Shrawley

The proceeds go to the Shrawley Village Hall Fund and to St Mary’s Church. This year the event is taking place tomorrow and Monday. If you visit Shrawley Wood by car on either of those days please use the temporary car park to the south of the village near the church – it will be well signed. There will also be some parking available at the village hall, reserved for less able visitors only.

Large-scale maps of Shrawley Wood will be provided for visitors, with suggested routes marked on, and these will be marked in the wood too, with painted white arrows. Obviously, these are only suggestions and you’re free to take any route you want, in any direction, except in the private part of the wood, which is clearly signed and fenced. Please note that if you take your dog it should be on a lead.

There will also be a children’s treasure trail in the wood, with clues along the way. The village hall is the place to go to enjoy tea and home-made cakes, and it will also host a plant stall. St Mary’s Church is well worth a visit in its own right but added inducement will come in the form of an art and craft exhibition.

I have been asked to emphasise that the car park mentioned above is available only tomorrow and Monday. Please do not park alongside the road at any time, a practice which has caused the villagers huge problems over the past few years and has led to the police having to be called out. You might note too that Shrawley has a perfectly good bus service (though not, unfortunately, on Sundays or bank holidays).

The walk described here is designed to complement or be combined with the villagers’ suggested routes and, of course, it can be done at any time. It is slightly longer but there is some overlap.

It is described from the Lenchford Hotel but passes close by the village hall and the site of the temporary car park.

FACT FILE

Start: Lenchford Hotel, Stourport Road (B4196) between Holt Heath and Shrawley, grid ref SO813643.

Length: Five miles/8km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Woods and meadows.

Footpaths: Mostly excellent. Some are numbered, which is helpful.

Stiles: Seven.

Parking: Layby next to Lenchford Hotel, or at the temporary car park near Shrawley church tomorrow and Monday.

Buses: First 294/295, Monday- Saturday only; First 300 stops at nearby Holt Heath (10-15 minutes’ walk) on Sundays and bank holidays; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetabl es or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: New Inn, Rose and Crown, Lenchford Hotel. Shrawley village hall tomorrow and Monday only.

DIRECTIONS

1 Walk south past the Lenchford Hotel on the wide grass verge then cross to a footpath at a stile just before the driveway to Severnbank House (that’s footpath 28, not the other path by the driveway). Go diagonally right across parkland then continue across a field to a gate near a pylon. Follow the right-hand edge of the next field then descend through a strip of woodland to cross a marshy area at a short boardwalk.

2 Cross a stile into the next field, where there’s a path junction, and take the one going diagonally right. That’s the theory, anyway, but it’s no longer possible to do that now that grape vines have been planted across the path.

You’ll have to detour round them to reach the top right corner, by Shotgrove Coppice. Proceed towards Shrawley church, go straight through the churchyard then follow the bottom edge to a gate and walk down a slope to the road. Cross over and turn left.

3 Take a path on the right just before the village hall. Walk to a junction and turn right. Follow the path along the outer edge of Shrawley Wood until a stile gives access to the wood. Walk past New Pool to a junction and go straight on. Turn left when you meet a wide path. At a five-ways junction (marked H on the map supplied for the village bluebell walks) take the second left, just by a tall conifer.

The path runs parallel with the main path, but to the left of it. Go straight on at a cross-path, then turn left at the next junction, along the edge of the wood.

4 When you come to a gate (by the footpath from the New Inn) turn right then take a narrow path on the right after a short distance.

Follow it for a few metres to a junction and turn left. Fork right on a narrow path after a few more metres. Turn left at the next junction, and then left at another on a wide path which descends to a waymarked junction (D on the bluebell walks map) where you turn right, descending into the valley of Dick Brook. Walk to a junction by a footbridge (F).

5 Turn right, then left at the next junction (G), on a path which climbs up a bank. Fork left when you reach a clearing to gain the top of a slight hill, then descend, passing two millennium oaks planted in May 2000. Turn left at a waymarked junction, shortly leave the wood next to a redundant stile and turn right, keeping close to the woodland edge. Keep straight on at two junctions to reach the road and turn left to your starting point.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 204.