Ombersley

It also includes Ombersley Park, with its lovely pools and osier beds.

There are some delightful houses to admire too, many of them timberframed, at Ombersley, Hadley and Uphampton.

Real ale fans will enjoy the Fruiterers Arms, a former cider house at Uphampton, where part of the building is now the Cannon Royall Brewery, producing awardwinning beers.

FACTFILE

Start: Ombersley, grid ref SO845635.

Length: Seven miles/11km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Mostly pasture and arable, no hills. Footpaths: Some are excellent, but most range from poor to adequate. Waymarking is often patchy or absent. Several paths are routinely over-cropped and/or not reinstated after ploughing. Some stiles are overgrown with hawthorn, brambles etc.There are some slight but encouraging signs that improvements may be in hand. This is not the route that was planned, which had to be abandoned due to the dire state of certain paths.

Stiles: 15, and one locked gate.

Parking: Ombersley.

Buses: First 303, Mon-Sat only; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: Ombersley, Oldfield and Uphampton.

DIRECTIONS

1 Walk down the High Street towards Worcester then take a path signed to Hadley next to the Kings Arms. Turn right at a junction, with red-and-white waymarking, then left by the Millennium Orchard. Turn left at the next junction and walk to School Bank. Turn right, go under the bypass, cross the slip road and then take a path indicated by a new fingerpost by a flight of steps.

Walk along the top of an embankment until a gate gives access to a pasture. Go diagonally right to the far corner and through a gate into a large arable field.

2 Turn right along the edge until you meet a stile at a corner.

Walk across two fields, aiming for the south-west corner of Gardner’s Grove, the wood on the skyline.

Turn right along the edge of the wood, go through a gateway and continue by the woodland edge.

Reaching the south-east corner of Gardner’s Grove, go into the field on the right and walk towards a house. Skirt to the right of it then follow the driveway to the A4133.

Cross to a wide verge, turn right and take the first lane on the left.

3 Take a path on the left. Follow the left-hand field edge then go obliquely left on a mown path through an orchard. Turn right along a lane, passing Youngs Farm. Turn left at a junction on a no through road and left again when you come to a bridleway which soon develops into a treelined holloway. After crossing a brook the bridleway climbs a bank to the left of a cluster of pylons.

Descend the bank, go through an unmarked gate on the left and follow the bridleway to Southall Farm.

4 Pass the farmhouse then take a path on the left which goes diagonally to an overgrown stile.

Continue in the same direction across three more fields. When you meet a hedge, the path continues to the right of it to meet a driveway. If you don’t want to visit the church at Doverdale just turn left to the next stile and go straight to point five. Otherwise, turn right to the farm road. Turn left, then left again to the churchyard. Walk along the left edge and down overgrown steps into a field. Turn right to walk along the outer edge of the churchyard to meet a gate.

Don’t go through it but turn round so that the gate is behind you and the churchyard to your left. Go diagonally through long grass to a new fingerpost visible by a fence.

Climb a stile and turn left, crossing a driveway to another stile.

5 Go diagonally right, cutting across a field corner, to meet the field edge by a grassy triangle between mixed woodland and a plantation of willow trees. Go into the willow plantation and walk along the left edge, then continue by a brook after leaving the plantation. Cross the brook at a bridge and look for a stile on the right with red-and-white waymarking. Bear right through woodland to a T-junction. Turn left, emerge into a field and turn right. Walk along the edge for about 175m until you come to an unsigned junction with another track, by a pool.

6 Turn your back on the pool and strike out diagonally right across the field. There is no path but after a short distance, buildings at Yarding’s Farm will come into view. Head for a point about 100m to the right of the buildings, near a large willow tree.

Cross a hidden stile to join a track, Oldfield Lane. Turn right, walk to the A449 and cross to Uphampton Lane opposite. After passing the Fruiterers Arms, take the next path on the left, which runs along field edges to a lane.

7 Turn right, then left. Go either left or straight on at the next junction if you want to take a direct short-cut back to Ombersley.

For the full walk, however, turn right. After about 150m take a path on the left just after Southcroft.The path, though overgrown at first, is easily followed to Parsonage Lane where you turn left. Very soon there’s another path on the right but at the time of writing it’s impassable.

If that’s still the case, continue along the lane. After passing a speed restriction sign turn right on a short track to the A4133 and cross to a track opposite. Keep straight on at a junction and left at the next, to reach the fish ponds in Ombersley Park. Turn left to the village.

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