11:08am Monday 16th August 2010
By Julie Royle
THERE are two great wildlife areas to explore in this walk. The more famous of the two is Monk Wood, which is renowned for butterflies and moths.
Less well-known but just as special in its own way is Grimley Marsh, a remnant of the wonderful wetlands which once filled the Severn valley.
FACT FILE
Start: The northern end of the Grimley loop road, off the A443 north of Hallow, grid ref SO829605.
Length: Eight miles/13km.
Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.
Terrain: Pasture, arable and woodland, no hills.
Footpaths: Most range from adequate to excellent, but several are extremely poor. Waymarking is often absent or incomplete, especially where most needed (such as farmyards). Two paths are seriously overgrown. In addition, the county council has made a temporary closure order on several paths at Grimley. This necessitates some road-walking.
Stiles: 23.
Parking: By the loop road.
Buses: 294/295/308/758 on weekdays, 300 on Sundays/bank holidays; worcestershire.gov.uk/ bustimetables or 01905 765765.
Refreshments: Grimley, Sinton Green, Oakall Green and Monkwood Green.
DIRECTIONS
1 Take a footpath leaving the road by a postbox. Go straight across fields to join the Severn Way, pass through the churchyard, turn left and walk to the river. Head downstream past Grimley Marsh, staying by the river for about halfa- mile, to an area where sandy beaches are exposed when the water is low. Ignore a waymarked path going diagonally towards Grimley. Instead, continue by the river a little further (100m at most) to the point where another path (not waymarked) branches right.
You’ll be roughly on course if you turn right as you approach a group of three oak trees. Pass through a line of seven ash trees (six living and one dead), then walk past a line of trees by a dry stream-bed and go through a gateway (waymarked). Turn right and go through a gate (not waymarked) to follow an overgrown green lane to Grimley.
2 Ideally, you would turn left here to find a footpath 100m further along, which leads to the A443, but it is currently closed (though the closure notice describes a situation not readily apparent on the ground) and the alternative is to turn right, then immediately left along the road to reach the A443.
Turn left along the roadside footway for 500m then cross to a footpath. Walk through dairy pasture to a junction and turn right through a strip of woodland. Go along the right-hand edge of a field then continue through four more fields to a junction. Turn left and keep straight on to find a stile next to a green gate. Follow a track to Sinton Green and turn left.
3 Turn left at a crossroads, left again at another junction, then take a footpath on the right, by Paddlebrook Cottage, and follow it through several fields. Ignore two branching paths (the first one is blocked anyway). Arriving at Monkwood Green, turn right along the edge of the green, passing close by the Fox Inn, to reach a road.
Turn right, then shortly enter Monk Wood on the right. Take the main path, which soon bends left.
Follow it to a T-junction, turn left, leave the wood and cross the road to the northern part of Monk Wood.
4 Join a bridleway running through the wood but leave it when you reach a post inscribed ‘b2’. Turn right, walk to the edge of the wood and turn left. Go left when the path forks, proceed to a junction in a clearing and turn right on a path which returns to the woodland edge. Follow it to a Tjunction, turn right to rejoin the bridleway and leave Monk Wood.
Turn right after about six metres, leaving the bridleway and entering a field. Walk across it, and then turn right through a paddock. Go through a gate into a field overgrown with thistles. Keep to the right through here and cross a stile at the far side.
5 Keep parallel with the edge of Monk Wood in the next field, soon crossing a stile to a much larger field. Proceed as waymarked, aiming for a slight gap in the trees 300m ahead. Bear left in the next field, initially heading towards the largest of a group of oak trees ahead, then to the far left corner of the field, where a stile gives access to another field. Go obliquely right to a stile at the other side but turn left without crossing the stile. Cross the fence when you come to a gate, continue in the same direction, pass some houses then walk along a passageway to a lane at Oakall Green.
6 Turn right, then left by Hunter’s Lodge and soon left again at a footpath sign. Go along a farm drive and keep straight on at a junction, passing a pond to reach a T-junction by some caravans. Turn right, following the track until you see a stile on the right. Cross an asparagus field to a lane at Sinton Green and turn left. Approaching a farm, ignore a branching path and continue through the yard, along a track which ends at a pair of gates.
Go into a field and walk along the edge to a gate with a waymarked stile just beyond it. There’s an angling pool in the field ahead. If the waymarking is to be trusted (there are discrepancies with the map) you should cross the adjacent field to the far side then turn round and go back across it, heading diagonally to the far left corner. Go through a gate, cross a field and enter another on the left. Go left to cross a stile then go diagonally right in the next field to the far corner to find access to Walton Lane. Turn left to the A443, cross over and turn left to your starting point.
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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