Mordiford

The long-distance trail known as the Wye Valley Walk follows the Wye from source to Severn, but doesn’t stick slavishly to the river bank, or even to the valley – in places it takes a more scenic alternative, as this walk illustrates.

At Hampton Bishop, near Hereford, it leaves the Wye to briefly follow the River Lugg, which it soon crosses at Mordiford Bridge before heading south across high ground, only returning to the Wye at Capler.

One of the highlights of this stretch is Common Hill, where Herefordshire Nature Trust (HNT) owns Common Hill Nature Reserve, a mixture of grassland and orchards. Just a short distance away, the Wye Valley Walk passes through Lea and Paget’s Wood, another HNT reserve. Less than a mile to the north, Wessington Pasture, also owned by HNT, comprises a mixture of grassland and woodland, with some old perry pear trees. Further north again, and enclosed on three sides by the Forestry Commission’s Haugh Wood, is Joanshill Farm, a nature reserve owned by Plantlife. With hay meadows, orchards and ancient woodland, this is a particularly diverse and valuable site.

Broadmoor Common has also been designated a nature reserve and is managed by the local authority. All of the above are freely open to the public, but please remember that if you have a dog with you it should be on a lead within the nature reserves.

FACT FILE

Start: Mordiford Bridge, on B4224 a few miles east of Hereford; grid ref SO567375.

Length: Eight-and-three-quarter miles/14km.

Maps: OS Explorer 189, OS Landranger 149.

Terrain: Mostly woodland and pasture, with orchards and a few arable fields; mildly hilly in places.

Footpaths: Mostly excellent, apart from some poor waymarking.

Stiles: Six.

Parking: Layby west of Mordiford Bridge.

Public transport: Bus (420) or train to Hereford, then Yeomans 453 (Mon-Sat) to Mordiford Bridge; alternatively, Yeomans 454 (Mon-Sat) goes to nearby Fownhope (get off at the post office and walk up the Woolhope road to join the route at Nupend); www.herefordbus.info or 01432 260211.

Refreshments: Moon Inn, Mordiford.

DIRECTIONS

1 Cross Mordiford Bridge, ignore the Dormington road, turn right by the Moon Inn towards Ross and Fownhope, cross another bridge and join the Wye Valley Walk (WVW) on the left, by The Mill.

Follow the WVW (footpath) to Bagpiper’s Tump and turn left to reach Hope Springs. Turn right and follow the WVW (bridleway) to the Woolhope road at Nupend.

2 Cross over and continue almost opposite. The waymarking for the WVW is misleading in places along this next stretch, but you can’t go wrong if you ensure that you keep to the bridleway (accurately waymarked with blue arrows) at all junctions. Look out for Common Hill Nature Reserve, on the left, and explore it if you wish – there’s a permissive path through it which rejoins the WVW bridleway a little further along.

Meeting a lane by Common Hill Farm, the bridleway continues opposite.

3 When you see waymarks with the Wildlife Trust’s badger logo you’ll know you’re in Lea and Paget’s Wood. A few paces further on you’ll come to a junction where the WVW goes straight on but the bridleway turns left.

Stay on the bridleway, which soon leaves the wood and then continues through meadows to meet a driveway.

Turn left, and then turn right when the driveway bends left.

Follow the bridleway down to a lane at Buckenhill and turn left.

4 When the lane bends right, near a pine-covered hill (Siege Wood), take the second path on the left, at a stile. Turn right across a field, passing a solitary oak tree and continuing to a stile to the left of another oak in a hedge. Follow the left edge of a second field and change to the other side of the hedge where waymarked. Join a lane near a farm, turn left and then right on another lane, soon passing Wessington Pasture Nature Reserve. The lane then leads to Broadmoor Common Local Nature Reserve, where you continue to a junction and turn left by Broadmoor Cottage.

5 Turn first right on an unsigned track which leads into Haugh Wood. Keep straight on along a bridleway/forest road. Stay on the forest road when the waymarking seems to indicate that the bridleway forks left (it doesn’t).

Cross a brook, climb to a Yjunction and turn right, passing to the right of a recently felled area.

Go roughly straight on at another junction, leaving Haugh Wood and entering a meadow belonging to Joanshill Farm Nature Reserve.

The bridleway runs along the righthand edge, turning left in the corner, but most walkers use a well-trodden permissive path which goes across the meadow before continuing to the far corner of an orchard.

6 Go through a gate and turn right, rejoining the bridleway to pass through Limburies Wood, then turn left along the edge of the wood, ignoring branching paths.

Leaving the wood, stay on the bridleway a little further, until you intercept a cross-path. Turn left on this and follow Pentaloe Brook through pastureland and then through Bear’s Wood. Keep straight on at a junction with a forest track, walking on the other side of the brook now. Turn right at a junction signed ‘Mordiford loop walk point 7’ then pass to the left of an abandoned cottage. Go left on a track and watch for the point at which the path branches right, away from the track. Walk through Pentaloe Close then follow the brook to a road. Turn right to Mordiford.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 189.