Honeybourne (From Worcester News)

Honeybourne

9:30am Monday 1st August 2011 in Local walks By Julie Royle

HERE’S a walk that you can enjoy taking in the sights of that border land where the Vale of Evesham meets the Cotswolds.

During it you can take time out to explore Mickleton, a Cotswold village packed with lovely stone houses.

Back in , why not visit the Domestic Fowl Trust?

Popular with children, it has lots of poultry and rare breeds of farm animals, as well as a tearoom, a shop and a visitor centre.

FACT FILE

Start: Station Road, Honeybourne, a few miles east of Evesham; grid ref SP115448.

Length: 11½ miles/18.5km.

Maps: OS Explorer 205, OS Landranger 150/151.

Terrain: Arable, pasture and woodland, with one boggy section; mostly flat, except for the brief climb up Baker’s Hill.

Footpaths: Some are excellent but many are overgrown. Several have been cropped over. Waymarking is generally poor in the Gloucestershire part of the walk but mostly good in the Worcestershire part of it.

Stiles: 24.

Parking: Look for roadside parking at Honeybourne, or start the walk at Mickleton, parking near the church.

Public transport: Great Western trains, daily to Honeybourne; also possible by bus, via Evesham; firstgreatwestern.co.uk or 08457 484950, worcestershire.gov.uk/ bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: Pubs and shops at Mickleton and Honeybourne; Speckled Hen Tearoom at Domestic Fowl Trust in Honeybourne.

DIRECTIONS

1 Walk away from Honeybourne on Station Road then take the first path on the right, by Grove Farm. It’s easily followed across fields to Bayliss Hill. Ignore a left turn and proceed to another junction. Waymarks indicate paths to left and right but ignore these and keep straight on to meet a road. Turn left, then shortly take a path on the right, which is also an access track. Keep straight on when the track bends right, walking to the left of a hedge.

2 Turn left on a bridleway beside the Long Marston freight line.

Follow it for nearly a mile, ignoring a branching footpath.

Turn right when you meet a road, pass under the railway and ignore a lane on the right. After 200m take a path on the right. Go across a field to a hedge corner then keep roughly straight on over successive fields. In the second field the path should bear slightly left but has been over-cropped with oil-seed rape so you’ll have to go straight across then turn left at the far side to regain the correct route at a footbridge. After a further 600m or so you’ll have to skirt to the right of a barn, then go left to regain the path by another footbridge. Essentially, however, it’s just a matter of keeping straight on towards Mickleton.

3 At the edge of Mickleton turn left, then right, to emerge on a street. Turn right, then left on a footpath. Follow it to Chapel Lane then turn left to the main road.

Turn right, then soon left by a phone box on a lane leading to St Lawrence’s church. Continue to a junction of two footpaths and a bridleway and keep straight on, joining the Heart of England Way (HEW). Bear slightly right across a field to the far side and then walk uphill, watching for the point where the HEW makes a right turn at a footbridge. Turn left in the next field, continue to the top lefthand corner of the field. Cross a road and continueon the HEW, through trees and then along field edges.

4 Meeting a track by a barn, turn right and follow the track to Furze Lane. Turn right, walking to the main road. Cross to an unsigned bridleway opposite, which is also a farm access track.

When the access track passes through woodland you should join a parallel track on the right, still within the trees. When the trees end go through a gate into parkland and go straight on towards a farm visible ahead. Look out for an easily missed waymark on a gate on the left when you’re about 100m from the farm. Go through the gate and proceed to another a few paces away.

5 Go straight across a field then cross a farm access track. You will then see a faint trodden path continuing up the field – take this and head towards an ash tree, just the very top of which is visible ahead. As you reach the top of a slight rise the way forward becomes obvious, along a field edge and past the ash tree. Turn right when you meet Broadway Road and shortly cross to another bridleway on the left. Follow it to Mickleton Road and turn left.

6 Take a field-edge track on the left after 600m. On entering a second field the track turns left but the footpath goes diagonally across the field to the far side, where you turn right. Cross a stile in the corner and walk through a long field which contains a series of pools. Keep to the left of them but turn right after the last one to find access to the next field. Continue in the same direction, eventually crossing a footbridge to meet a farm track. Cross the track and follow the left-hand field edge to an overgrown stile. Keep close to the overgrown left-hand edge in the next field so as not to miss a footbridge after just a few metres.

The path is easily followed after this point.

7 Pass another farm, cross a footbridge and turn left on a track leading to a fingerpost by Poden Farm where two paths are indicated. Go straight on, passing to the right of the farm then cross the dismantled Honeybourne- Broadway railway. Cross a footbridge and take the left-hand path, following waymarks through several fields. Approaching a farm, turn left and walk to Weston Road.

Cross to another path opposite which leads into Honeybourne.

Turn right along a street, then left at a crossroad, on Station Road.