Start your journey to Watership Down...

Watership Down area map - You must be able see this to access this page! The plank bridge The Discovery by Chris Boyce The flight to the Test The Upper Bridge and the river Test The Arch under the Iron Road The Iron Road Efrafa, The Crixa The Combe where Bigwig met the Fox Caesar's Belt The Beech Hanger from the West The Hanger and the Honeycomb Come and Look, you can see the Whole World! The Pylon Line Watership Down from the North and start of a walk
	  up the down Nuthanger Farm A lane near Ecchinswell Cowslips Warren Near Newtown Newtown Churchyard The Crossing The Brook and the Woods Sandleford Warren Click on any of the pink circles to show the corresponding photo staken from that point. In many areas there are a number of photos displayed on a single page.

You may also select the pictures through this list:

  1. Sandleford Warren
  2. The Brook and the Woods
  3. The Crossing
  4. Newtown Churchyard
  5. Near Newtown
  6. Cowslip's Warren
  7. A lane near Ecchinswell
  8. Nuthanger Farm
  9. Watership Down from the North and start of a walk up the down
  10. The Pylon Line
  11. The North facing escarpment of Watership Down
  12. At the Foot of the Hill
  13. Climbing the Down
  14. Come and Look, you can see the Whole World!
  15. On Watership Down
  16. The Hanger and the Honeycomb
  17. The Beech Hanger from the West
  18. Caesar's Belt
  19. The Combe where Bigwig met the Fox
  20. Efrafa, The Crixa
  21. 'You Can't Imagine it Unless You've Been There.'
  22. The Iron Road
  23. The Arch under the Iron Road
  24. The Plank Bridge
  25. The Upper Bridge and the river Test
  26. The Discovery - an extract from an unfinished and unpolished fan sequel to Watership Down
  27. The flight to the Test
  28. Watership in Winter
  29. Some more views of near Cowslip's warren
  30. The fate of Nuthanger's byre
  31. Watership Down - what Adams left out
  32. And finally...
  33. The Watership Gallery - more views of Watership country
  34. Here are some of my favourite images from Martin Rosen's 1978 animated film, including a version of the powerful image used to promote the film as an animated film for adults.
You may find my essays, new for 2004, are interesting. They include some items from my collection - items you won't be able to see anywhere else.

        All photographs are © 1997 & 2004, Chris Boyce. You may view and download these photographs for private or educational use but they may not be used for any commercial use whatsoever, whether for profit or not, without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Hampshire map
Hampshire and surrounding counties in Southern England
        The map above was drawn using OCAD from a scanned template of a Marilyn Hemmett map as printed in the first edition of Watership Down. The map to the left shows the Watership Down area in relation to the south of England, it is derived from a larger map at http://www.hants.gov.uk, the Hampshire County website.


Technical Notes:

        These photographs were taken from 1981 to 1983. They were shot on Kodak Kodachrome 64 35mm slide film on Olympus OM-10 and OM-4 cameras primarily using Olympus 35mm semi-wide-angle and Tokina 25-50 wide-angle zoom lenses. In most cases automatic exposure was used, though the spot metering of the OM-4 later proved invaluable. Exposure for transparency film has to be carefully controlled to get the best contrast, the Olympus cameras never disappointed and the lack of auto-focus has actually been a benefit.

        I re-scanned all the images in October 2004 using a secondhand Nikon Coolscan LS-20 using Vuescan and Paint Shop Pro for conversion into JPEG format. The JPEGs are actually smaller than the original versions, and thus these webpages should load faster than ever before, even though the pictures are, hopefully better quality!


Acknowledgements and Thanks:

        I must say a big Thank You to my friend Graham Sewell who accompanied me on some of my trips to the Watership Down area. Graham gave me much encouragement and took some wonderful photos himself. Many of my best photographs are from a two day trip the weekend before my university final year exams in 1983. This trip started at Efrafa in perfect June weather and ended with us climbing down Watership Down while the thunder built overhead. Later that evening the thunder burst just like it had on the evening Thlayli escaped from Efrafa.

        Also I must say my special thanks to David Morris, for whom I created this website. He had never seen Watership Down as he lives in the USA. So, as he wasn't likely to come to Watership, I decided to take Watership to him, this website is the result.

Me, Chris Boyce at 19, on Watership Down
Me, at 19, on Watership Down
       Well, here I am, or more precisely there I was, on my first visit Watership Down in 1981. I was a scruffy computer science student.

       I am, or was, standing at the top of the down with track to Nuthanger Farm just to my left behind me. I selected rabbit's eye view. I need not tell you what I was reading.What I was reading - Watership Down of course!       

I now have a lot less hair on top and a beard. I am still scruffy... but I still have the very copy of the book I was reading in the photo above and you can see it and some of my other copies of Watership Down here, and read my essays on Watership Down here.



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Photographs © 1997, 1998 Chris Boyce; Website © 2004 Chris Boyce