Fladbury (From Worcester News)

Fladbury

11:17am Monday 12th September 2011 in Walks By Julie Royle

IT looks unpromising on the map but this is actually a very enjoyable walk. The best part is a post-industrial site where former gravel pits now farm part of a wildlife-rich landscape of pools, wetlands, scrub and woodland.

Large numbers of water birds frequent the pools, including tufted ducks and great crested grebes, while goldfinches flock to strip the seeds from thousands of teasels in autumn.

Other highlights include the lovely village of Fladbury, where there is access to the river Avon and panoramic views from the aptly named hamlet of Hill.

FACT FILE

Start: Fladbury, a village just off the A44 between Pershore and Evesham, grid ref SO995463.

Length: Seven miles/11.2km.

Maps: OS Explorer 190, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Pasture, paddocks, arable, orchard; mostly flat with a couple of gentle slopes.

Footpaths: Intermittent waymarking and there is some overgrowth, some over-cropping, an illegally padlocked gate and some sub-standard stiles.

Stiles: 20.

Parking: Fladbury.

Buses: First 551, Mon-Sat only; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: Fladbury and Lower Moor.

DIRECTIONS

1 Take Shakespeare’s Avon Way out of Fladbury – it leaves the village at Coach Drive, almost opposite the bus shelter near the village hall. Keep straight on at a junction, towards Springhill Farm.

As you approach the farm, turn right on a track beside a line of poplars. When the track swings left keep roughly straight on, past a waste heap and along a field edge to a lane. Continue opposite, across a field and an orchard, then to the right of Aztec Water Sports and through Springs Holiday Park, guided by frequent waymarks.

Turn right when you meet a lane and walk to Lower Moor.

2 Turn left at a T-junction and walk to Church Lane. Take a path on the right, opposite Walnut Tree Cottage. Follow it to a junction and turn right to the road at Upper Moor. Turn left then take a bridleway on the right after a few metres. Cross the A44 and continue straight on along the bridleway to reach a junction. Turn right on a footpath, walking to the right of a strip of young woodland. Reaching a junction, keep roughly straight on, beside a fence which encloses a household waste site.

3 Cross a track by the entrance to the site, keeping straight on along a footpath. Walk through young woodland then to the left of a pool. When you reach a junction choose the path which crosses a footbridge and then continues as a well-defined route through woodland. Ignore a second (disused) footbridge and proceed to a third footbridge. Cross this one and turn left beside a second pool.

Shortly turn right (no waymarking) to walk between the second pool and a third one. You’ll soon reach a waymark which directs you left. It indicates a diagonal line, which is correct, but the path is overgrown and it’s hard to work out what you should be aiming for. Use it if you can, but you can see by the trodden path that most walkers go along the edge of the third pool as far as a lifebelt, where they then turn right. Another waymark then indicates a stile, beyond which you turn left along a track to a junction.

4 Turn left through woodland to return to the third pool. Ignore two misleading waymarks and bear right to walk around the eastern end of the pool. Keep to the pool edge until you reach a ‘deep water’ sign where a faint path (not waymarked) leads through the trees to a stile and footbridge.

Cross a field and another footbridge to rejoin the welldefined path you left earlier. Turn right. When you come to a stile on the left cross into an orchard and walk along the left-hand edge.

Cross a stile in the corner and turn right to a gate. You’ll have to slip between the bars, or climb over it, to join a road. Turn left.

5 After 200m there are two paths on the right. Take the left-hand one and walk through trees. Pass through a gate (no waymark) and turn right to follow a hedge to another gate. Cross Throckmorton Court’s driveway and continue opposite, between hedges, to meet the road at Throckmorton. Turn right, then soon left on a footpath to the church. At the churchyard, turn right to return to the road – there is a mown path, but the right of way is by the field edge, until an overgrown stile near the corner gives access to another field. Go past a chicken coop then cross a stile near a duck house to rejoin the road. Turn left.

6 Take a path on the right and go straight on to a junction. Ignore waymarks directing you right and turn left instead, along a track.

Follow it to a road and turn right.

After 450m turn right on the driveway to Hill Court Farm. Take a waymarked path on the left when the drive bends right. Follow the path along a field edge then rejoin the driveway and follow it a further 300m to a stepless stile on the left. Walk across a field, passing just to the right of a pond and then keeping straight on.

Don’t drift downhill but keep to the high ground to find a stile at the far side of the field.

7 Cross a bridleway and keep straight on across another field.

Climb a stile at the far side and go diagonally left downhill. Your way appears to be blocked by a new fence but as you get closer you’ll see that there is no wire yet – only the posts are in place. So pass through the fence-line and proceed to a stile in a wooden fence. The footpath is then easily followed across paddocks, with frequent stiles providing a guide. Cross Evesham Road and walk down Station Road which leads back into Fladbury.