Thornbury Wayfinders

Aztec Westward

This excursion explores new ponds, old but active claypits and new plantations as we walk back to Thornbury. 

To get to the start, take the number 10 bus from Rock Street to the Aztec West to the Willow Brook bus stop in Bradley Stoke.

The walk is about 10 miles long 

Chance for lunch at the Swan in Tockington at about X miles.

From the Willow Brook bus stop, head towards the Leisure Centre and make your way around the right hand side to find the entrance to Savages Wood part of the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve at the back of the building. 

In the wood, follow the path to the left. Take the second path on the right at a crossroads (or crosspath?). Make your way down to the Patchway Brook. If the ground is dry, it is usually best to keep to the nearside of the brook. If it is soggy, it is best to cross over the brook and turn left on the hard surface. In either case, you need to shadow Patchway Brook until you can access the pedestrian bridge over Bradley Stoke Way.

You are now following part of the Community Forest Path, a forty five mile circular path around the city of Bristol. This trail is followed by the Green Man Challenge, a stand alone challenge and an Ultra Marathon. Those who complete the circuit inside 24 hours are known as Woodwoses (although the first person I know who completed the circuit is known as Richard Long, a renowned Bristol artist.)

The footbridge is known as the Primrose Footbridge after a cottage that used to stand nearby. The next part follows The Common, formerly Patchway Common. This is in turn divided into two parts by Brook Way, a major thoroughfare. The first part retains a rural feel, with grassy stretches and a village pond. The second part is more urban, with a number of bungalows. This area became a separate parish in 2015, known as Stoke Lodge and the Common.

When you reach the A38, turn left to find a tunnel under the road. On the other side, follow Hempton Lane past Patchway Community College. At the end follow the path into the Aztec West Industrial Estate.

The Aztec West industrial estate is blessed with some imaginative landscaping. There are usually wildfowl to be found on the second pond, which also holds fish. I think they are carp.

Turn left and follow Park Avenue until it begins to bend to the right. There is one lake on your right and another on the left. Turn left down the footway on the right of Waterside Drive. When you have passed the lake, keep right on a cyclepath that leads through to Patchway.

When you leave the industrial estate, pause to look around you.

There is an open space called the Tumps on your right and a BMX track on your left. If you look past the BMX track, you should be able to see a concrete tower, which is a clue to what is going on here. It is the top of a ventilation shaft on top of the main railway line into Wales, which disappears into a tunnel at the far end of the BMX track. The Tump are spoil heaps from the railway tunnel that runs below ground on its way to the Severn Tunnel to South Wales.  The open space called the Tumps was created as common land in the Parish of Almondsbury as compensation for loss of common land when the village of Charlton was flattened to create a runway to launch the ill-fated Brabazon airliner in 1949. 

Enter the Tumps and follow the fence on your right until you come out on a path alongside the M5. Turn left alongside the motorway and turn right on the footbridge over the motorway.

This used to be the site of the Banana Bridge. It was replaced when the M5 was widened and is no longer shaped like the eponymous fruit.

Follow the enclosed path down through Pegwell Brake to come out on Over Lane beside Sawdays Nursery on the right.

Pegwell Brake is an example of Semi Natural Ancient Woodland. There are bluebells to be seen in the woodland on the right in the Spring.

Turn left and then right down Ash Lane. Turn right at the bottom of the hill to access the footbridge over the railway into Cattybrook Brickworks. Turn right and follow the path alongside the roadway through to a footpath on the left.

Cattybrook Brickworks were created to supply bricks to line the aforementioned tunnel under the River Severn. Catty means clayey in this contest, which is presumably why they put the brickworks here. There was some flooding when they put the tunnel through as one might expect. But the cause of the biggest flood was an underground river that the tunnel ran into on the Welsh side. There was some leakage in the section under the English Stones, but these were easily capped. The brickworks have been a source of relatively cheap building materials ever since.

At a path junction, turn right. Follow the path alongside the clay pit. At the next junction, turn left down some steps, then follow the path around to the left and through some bushes to come out on Monmouth Hill. 

Turn left. When the road bends to the left, go straight ahead down a grassy track. 

When you come to a gate on the right, go through it and go straight ahead on a path through the trees. Beware it can be muddy. 

This woodland was created as part of the Forest of Avon initiative. It is not all new. The first section, on the right, is known as the Old Withy Beds, because of its former function.

When you come out on a wide grassy track, turn right. Follow the path through to a stony farm track. Turn right along it.

Follow the track around to the left, but when it goes around to the right, go straight ahead over a stile into a field.

Follow the path alongside the hedge on your right past a new plantation. 

This is a much newer piece of planting that was created under the Trees for Climate initiative.

Continue to follow the right hand hedge through three field boundaries. In the fourth field, the path cuts the corner to a footbridge over Sandy Rhine. Head straight across the next field to a stile in the hedge next to a field gate.

If you are new to the area, you may not know that Rhine is the local word for a major drainage ditch. The word is much used around here, but also in the Somerset Levels. For some reason the term has been mis attached to the Morton Millstream in Thornbury.

When you come out onto Moor Lane, turn right and follow it under the motorway (M4). Continue to follow the lane, until you come to a footpath on the left just past some stable. (You may have to fight your way down the path.)

When you come out into a field, turn right and follow the path along the right hand hedge. Go through one field boundary and continue to follow the hedge until you emerge over a stone stile on the road in Lower Tockington. Cross the road.

To visit the  Swan, turn left and follow the footpath up to the Swan. After your visit, continue up to a road junction and turn right along the road past Tockington Manor Preparatory School.

Tockington Manor also supports Triathletes.

To avoid a bit of tarmac turn right and then left into a driveway past some houses. When you come out in a paddock, bear right to look for a footbridge over Tockington Mill Rhine. Turn left and then left again when you come to a gateway. *  Follow the edge of the field to the left and up to a kissing gate. Continue up the edge of the Tockington Manor playing fields to a kissing gate onto the road. Turn left to join the other route.

You can avoid a bit more tarmac if you don’t turn left at *. Instead, you can keep going straight ahead on a farm track through a wood. At a junction, turn left and follow the farm track up to a road. Turn right.

In each case follow the road until the boundary wall of Tockington Manor bends around to the left alongside a farm drive.

Follow the drive up to Sheepscombe Farm, which appears to have been divided into various domestic units. The right of way now wends its way around the left hand edge of the former farmyard and continues on the line of the drive on the other side.

Follow the track along the valley until you emerge on Hazel Lane. 

On the way, you may notice an unusual pit or pool on the right of the track. It is supposed to be for washing carts, but our Labrador thinks it is his personal swimming pool.

Turn right and follow the road until it bends to the right. Carry straight on up Greenhill Lane.

When you come out on Greenhill Road, turn left and follow the road up past the shops on your left to Down Road. Turn right. Use the pedestrian lights to cross the B4061 to get to the Ship Inn. Go past the Ship Inn and Old Gloucester Road and follow the footway until you come to a stone stile on the right.

Go over the stone stile and go past the buildings of the Ambience Paddock and follow the path through kissing gates down the bottom of the hill.

When you come out in the field behind the Thornbury Leisure Centre bear right across the field to a gap in the cornet. Through this turn left alongside the leisure centre car park and the skateboard park. 

At the junction, go straight ahead between some woodland and some industrial units. Follow the enclosed path around the Tesco car park and under a tunnel to emerge in Streamside. Turn left and then right and you will find yourself in Rock Street, where you caught the bus.