10:17am Monday 9th August 2010
By Julie Royle
DOCUMENTARY sources record a watermill at Shelsley Walsh, near Clifton upon Teme in 1308.
It’s not known whether any trace of it survives in the structure of the present Shelsley Watermill, which can be traced back with certainty only to 1700, and which had itself long since fallen into dereliction when the Midlands Automobile Club (MAC) renewed its lease on famous hill climb track in 2005.
MAC also took over a group of farm buildings, including the watermill. Since then, the mill has been magnificently restored by a group of volunteers, who have morphed into the Shelsley Watermill Society, which is independent of MAC.
The project was completed in May and the mill is now occasionally open to the public (shelsleywatermill.com) but as it stands beside a public footpath anyone can walk past it at any time and admire the exterior.
Almost opposite the mill is the beautiful Court House, which is also being sensitively restored.
Close by stands St Andrew’s, a delightful little Norman church with a beautifully carved 15th century screen dividing the nave from the chancel and described as ‘the finest in the county’ by Sir John Betjeman in his Guide to English Churches (Collins, 1958).
Above the screen is a lovely rood beam, also from the 15th century, while the equally fine roof timbers date from the 14th century. If you’re wondering why this is such a short walk, it’s because it turned out very differently than planned.
Encouraged by the impressive improvements to many footpaths around Clifton – mostly carried out by local volunteers – I thought it might at long last be possible to fully explore the beautiful countryside to the east of the village.
But it seems that once you stray across the parish boundary the footpaths are mostly as bad as they ever were, or even worse in some cases. Having attempted two paths which turned out to be impassable, the options were limited. It’s not as though access to the countryside is a privilege; it’s a right, and one which has been clearly defined in half a dozen Acts of Parliament since the ground-breaking National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949.
The Acts leave no room for doubt about the duties of both landowner and highway authority and they provide the latter – which, in our case, is Worcestershire County Council – with ample powers of enforcement.
How appalling it is, that six decades after the passing of the 1949 Act, Worcestershire people can still not venture into their local countryside with full confidence that they will be able to complete their intended walk.
FACT FILE
Start: Clifton upon Teme, grid ref SO713615.
Length: Three-and-three-quarter miles/6km.
Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 149/150.
Terrain: Pasture, arable and woodland, some road and moderately steep slopes.
Footpaths: Mostly good-to-excellent, except for an overgrown and poorly waymarked woodland path, and a lack of waymarking at Shelsley Walsh.
Stiles: Ten.
Parking: Clifton.
Buses: LMS 310 Mon-Sat; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or 01905 765765.
Refreshments: Clifton.
DIRECTIONS
1 Take a footpath just to the west of the churchyard, go past a house and proceed as waymarked, soon entering a field. Keep to the right-hand edge, ignore a stile in the corner and continue a little further by the field edge to find another stile. Cross this one and walk along the left-hand edge of a dairy pasture, climb a stile in the bottom corner and join a track along the lower edge of the next field. Turn right after a short distance, crossing into another field. Go straight down and you will need to duck low under a horizontal willow tree to cross a stile in the corner. Head down another field towards a house and skirt round to the right of it.
2 Turn right shortly before reaching a driveway and go down the field to a stile. Proceed through a large meadow, keeping to the top of a slight ridge and joining a track which leads directly to a gate into woodland. Follow the track through the wood, soon forking left at a waymarked junction. A little further on the track bends left and descends steeply. The right of way, however, is straight on, though easily missed – look for a faint, narrow path, and a yellow arrow daubed on a tree.
The path keeps to the ridge-top, or as close to it as possible. Though faint and intermittent, it’s mostly not too difficult. Eventually, you’ll come to a section which is becoming seriously overgrown by brambles; for the time being, it is still possible to tread them down and very soon you’ll join a mown track on the right. This soon swings left, descending to a waymarked post, where it bears right. Descend steeply to a junction (no waymarking) and turn right, then left at the next junction to meet the road.
3 Turn left. Ignore a path on the left – because it is totally impassable – after passing New Mill Bridge and stay on the road until you are able to turn left at a sign for Shelsley Walsh Church.
Having passed the church, turn right past the Court House and Shelsley Watermill, then go left at the next junction, following a surfaced track uphill, past all the Midlands Automobile Club paraphernalia and eventually you will rach Top Barn. The track forks here and you should take the lefthand branch but after a short distance, as you draw level with a stile on your left, head off diagonally right across a field and then over the stile which is in the corner. Walk up the edge of the next field, cross another stile in the top corner and turn left in the ensuing field. Turn right at the next junction, walk across the field and then keep straight on to Clifton.
Your Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 204.
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