Thornbury Wayfinders

From the Boar’s Head I set out on Ausbra one down Common Lane towards the new Wetlands Reserve managed by South Glos and the zoo, where we hope that there will be Water Buffalo in the future. Common Lane turns into an attractive tree lined green lane with a ditch on the right hand side, which is probably the Foss Ditch marked on the OS map. This may be an older ditch than the rhines that are characteristic of the area, because fosse is Middle English for a drainage ditch, whereas rhine wasn’t used with this meaning until 1698 according to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary.

The last time I was here, this ditch was the scene of a bit of a stand off between a South Glos Conservation officer and some drainage operatives who had instructions to clear the ditch of vegetation from the Lower Severn Vale Internal Drainage Board. It turns out that Internal Drainage Boards are independent of Local Authorities and have sole charge of determining the level of water in the rhines. Apparently some people at the IDB think that the site is not viable as a wetland at all.

I found my way through the site, where there are no Water Buffalo yet, nor any Sparrow Hawks in Asnum Copse either, because they had flown to Cote Farm on the other side of the motor way. I left the reserve across Lord’s Rhine and headed south towards Bilsham Farm through a relatively quiet herd of cows and calves. The way out of the field was via a footbridge with some missing planks with brambles taking their place. I surprised some more cattle at Bilsham Farm and managed to get over a broken Avon stile onto Bilsham Lane.

The route from here to Greenditch Farm was relatively trouble free apart from a slightly rotten footbridge. A bridge over the motorway on Holm Lane led to Redham Lane and a rather boring and enervating walk on the tarmac of Greenditch Street and Awkley Lane alongside the roar of the motorway. Crossing the junction with Pilning Street and Hardy Lane brought more tarmac on Moor Lane and the sight of another Sparrow Hawk that perched on some power lines.

The footpath into the fields on the corner of Moor Lane suffered from wobbly post syndrome, but I managed to get over and make my way to the Acorn Co-Forest. Here I was surprised to see a couple of rhines were full to the brim, which is probably why the newly planted trees were looking so healthy. My contact in the IDB thought this might be due to an accidental blockage. If so it was a lucky one!

Unfortunately, the village shop was shut on Saturday afternoons so I was forced to go to the Bowl Inn, where I ordered my usual ginger beer shandy, which most bar staff no longer know how to serve. Here it was very good due a superlative bottle of ginger beer. However, I could have ordered ready made ginger beer in a tin, so I needn’t have bothered with my elaborate instructions!

I staggered up the hill to the bus stop, where the T1 arrived at the same time as i did.

This route is not really suitable for a guided walk, although it might work the other way round if the dodgy stiles were replace with kissing gates. That way the boring tarmac could be done with at the beginning while everyone was still fresh, and a bit of tarmac might be appreciated when the fields were muddier.