Thornbury Wayfinders

I have just finished a series of short walks back from Tytherington using the Y2C minibus. So I decided to do a longer walk on Thursday ahead of the forecast rain. The route I chose was the third route back from Berkeley using the 62 bus. The other two are the Poachers Walk via the Deer Park and the Coastal Path. The route I had in mind follows the Little Avon through the Point to Point to Stone – then on to Middle Mill Farm on Damery Lane. From there it follows a tributary stream to the ponds below Heneage Court and on to the Huntsman’s Inn in Falfield. From there it follows the well established route over the hill to Morton.

The bus was later than I’d expected but got me to Berkeley Post Office in just under 23 minutes.

The weather was fine throughout. I had decided to wear my Purestep “barefoot” shoes as I hadn’t got on with my walking shoes, which left me footsore.

I walked past a couple of good looking coffee shops on the way to the field behind the castle. I noticed that the Berkeley estate had installed a new Bristol Gate – that is a field gate with a pedestrian gate built in. The next one was what I call a “bridle gate.” That is a gate with a tall lever on the top so you can open it on horseback.

It fact all this stretch was well served with Bristol Gates, Bridle Gates and kissing gates. There was only one stile – and one field gate that to field with lively horses confined to paddocks. They have been a bit of a problem in the past, but the path has been diverted around the edge of the field – a great improvement.

Over the A 38 the stretch from The Old Mill House at Woodford to Middle Mill Farm was a revelation. The route begins by following the old road past a defibrillator down to a footpath sign. There is a footpath sign on the gate with a sign saying don’t push. You have to press a green button instead and the gate swings open.

The footbridges and stiles are solid and there is a helpful step at one point. The footpath is mown to make it easy to follow. My Purestep shoes were grateful as they are not waterproof! It was all lovely until I got through the kissing gate next to Middle Mill gates onto Damery Lane.

On the other side of the lane was a stile – brambles intruded so I had to reach for my secateurs for the first time. Then I discovered the step was broken. I had to pull it through the sheep netting so I could get over using it as a sort of see saw. It could have done with a couple of sturdy logs to support the step as had been used on the admirable previous stretch.

The rest of the path was lovely once you got through a field gate into a maturing plantation. There was a pile of logs any two of which would have sorted out the broken stile. Navigating through the wood was confusing, because the path into it had been diverted some time between the issuing of the OS Pathfinder Series and the newer OS Explorer Series. It started with the diversion of the path around Middle Farm to preserve privacy. Someone thought it was good idea to divert the path on the other side of Damery Lane so the paths joined up. Unfortunately, the new path has not been maintained. The old path is still negotiable but the stiles are not good – though better than the new one – because they are no longer on the official line of the footpath.

The rest of the route to Falfield was without problems. There is a shortcut to explore but I like the walk past the ponds.

There are still a couple of bad stiles on the route over the hill.

When I got to Morton, I noticed that the 207 bus was due in a couple of minutes, so I decided to wait for it rather than walk the well rehearsed paths through town. It turned out that it was the same bus that I taken to get to Berkeley – with the same driver – only the number had changed.

The picture shows the Old Mill at Woodford