the pulpit is yet another memorial to eight men who died in WWI and another two who fell in WWII. Strangely though, No bible to be found anywhere. So I read a prayer from my journal instead.

Some really beautiful canal boats to be found along the walkway

Adam’s Grave on Walker's Hill in Alton, the most dramatically located Neolithic long barrow in Wiltshire and the site of battles in 592 and 715. The area surrounding Walker's Hill is pitted and speckled with barrows and ditches of many sizes and shapes.

The horse is 166ft high and 160ft in length. The disproportionate height is to prevent foreshortening when viewed from a distance. Over the years, elements of certain features of the horse have altered, and overall the horse is probably now slightly smaller than its original size. It requires regular periodic scouring and cleaning to prevent it being reclaimed by nature. The Alton Barnes White Horse is one of eight surviving White Horses in Wiltshire, the most recent being the horse carved on Roundway Hill, north of Devizes, to celebrate the Millennium. Robert Pile, or a namesake, was also responsible for the Pewsey White Horse carved in 1785; the original carving of this horse was lost and it was replaced by a new horse in 1938. None of the Wiltshire White Horses predates the 18th century. Most of them seem either to have celebrated an event or simply to have been the whim of a local landowner. The origin of the symbol of a white horse which has become totemic of Wiltshire is obscure. Perhaps inspiration came from the prehistoric White Horse at Uffington, Oxfordshire, which dates back to around 1,000 BC and is the only ancient White Horse in the United Kingdom, but the Uffington horse is not only much larger – 360ft in length – but its fluent elongated design is quite different from the more modern Wiltshire horses.

Milk Hill is the highest point in Wiltshire and is part of the Pewsey Downs, a rolling set of chalk grassland hills between Devizes and Pewsey which are prominent in the landscape and almost invite the passer by to park up and take a stroll along the ridge. At just over 1,000 feet, they are high enough to offer fantastic views of the Pewsey Vale and beyond but low enough to make walking over them not too strenuous.