3:24pm Monday 1st March 2010
By Julie Royle
THIS is a beautiful walk in north-west Worcestershire, with woods full of snowdrops and views extending across Shropshire and Herefordshire to the snow-covered Black Mountains.
It’s hard to believe today, but this hilly, well-wooded, tranquil region is part of the defunct Wyre Forest coalfield.
Drift mines, known locally as dilly-holes, were worked here until the 1940s. These were shallow mines which exploited seams close to the surface, none of which produced coal of a high quality.
This history of mining explains an otherwise puzzling place-name: Wharf Farm, near Stockton, which refers to a wharf formerly situated at the end of a tramway used to transport coal.
There are two interesting churches on the route, both open daily. St Andrew’s church at Stockton is a lovely, simple little building with a timber bell-turret.
It was built in about 1130 but there may have been a place of worship on the site long before that because the graveyard is circular and this is thought to indicate Saxon or Celtic origin. Inside the church is the splendid tomb, complete with grinning skulls, of Sir Thomas Walsh – he died in 1593 – a member of a prominent local family.
The church of St James the Great at Pensax is also worth a visit.
Replacing an earlier chapel on the same site, it was built in 1832 in a very convincing version of the perpendicular style of the 15th and 16th centuries and extended in 1891.
The pews in the nave are from the redundant church of St Nicholas which stands at The Cross in Worcester.
FACT FILE
Start: Stockton on Teme (on the A443 west of Abberley), grid ref SO715674.
Length: Five-and-a-half miles/9km.
Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 138.
Terrain: Pasture, woodland, arable, quiet lanes; moderately hilly.
Footpaths: Mostly excellent, except that waymarking is patchy. There are some slight discrepancies between paths on the ground and on the map.
Stiles: 12.
Parking: Opposite the Pensax turn or next to the Shelsley/Stanford turn.
Buses: Yarrantons 758 Worcester- Tenbury service, Monday-Saturday; alight at the Shelsley turn then catch the return bus at the Pensax turn to avoid the uphill walk beside the A443; worcestershire.gov.uk/ bustimetables or 01905 765765.
Refreshments: Cross Keys, Menith Wood.
DIRECTIONS
1 Walk beside the main road towards Tenbury, passing St Andrew’s church, the Shelsley turn and Stockton Court. Take a path on the right at a gate soon after a post box. Go obliquely left uphill, passing just to the right of a house then continuing in the same direction, aiming roughly for a large oak tree. When you reach the top of the slope you’ll see a stile ahead. Cross this and continue in the same direction until a gate gives access to a driveway.
2 Cross the entrance to Rotten Hay and take the bridleway to the left of it, which soon turns into a tree-lined holloway. Follow it up to a field then turn left along the edge and keep going straight on through another field, past Boughs Farm and along a lane until you can join a footpath on the left just after Coppers End. Walk across a field, following a slight ridge which marks the line of a grubbed-out hedge. Turn right at the far side of the field (by a stile) and follow the field edge to a lane. Turn left.
3 Turn right at a junction at Menith Wood, then soon left on a footpath which goes diagonally across fields to meet a ‘no through road’. Turn right and walk along the edge of Menith Wood until a footpath on the right gives access to the wood. Walk for 20m along a track then take an unsigned but well-trodden path which branches right. After a further 40m turn right on another unsigned path which passes through brambles and then into birch woodland.
Beyond the birches the path widens as it passes through woodland of chestnut, holly and beech. When you come to a valley turn left for a few paces then turn right and descend to cross a brook at a footbridge, beyond which the path climbs gently through more woodland. Keep straight on at a junction, soon crossing another brook and then proceeding to a lane.
4 Turn right, then left when you come to a T-junction. After 400m, turn right on a bridleway at Stilehouse Cottage. Follow it to a lane and turn left, walking towards Abberley Hill and ignoring branching footpaths. After crossing a brook near Pensax Common, turn left towards The Dell. Turn right after a short distance, where waymarked, cross a stile on the right and go forward along the right-hand edge of a field. Walk almost to a road, until the path is crossed by another.
5 Turn right on this cross-path and walk towards Pensax church. Keep straight on at a junction, then go left in the next field corner to join a lane. Turn right, then soon right again on a footpath which leads to the churchyard. It goes straight through, passing to the right of the church, then winds steeply down a wooded slope carpeted with snowdrops.
6 Turn left along a lane, then turn right when you come to a T-junction. Take a bridleway on the left after about 120m, by Lady’s Field House. Stay on the bridleway when you come to a junction with a footpath, and proceed to a lane at Worles Common. Turn right, then shortly take a path on the left at Pacton Yeld. Go to the far corner of a field and cross two stiles to another (beware the wobbly step on the first stile). Follow the waymarked path down to Woodhouse Farm and join a road.
Turn left to Stockton.
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