Monks Brook has been a feature of my walks for many years. Regular readers of this blog will have followed me more than once as I walked beside it from Woodmill to Swaythling or Eastleigh. I have mentioned it in passing when I’ve been at running events in Eastleigh or crossed it, heading from Lakeside to Stoneham Lane. Originally, it was called Swaethling Well, swaethling, being an old English word meaning misty stream, and the modern area of Swaythling took its name from the brook. In the fourteenth century, the water upstream of Swaythling was renamed Monks Brook after the monks of Hyde Abbey near Winchester. The stretch between Swaythling and Woodmill was still known as the Swaethling Well. This is the part of the brook I know best, but I have long wanted to explore more of this seven-mile stretch of water. On 28 September, when Commando said he was going for a run at Fleming Park, I grasped at the chance to follow the course of the brook further upstream. How far I’d be able to get remained to be seen.
Continue reading Following Monks Brook through Fleming Park