Witch hunting in Burley

With the end of October approaching fast and deadlines starting to line up, especially the dreaded deadline to hand in my dissertation abstract (!!). I have more than enough to fill my days up with. That’s why it’s nice when I get an excuse to do something else and go on a small adventure!

This weekend I went on a small adventure to the New Forest and a little village called Burley. I hadn’t heard about Burley before and that it is supposedly quite famous due to witchcraft in the 1950’s.

And if you, like me, haven’t heard about it then I will explain what it is all about.

In the 50’s a woman named Sybil Leek lived in the village. She was a so-called 'white witch', which means that she was a witch using her powers for good and not evil. However, the locals did not appreciate this and it eventually forced Sybil Leek to relocate to America, where she continued to pursue studying astrology and the occult.

The locals might not have liked it back then, but today it actually makes them great business – especially now that Halloween is coming up!

The story of Sybil Leek found in a shop in Burley

Burley is in the middle of New Forest and not far from Lymington, which I’ve been to before. By car it took us around 30 minutes driving there and despite the village being very small there are a few things you can do.

We visited all the local shops where they among other things sell Burley homemade caramel, which is so nice it's worth the trip out there alone! There are also a couple of places to eat and it is a perfect spot for a Sunday lunch.

The locals went to not wanting to be associated with witchcraft to now having shops based on it!

I did not see any witches, but we did meet some New Forest ponies and even drove past some wild pigs. On the way home we stopped by beautiful Lymington for a coffee and some antique shopping.

Some of the villages in New Forest have amazing antique shops where you can find so many nice and unique things like jewelry and home decorations.

The best part of all of this is that we left home around 11am and got back right after 4pm. In other words, you don’t have to set off a whole day for this. This goes for most of the villages in the New Forest; they are all so easy to get to.

Now I have some more inspiration to what I can dress up as for Halloween and I hope you might be inspired to explore the New Forest!

Alexandra

A road trip to Lyndhurst and the New Forest

I have mentioned a couple of times Southampton’s prime location in terms of visiting surrounding areas on the South Coast. Last weekend I had the pleasure of ticking a few more places on my ‘to-see’ list. Although we did the trip by car, some of the places mentioned here are easily accessible by train, so there’s no excuse not to go!

The New Forest has been on my to-see list for a long time now. I originally wanted to go before Christmas to see the Christmas market there, but with no time it had to wait. Christmas or not, the New Forest is definitely worth visiting. Peaceful and beautiful are my two key words to describe it. If you enjoy walks on The Common you will love the New Forest. However, wearing white trainers to the New Forest isn’t the best idea – so the only thing I would say is to bring wellies! It wasn’t raining on Sunday, but it was still quite muddy and wet and most people there got the memo and were wearing wellies. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t, but it makes you very dependent on following the main path. With that being said, the New Forest is huge so it will differ depending on where you go.

A  New Forest Pony!

A beautiful view

This brings me to Lyndhurst! Why have I not heard about this place before? The town centre is so lovely with small shops and family-run cafés - it’s perfect for a little day trip. Among other things, they also have a Maserati and Ferrari showroom there for car-lovers who would like to look at pretty cars. Even I found it very cool, and I’m not too fascinated by cars!

If you are a car enthusiast, Beaulieu is only about 10 minutes away from Lyndhurst. If you haven’t heard of it, it has a very cool car museum. We didn’t go in, as we thought we’d save it for the summer when it’s warmer outside, but this is apparently a very cool place and I’ve only heard good things about it. Beaulieu in itself was also a very nice place to drive around and we somehow ended up in Lyndhurst without noticing, so it’s all very close together. However, this is probably easiest to do if you have a car.

Driving through Lyndhurst 

A trip out to the New Forest is so easy and I would highly recommend it.

On a different note, I know that most students here probably received their exam results yesterday, so I would like to go a bit off-track and just remind you that if it didn’t go as well as you’d hoped, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t let it ruin your motivation for semester two! Remember that the University has plenty of help to offer if you need someone to talk to.

Alexandra