Thornbury Wayfinders

4 Dursley   18K or just over 11 miles

This is a potential Slowway between Dursley and Thornbury. It begins with a steep climb on the Cotswold Way up to Stinchcombe Golf Course then down to North Nibley. Here our route diverges from the Cotswold Way by crossing the fields to Damery via Katherine’s Farm before heading under a railway, over the Little Avon and under the motorway to Heneage Court. and From there, we take the familiar path over Eastwood Park into the town.

Take the 60 or the 62 bus from Thornbury, Rock Street to Dursley (May Lane Bus Station).

From the bus station, turn right and right again past the Old Spot and follow the Cotswold Way up the road. When the road bends to the left, keep straight ahead into the wood. The path will take you up to the Stinchcombe Hill Golf Club. You will emerge between the Clubhouse on your right and the car park on your right.

Follow the road past the car park until you see a red dog poo bin on the right just before a road junction, which marks the route of the shorter version of the Cotswold Way. Follow the Cotswold Way down through the wood and alongside a field until you come out on a road through a kissing gate.

Turn left and then right through another kissing gate and follow the path across a wide field to another gate. Follow the path down the hill to emerge on a road near some cottages.

Turn right and follow the road up to a major road. Carefully cross the road to an enclosed path that will take you through to Lower House Lane in North Nibley.

Turn left into the Street then look for a stepover stile into an enclosed path on the right. 

Here you leave the Cotswold Way.

The following footpath has been well described by Tony Powell in a report to the Parish Council dated 1999/2000, in which he gives the names of individual fields. He also states that this footpath (number 25) is one of the major mediaeval routes through the parish.

When you come out into a field (called The Croft), follow the right hand hedge to “a good stile into the Dryleaze.”

In the next field (Horse Leaze) through a kissing gate follow the left hand hedge to a stile into “The Lye Field.” Continue with the hedge back on your right hand side through a stile into “Brockley” and another into “Coles Leaze.” Now turn immediately left to a field gate into “Little Pillwell” then right to another gate into a pasture field, where the farmer has unkindly amalgamated “Bladders, Middle and Lower Meadows” into a single unit. 

In the bottom right hand corner there is a mediaeval stone stile, over which you turn right onto a bridle path.

Follow the bridle path until you come to a gate across it and turn left into another bridle path. 

This bridle path does not follow the line shown on the OS map. It follows an enclosed path along the right hand edge of the fields until it goes through a horse gate into an orchard. Follow the new line of bridle path around the left hand edge of the orchard until you come out on the driveway to Katherine’s Cottage.

Over to the right you have passed the site of groundEd which provides farming based education for people aged 16 to 25 who would thrive better in this environment than a more conventional setting.

When you come to the drive to Katherine’s Farm turn right. Just before you reach the yard, turn left and follow the signs through a garden area until you reach a field gate into a horse paddock.

The attractive gardens here are part of a project to raise money for St Peter’s Hospice in memory of Katherine Meyer who was looked after by them. More information about Katherine’s Cockadoodledoo Trust can be found at cockadoodledoo.org.uk.

Follow the diagonal path across the field to a stile in the middle of the fence. Continue on a similar line across the next field to a field gate in the far right hand corner.

When I first explored this route, this field and a couple more further on appeared to have been sown with wild flowers to provide seed for wild flower projects in town.

Turn right. You are now on a semi metalled road, which improves as you move along it. Continue past drives off to the right, under a railway bridge (Park Underbridge) and past a barn until you emerge at a road junction.

The railway going over the bridge connects Bristol and Birmingham so you will be unlucky not to see trains going over it, if that is your thing. I saw a goods train and two passenger trains as I walked towards Damery.

Turn left across the road to Huntingford and around the bend to the right on the slightly more major road.

The bend goes around a mysterious object described as Old Castle – Earthwork on the OS map. It is odd because the ditch is inside rather than outside the circle, suggesting that it was made to keep something in rather than to keep enemies out. Suggestions on a postcard – if they still exist!

Turn left over the Little Avon River left on Tortworth Road  past the old mill.

Here you enter the former Royal Forest of Horwood.

Continue up the road past a road off the left, and when the road bends to the left, go straight on up a drive lined with Lombardy Poplars.

When the drive bends to the right, go straight ahead on a grassy track past a pond on the right.

The track takes you through Daniels Wood.

When you come out the other side, turn right down the side of the wood. Go through a kissing gate and bear right down the slope to a track at the bottom. 

Turn right and follow the track under the motorway.

On the other side, turn left and go across a bridge into the next field. Follow the right hand hedge up the field to a stile into a long field.

Follow the path through the field. There is a wood and Heneage Court on the right and some lakes or ponds on the left.  After you have passed the house, go through a gate and turn right. Follow the path up the hill to a stile onto a driveway.

Turn left and follow the driveway to the A38 Cross the road carefully into Moorslade Lane.

On the left is Heneage Farm, where you might be able to replace the equipment that your Falcon or Tiercel  has broken or lost on the journey!

Continue past a new housing estate and turn left on a new path created between the houses and a stream on the right. At the end of the field, you will come out onto Sundayshill Lane.

Turn right and then left through a kissing gate into the Eastwood Prison Estate. Turn left over a footbridge, then keep right around the field to pick up an enclosed path at the end of a car park, which leads to a footbridge into a field.

Turn left and follow the path between a track on the right and a hedge and ditch on the left.

Continue across the farm track when it swings to the left and go over a stile in the corner of the field. Look for a bridge over the ditch on your left. On the other side, turn right and cut the corner to look for an enclosed and gated path through the band of trees ahead.

In the next field, bear left to cut the corner of the next field past a dead oak tree to a stile in the fence ahead. Head diagonally up the next field towards the wind turbine peeping over the hill. There is a difficult and redundant stile in the top left corner with a kissing gate beyond it.

Go through this gate and another kissing gate on the other side of a  muddy track. This brings you into the field containing a wind turbine. You are now back in the modern parish of Thornbury. 

The path goes diagonally across the field on a path that goes closer to the wind turbine than the route shown on most maps. The path has been diverted to go through a new kissing gate.

Through the kissing gate, turn left and follow the track to a kissing gate next to a wood. Through the gate, follow the path parallel to the gully alongside the wood. Continue through another gate until you come to a footbridge and gate on your right. 

Bear right to a gate into the next field. Through the right hand gate, bear right towards a field gate under a tree.  Follow the edge of Longman’s Grove around to a slip rail over a hunt jump. Bear left down the next field to a stile, a footbridge and another stile.

As you cross the bridge you are leaving the former Eastwood deer park.

Go straight across the field keeping parallel to the hedge on the right at first, then continuing on the same line to a stile in a projecting corner of the hedge ahead.

Continue to a stile leading to a rather damp path onto the Gloucester Road.

Be careful. 

It is probably best to cross the road onto the opposite verge and turn right. 

There is an interesting looking pond on the right but its position is too dangerous for exploration!

Turn left onto a minor road.

When the road bends to the right, go straight ahead into a field. Bear right across the field to a stile into a housing estate.

Go straight on down the cul-de-sac and cross Badger Road onto a path alongside a Teletubbies Park through to Morton Way. 

Use the pedestrian lights on the left to cross the road onto a path between the houses. This will bring you through to a green open space. Turn right on the grass past the play area. When you come out on the road, go straight ahead down Swallow Park and onto the path leading out onto Gloucester Road.

Cross the road using the traffic island.

The Anchor pub is on your left if you are interested and the timing is right!

Otherwise go straight ahead up the path with Morton Millstream on the left. 

The former name for Morton Mill was Wolford Mill, presumably the Mill belonging to Mr Wolf, or just possibly the Mill where hung out.We are not that far from Wolfridge in Alveston after all. The remains of the mill have been turned into housing.

Take the second bridge over the stream on your left. 

As you cross the bridge, you may notice a gate on your left. This leads down to the stream and affords views of the waterfall you may have heard on the way.

Continue along the enclosed path until you emerge over a stone stile onto Park Road. Turn right and follow the footway past Manorbrook Primary School. The footway will take you to an underpass beneath Park Row, which leads to a Streamside Path between the stream and the headquarters of the First Thornbury Scout Group.

The Scout hut is on the site of the former Thornbury Gas Works.

Follow the Streamside Walk past the site of the former Sewage works back onto Gloucester Road.

Use the zebra crossing to find the next section of the Streamside Walk.

Note the former workhouse on the left.

At the end of this stretch of the Streamside Walk, near a rubbish bin, turn right. You can either go up the slope into the playing field or around the path behind the houses. (You may not have a choice for long if the site is developed. ) 

At the other side of the field, take the enclosed path through to Hillcrest.  Turn left and then right into Crispin Lane, which leads to Pullins Green, from which you should be able to see Rock Street car park and the St Mary Centre.