OUR prehistoric ancestors preferred to travel around the country on ridgeway routes so they could avoid the swamps and woods of the valleys.

Not only was it easier and drier to keep to the tops, it also offered better views, enabling them to see approaching danger, such as bad weather or armed raiders. We may not have quite the same concerns today, but most walkers still enjoy ridge-top routes. This exhilarating linear walk between Blockley and Broadway includes some wonderful ridge-top sections with extensive views, culminating in the celebrated 12-county panorama from Broadway Hill.

Blockley is one of the loveliest of Cotswold villages, sheltered by green hills and crammed with gorgeous houses. It has belonged to Gloucestershire since 1931, but the Domesday Book records it in 1086 as the second biggest town in Worcestershire. It grew rich making silk for the Coventry ribbon weavers, flourishing for over 200 years before losing out to competition from France. The silk-mills were put to other uses but Blockley sank into relative poverty.

Poor it may have been, but it didn't lag behind the times: in the early 1880s Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill installed a waterwheel in Dovedale to generate electricity, and Blockley claims to be the first English village to have acquired electric lighting.

Rock Cottage in Bell Lane was the home of Joanna Southcott from 1804 to 1814. Joanna was a farmer's daughter, born in about 1750 in Devon. In 1792 she announced that she was the woman "clothed with the sun" who is described in the Book of Revelation (Chapter 12). The nameless woman bears a son destined for future kingship and their story involves a seven-headed dragon and a war in heaven.

Joanna attracted quite a following and a Southcottian cult was established. She moved to Blockley, where in 1814 she announced she was to give birth in October to a "second Prince of Peace".

He never materialised and she died from a brain tumour in December 1814. Her followers were not unduly dismayed, firmly believing she would rise again.

DIRECTIONS

1 Walk along the top edge of the village green to the post office. Go roughly straight on along Bell Lane, ignoring all turnings. At the end of the lane, continue along a bridleway through Dovedale and Bourton Woods. After three-quarters of a mile, take a footpath on the right. Walk along a field edge, turn right at a fence corner, then left on a cross-field track. Turn left at Warren Farm and keep straight on across fields to the A44.

2Cross to another footpath. Walk along a field edge then descend into a valley. Pass through two gates then keep to the wall on your left. After passing through another gate, follow the right-hand fence until it turns a corner. Keep straight on, crossing a brook and joining a track which runs to a lane. Cross to a bridleway and follow the right-hand fence uphill. Go through a gate, climb a little higher and proceed to the far right corner of a long narrow field. Continue along the top edge of another field to a gate.

3Turn right and keep straight on at two junctions. Eventually, the bridleway descends to meet another. Turn right to a lane. Turn left until you can join a byway (signed 'public path') on the right. Pass a farm and proceed to a junction. Cross another track and go diagonally left across grassland. Enter a beautiful pasture (a Site of Special Scientific Interest) which might be described as park-like except that the trees which it supports are small hawthorns rather than statuesque oaks, limes or chestnuts. Follow the left-hand wall through successive pastures and continue in the same direction after crossing a road.

4Turn left through Welshman's Hedge Wood, then turn right along its edge. Turn right when you meet a road, then first left. Turn right at the next junction, into Snowshill. Turn right by the churchyard and walk uphill, going straight on at a crossroads. Join a footpath on the left after 400m, just after a stable. The path follows a wall until it meets a bridleway in a field corner. Turn right and walk uphill to a road. Turn left, then left at two further junctions.

5Enter Broadway Tower Country Park and join a footpath to the tower (there is an entrance fee for the country park, but it doesn't apply to rights of way). Go through a deer gate near the tower and turn sharp left on the Cotswold Way. Follow it down to Broadway.

FACTFILE

Start: Village Green, Blockley, grid ref SP164350.

Finish: High Street, Broadway, grid ref SP095375.

Length: 11 miles/18.5km.

Maps: OS Explorer OL45, OS Landranger 150/151.

Terrain: Pastoral and arable fields, woodland, moderately hilly.

Footpaths: Excellent.

Stiles: Seven.

Public transport: Great Western Trains serve Evesham and Moreton from Worcester. Relevant buses include Castleways 559 Evesham to Broadway, Mon-Sat; Johnson's 21/22 Stratford to Moreton via Broadway and Blockley, Mon-Sat; Cresswell's 604 Aston Magna to Cheltenham via Broadway and Blockley, Thursday only; Pulham's 612 Bourton to Evesham via Broadway and Blockley, Saturday only. There is no need to return to Blockley at the end of the walk, unless you have left a car there. Public transport users have several options. I took a train to Moreton, then a bus to Blockley, walked to Broadway and took a bus to Evesham for the return train. Traveline 0870 608 2608 or www.traveline.org.uk.

Parking: Broadway.

PLEASE NOTE This walk has been carefully checked and the directions are believed to be accurate at the time of publication. No responsibility is accepted by either the author or publisher for errors or omissions, or for any loss, accident or injury, however caused.