Elmley Castle (From Worcester News)

Elmley Castle

3:40pm Wednesday 4th May 2011 in Walks

ELMLEY Castle makes an attractive starting point for this exhilarating walk on Bredon Hill. The village houses are a harmonious mix of timber, plaster, brick, clay tiles, stone and stone-slates, emphasising its position in that transitional area where the building styles and materials of the vale of Evesham merge with those of the Cotswolds.

A Saxon settlement, Elmley later came into the hands of the influential Beauchamp family. In the 12th century, its castle was more important than that at Worcester and Elmley men played a part in the Royalist defeat of Simon de Montfort’s rebel army at Evesham in 1265. However, when the Beauchamps moved to Warwick, Elmley’s castle fell into decay, its stones being plundered to construct village houses and the bridge at nearby Pershore. The castle is now only a grassy mound in the deer park.

The Queen Elizabeth pub (temporarily closed) commemorates the visit of Elizabeth I in 1575 when she stayed some days with the Savage family.

Originally from Cheshire, the Savages had supported Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry Tudor, in his quest for the throne and were rewarded by the grant of property at Elmley Castle.

The church at Elmley, dedicated to St Mary, is famous for the charming mediaeval carvings of a rabbit and a pig in the porch. In the churchyard are two unusual 16th-century sundials which were designed to indicate the time anywhere in the Old World.

Great Comberton and Bredons Norton are also attractive villages, both well worth exploring.

Appealing as they are, however, it’s Bredon Hill which is the real star of this walk. It’s particularly lovely in April and early May when the hawthorn trees high on the steep northern slopes put on a magnificent display of blossom.

Interesting plants associated with limestone soils grow on the summit, including several species of orchid.

Fallow deer live on the hill and many species of birds breed there.

FACT FILE

Start: Elmley Castle, which is at the north-eastern end of Bredon Hill, a few miles south-east of Pershore; grid ref SO983410.

Length: 8½ miles/13.5km.

Maps: OS Explorer 190, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Mostly pasture; some ascent involved but nothing very steep.

Footpaths: Excellent.

Stiles: Six.

Parking: There is a car park/picnic place in Elmley Castle by the lane to Kersoe and Ashton-under-Hill, and some parking space near the top of Hill Lane.

Buses: Diamond 382 or First 550/551 to Pershore, then Cresswell's 565/575 to Elmley Castle or Great Comberton; services 565/575 are infrequent but another option is to take the 382 (frequent, daily) only as far as Eckington – get off at the Close and it’s a short walk to join the route at St Catherine's Farm; worcestershire.gov.uk/ bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: None, until a new tenant is found for the pub at Elmley Castle.

DIRECTIOS

1 Take Hill Lane, which starts near the church and pub. Follow the lane to Elmbrook Farm and turn right on a footpath. Follow it to a junction and turn left, passing along the edge of the farmyard then along the edge of a paddock and straight on at a junction. The path is waymarked and easily followed from now on. Turn right when you meet a bridleway, ignore a footpath branching left but take the next left, another bridleway (not waymarked), and follow it to Great Comberton.

2 Turn left at a T-junction then shortly take a path into the churchyard. Fork right by the church tower, walk along a yew avenue, leave the churchyard in the corner and follow a passageway to a lane. Turn left on the Eckington road (don’t take Back Lane) and descend into a valley. Take the first path on the left – it’’s at a stile hidden by a tree just after some gates. Walk uphill then turn right on a track which runs along the side of the hill, becoming increasingly well-defined. Pass Woollas Hall and St Catherine's Farm. Continue along the track as it becomes a lane.

3 Eventually, the lane bends left and you can just follow it into Bredons Norton if you wish.

However, you may as well take advantage of a permissive path open under a countryside stewardship scheme (until September 2013). To do this, go straight on along a grassy track which soon bends right, and then left. Go left again at the next junction and proceed to Bredons Norton. Turn left by the bus shelter, walk to a T-junction and turn right past Home Farm. Keep straight on at the next junction, on a bridleway. Pass Bredons Norton Manor and Hermes Lodge then turn left towards farm buildings. Look for waymarks directing you to the right into a field.

4 Walk uphill on the bridleway.

The waymarking is patchy in places and there are lots of branching paths but it is easy to determine which is the main one.

Eventually, you’ll come to a Tjunction where a gate ahead carries a ‘keep out’ sign. Turn left here.

Shortly, go through a gate and follow the bridleway to the right, soon reaching the rim of the escarpment. Walk for over a mile along the hilltop, past the fort, the tower and the Banbury Stone. Keep straight on at a junction, passing to the left of Scots pines.

5 Soon after passing the pines the path forks and the waymarking is slightly ambiguous: what you should do is to fork left, descending.

Keep straight on at all subsequent junctions, eventually joining Hill Lane. You can follow the lane back to your starting point or you can cut a corner by taking a path on the right as you approach Elmbrook Farm. This goes diagonally across a field to rejoin Hill Lane.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 190.