5 The Frome Valley Walkway
22.2 K or 12.7 miles
This route explores a section of the Frome Valley Walkway and two of its tributary streams. It also encounters the new Larks Green Solar Farm and the Tytherington Quarries Mineral Railway.
To get to the start, take the T1 bus from Rock Street, Thornbury to the Great Stoke bus stop. The Great Stoke bus stop is after the bus crosses Winterbourne Road. It is immediately after the footbridge over Great Stoke Way.
The Larks Green Solar Farm Tour adds a kilometre. This is the only option until the Solar farm is completed.
If you want a shorter route, a West Link bus should take you to the start of the Electric Avenue Short Route at Rangeworthy Chapel. (10K or 6.2 miles.) But you need to book this a day in advance.
- From the Great Stoke bus stop go up the ramp at the back of the bus stop that leads to one end of the footbridge. Don’t go over the footbridge. Instead go straight ahead to a kissing gate into a field.
2) Follow the diagonal path around a lake to a kissing gate onto Winterbourne Road. Turn right. Follow the footway across the end of Old Gloucester Road and under the M4. Look for a Bristol gate on the right just after an impressive driveway.
3) Follow the enclosed track alongside the Bradley Brook until it opens out into a triangle. Go over the stile on your left and continue to follow the Brook until you come to a footbridge over the Brook.
4) Turn right away from the footbridge and follow the path alongside a fence on your right. Continue straight ahead past an electricity pylon and over a bridge into the next field. Follow the hedge on your right up the hill to a kissing gate leading to a track under a railway tunnel.
5) On the other side of the railway tunnel continue straight ahead to a T-junction.
6) Turn left and follow the road through the hamlet of Quarry Barton. The road crosses Bradley Brook to come out on the B4058 Bristol Road.
7) Cross the road and turn left. Look for a kissing gate up some steps just past a bus stop.
8) In the field, follow the path across the middle to a stile.
9) In the next field, follow the right hand hedge down to a stile onto Mill Road. Follow the footway to the right until you can see to cross the road into the lane signposted Frome Valley Walkway. It is just past Frome Bank Gardens.
10) Go over the bridge and turn left onto the Frome Valley Walkway.
11) Follow the path through the woods along the river bank. Cross the footbridge over the river, turn right and follow the upper path alongside the river to The Dingle.
12) At the other end of The Dingle, turn right onto Down Road and follow the road round to Damson’s Bridge.
13) The Frome Valley Walkway between Damson’s Bridge and Frampton Cotterell can be challenging or even dangerous after heavy rain. One woman went in up to her neck on the side of the path away from the river.
14) If it has not been raining, follow the right-hand bank to just before Huckford Viaduct. Cross the footbridge and follow the other bank under the viaduct to a bigger footbridge and cross back to the right-hand side. Follow the river to Frampton Cotterell.
15) When you come out on Rectory Road, in Frampton Cotterell, just past a garden with a model train in it, turn left and then right alongside the river to get to Church Road.
16) Go left and then right down Mill Lane between the Globe and the Church.
17) The Frome Valley Walkway goes straight on – down Mill Lane. The right of way goes through the steel yard, but there is a more pleasant alternative. Turn left down an enclosed path into the millennium park. Turn right and follow the right hand hedge to the end. Through the kissing gate, turn right to rejoin the riverside walk.
18) Once back on the riverbank, follow the river until you come to a footbridge over it. (There are easier and more difficult ways to accomplish this.)
19) Over the bridge, follow the riverside path upstream.
On the left there is usually a stand of Hemlock, which is deadly poisonous.
After this the Ladden Brook runs into the Frome. The Ladden Brook rises on Sodbury Common and takes a winding course past Yate Rocks and Yate Court before performing a U turn just before Cromhall and heading south to join the Frome at Cog Mill Farm.
20) Continue to follow the riverbank through a bit of a thicket which is often muddy underfoot. And a confusion of paddocks until you come to Hoover’s Lane, which leads to a ford over the river.
21) On the other side of the lane, follow the bank until you come to an enclosed path leading to a piece of rough ground. Follow the river until you come to a bridge that takes you to the other bank of the river.
22) Follow the Walkway past an orchard and through a field to a stone stile onto Frampton End Road. Turn right and follow the road past the site of an ancient mill and over a bridge to find the Avon Valley Walkway on your left.
23) Follow the path to Tubbs Bottom weir, which helps to prevent flooding downstream. It is well worth a look if the river is in spate (although it might be dangerous to get here if the river is too high!)
24) Continue past Tubbs Bottom until you come to a bridge over the river. Cross the bridge and follow the path across the field to some steps up the mineral railway.
The mineral railway runs from Yate to Hanson’s quarries at Tytherington near Thornbury. Trains are rare, but they do happen up to three times a week so be cautious and take all reasonable precautions!
25) Follow the path across the next field, which brings you to an enclosed path. Turn left and follow the walled path into the churchyard of St James the Less at Iron Acton. Turn right and follow the path through to the High Street and turn right.
26) Follow the path alongside the High Street to a junction and turn left down Wotton Road.
27) Go past the Lamb Inn (or not!) and continue up to the traffic lights. Turn left just before the lights and cross the road to a kissing gate at the top of a bank.
28) Follow the hedge on your left and cross the drive leading to Acton Lodge Farm.
The farm used to be a hunting lodge in the deer park attached to Acton Court. You can still see the diagnostic tower from which spectators used to watch deer hunting in the park.
29) Continue over the driveway and past a barn on a farm track with a fence on your right. This leads to a gate into an open field.
30) The right of way heads straight across the field to a stile next to a field. Continue straight ahead to a pair of stiles on either side of another farm drive. Continue straight across the next field to a gap and an overgrown bridge. It is just to the right of the right hand oak tree and next to an electricity pole. On Patch Elm Lane turn left.
It used to be possible to catch the 622 bus to Patch Lane in Rangeworthy, from which you could walk on to turn right into Patch Elm Lane and complete a shorter walk from this point. Now you’d need to book a West Link bus for this option.
31) Follow the lane past the houses, and after the lane bends to the right between two girders set upright, turn left alongside a garden on your left. Follow the hedge on your left over one stile and then look for a bridge over the ditch on your left. On the other side, turn right to find a stile leading to a crossing over the mineral railway.
You’ve crossed this once before, so you know the drill! Stop, Look and Listen!
32) On the other side, climb another stile and. follow the hedge on your right until it bends to the left in front of you. Follow the line of this hedge straight across the field to a gated footbridge just past a stunted oak tree.. Turn right and follow it to another gated footbridge bridge over the Ladden Brook. Turn right.
33) Follow the grassy strip to a hunting gate next to a hunt jump or cross-country obstacle.
34) Through the gate, look for a pedestrian gate and stile on the left. In the field, bear right to find a gated footbridge under a tree. In the next field, bear left towards Lower Lark’s Farm.
36) Go through the right hand gate and follow the permissive path through two more gateways until you have passed the farm gardens and paddocks on your left.
Strictly speaking there is a right of way through the gardens, but it is in nobody’s interests to insist on this. If the government put into effect legislation passed some years ago it would be cheaper and easier to make the permissive path the definitive right of way.
37) Through the last gate, follow the hedge on the left to a gated footbridge in the corner.
Larks Green Solar Farm: you are now entering a new solar farm. 8000 trees are being planted on this site to add to its green credentials.
38) Follow the path between the hedge on the left and the fence protecting the solar panels on the right. After you pass under a power line, look for a gated footbridge on the left. Go diagonally across the rough pasture to a kissing gate in the far corner.
39) Through the gate, turn left through a Bristol Gate concealed under a tree.
40) Follow the path straight ahead past a pylon on the right and a new electricity sub station on the right.
41) Through a gate, turn right and follow the hedge on your right to a kissing gate and footbridge into the next field.
This is where the new solar farm has impinged on the planned route. Although the closure of the route to the left is only temporary, the alternative route provides a tour of the solar farm, which might be preferred, particularly if you were doing the Electric Avenue Short Route.
Standard Route:
42) Turn left past three trees in a row and follow the track to Lower Farm. Make your way through the farmyard to Itchington Road.
| Larks Green Solar Farm Tour (adds a kilometre): Go across the track and follow the path through the grassy space between two solar panel enclosures. At the end, follow the path to the right between the hedge and the right hand enclosure.Look for a stile, plank bridge and kissing gate in the hedge on your left. In the field, follow the right hand hedge to the bottom and turn left past some buildings hidden in the trees.Go straight across the end of a track and go into the next field with a tall hedge on your right. Follow this hedge and another to a plank footbridge and stile. You are now back in the solar farm.Follow the path through a grassy space between the solar enclosure on the left and a hedge on the right until the space narrows and you come to a gap in the hedge on the right.In the next field, bear left past another solar enclosure.In the next field, follow the path between the solar enclosure on the left and the hedge on the right. After the hedge bulges to the left, look for a footbridge in the corner.Over the footbridge and a plastic fence to exclude Great Crested Newts, bear left on the path between two solar enclosures.Cross a track and another new fence into a rough field. Bear right across the field to a stile and footbridge in a hedge. This leads to another rough field or paddock between farm buildings. The right of way goes straight ahead and keeps closest to the right hand buildings.Go through a yard to a sort of kissing gate in Heras fencing. |
43) Turn left on Itchington Road and then right onto another version of Itchington Road.
44) Follow the road for a bit over a kilometre, which will take you under the motorway.
The traffic is infrequent, but the road is narrow so you will need to take care. There are some interesting houses along the length of the road.
45) On the other side of the motorway go past the turning on the left and an interpretation panel describing local geology. When the road bends to the right past Wolfridge, which is the home of Ace Dog Training and Walking, keep straight ahead on the Jubilee Way.
46) Go through a kissing gate and a Bristol gate and follow track to another Bristol gate next to some barns.
47) Go straight ahead through two more fields until you come out through a kissing gate onto a green lane.
48) Go straight on uphill until you come to the A38.
49) Cross the A38 carefully into the lane opposite. Continue across the A38 into Abbey Lane and keep going till you reach a right angle bend to the left.
Here the route leaves the Jubilee Way.
50) Go straight ahead to a kissing gate and head down the field to another on a hedge corner next to a field gate. Head down the field to a kissing gate in the diagonally opposite corner. Head past a field gate to another kissing gate at the top of some steps down to Midland Way.
51) Cross the road to an enclosed path. At the end follow a path up onto the Railway Path.
This is the former Midland Railway, which used to serve Thornbury. The nearby railway bridge was built wide enough to accommodate a two track railway, but the embankment was never made wide enough to take more than one track.
52) Turn left and follow it till you emerge on Midland Way. Cross at the pedestrian refuge and turn right.
53) Cross Cooper Road and take the path between the Essilor works and the grassy bank. Turn right at the end through the old railway tunnel, which brings you out onto Streamleaze.
54) Turn right and then left into a cul-de-sac called Tyndale View. Take the path on the left at the end, which leads through to an area with some garages. Go across to the opposite corner, where the road leads past the Thornbury Community Garden.
55) Turn right down the one way street, (You ought to be able to cut the corner through the garden, but they don’t always unlock both gates!)
56) At the other end of the road turn left into Bath Road. On your right is Rock Street long stay car park. On the left is a raised garden with an interpretation panel, which explains Tyndale View.
At the top of the road is Rock Street, where you caught the bus.
Thornbury Wayfinders 