7 In search for the Wood of Furches
From the Duchess House 23.5 K or 14.6 miles
I am now reasonably sure that the bounds of the former Royal Forest of Horwood were the Severn Estuary, in the west the Little Avon in the north, the Cotswold Edge in the east and the Bristol Avon in south. But that was not always the case.
The first marke in the Disafforestation Charter that abolished the Forest of Horwood in 1228 is Boscum de Furcis aka The Wood of Furches. This wood, which marks the southern boundary of the Forest, is said to be near Bristol. Many people thought Kingswood Chase had to be the Wood of Furches because it survived the disafforestation.
For a long time I was misled by the suggestion that Boscum de Furcis meant Gallows Wood, but none of the gallows sites near Bristol seemed to fit. I then thought that it must refer to a wood on a hillside, often called a hanger. But this did not narrow it down. There are several hangers called Cleeve Wood near Bristol, none of which seemed to be useful boundary markers for the forest either.
But when I looked more closely at the meaning of the words I found that Furcis is the genitive plural of furca meaning a fork. So boscum de furcis literally means “wood of (two-pronged) forks.” It did not mean a gallows in classical Latin and Gallows Wood does not look like an obvious translation. One meaning of furca is “a narrow pass or defile” as in furcae Caudinae described in Livy’s History of Rome Book 9: The Second Samnite War – (321 – 304 B.C.) which describes a famous debacle at the Caudine Forks. As a geographical term this is much more likely to be the meaning we are looking for. So I spent some time looking for furches where I thought the forest ought to start on the boundaries of Kingswood Chase.
To get to the start of the Duchess House walk by bus from Thornbury, catch the T1 bus from Rock Street to the Harry Stoke bus stop.
From the Harry Stoke bus stop, use the traffic lights to cross the Stoke Gifford bypass and the A4174. and walk through the Holiday Inn car park to Filton Road. Turn right and walk past three detached houses to find a path on the left.
Follow the path through some woods until you come to a path off to the right.
This is Sims Hill Community Woodland and below it is Sims Hill Shared Harvest, which is promoting Community Supported Agriculture for Bristol.
The wood is an example of a hanger or hanging wood, so called because the slope makes it suitable for making a rope swing or a makeshift gallows. I became interested in this sort of wood, because the southern boundary of The Forest of Horwood (disafforested in 1228) was described as the Wood of Furches, which is usually, though inaccurately, translated as Gallows Wood.
Take the left fork when it splits and head up Thomas Snead Road and then Edward Parker Road, which will lead you to a path through to Stoke Lane.
Cross Stoke lane using the pedestrian crossing. Turn right.
Turn left up Wright Way and follow it through to Jellicoe Avenue. Continue through to the kissing gate at the entrance to Stoke Park, then follow the cycle path past the Dower House to the tunnel under the motorway next to the Duchess pond
Stoke Park House, aka The Dower House or the Duchess House is a familiar sight visible from the M32, which cuts through Stoke Park. The house was built by Sir Richard Berkeley in its present form and came to the Beaufort family through marriage. It thus has links to two of the prominent families of South Gloucestershire. However, it was preserved after the departure of the last Duchess because it became a home for children with “learning difficulties” under the guidance of Rev Harold Burden, who with his wife Katharine founded the National Institutions for Persons Requiring Care and Control. Other houses that were preserved in this way were Purdown, Leigh Court, Hanham Hall and Brentry Hospitals.
Before you go through the tunnel, it is worth going up the steps on the right, just past the tunnel, which lead up to The Duchess Pond. This offers great views of the surrounding woods and the base of the obelisk that commemorated the death of a member of the family, Elizabeth Somerset. who died in a hunting accident.
The surrounding woods, like those on Sims Hill are examples of hanging woods, often called Cleve or Cleeve Wood. A glance at a local Ordnance Survey map will find several examples.
Return to the Tunnel under the Motorway and follow the drive to the gate into Stoke Park.
Go straight ahead down Broom Hill and turn left down to Snuff Mills Park (unless you want to visit the Masons’ Arms off to the right in Stapleton village.)
Continue down River View to Snuff Mills Park.
Like much of this section of the Frome, the profile of the valley has been altered by quarrying. The valley must have been narrower and steeper-sided in the middle ages. The site of the car park used to contain a pond or lake that had flooded one quarry. It was filled in when a child drowned in it. The quarries on the other side of the river were the scene of a murder. Snuffy Jack’s Mill was one of many along the river.
At the end of the park, cross the river by Halfpenny Bridge and continue along the other bank.
You are now in the Oldbury Court Estate, locally known as Vassals Park. You will pass more quarries and a weir before you reach a stream joining from the right.
This is one of the side clefts that are characteristic of this area.
You get a better view of the cleft if you go up the far side, which can be muddy. The view is not so good on the tarmac track on the right. Turn left when you reach the bridge carrying another tarmac track down to Frenchay Bridge.
Frenchay Bridge was built by public subscription in 1788 according to one plaque. Another issued by Chipping Sodbury Rural District Council gives a weight limit of 6 tons.
Cross Frenchay Bridge and turn right. Follow the road around the corner and turn right again down Chapel Lane and follow the path to Cleeve Road Bridge.
Cleeve Road Bridge is a grade II listed building (as is the boundary marker in the middle of the bridge.) It is worth looking under the bridge where you can see evidence of an earlier bridge. It is also worth pausing to admire the view from the top of the bridge, especially on the far side towards Cleeve Mill.
Go up Cleeve Road towards Frenchay and turn right down Grange Park to find the track on the left down to the River Frome. Follow the river bank to Hambrook under the Ring Road and the M4 and over the bridge on Mill Lane over Bradley Brook.
You will have ample opportunity to admire cliffs along the river and another example of a “cleft” joining from the left, which was cut by the Ham Brook.
This route is very muddy after rain.
Over Bradley Brook turn right into a field to follow the Frome Valley Walkway and the Community Forest Path. The field narrows to a track leading to a stile onto a road. Turn right and then follow the road over a bridge and alongside the river to a junction.
Here the Frome Walkway and the Community Forest Path split.
Follow The Frome Valley Walkway along the road beside the river towards the bridge at Pye Corner.
Just before the bridge turn right into the woods and follow the Walkway along the river.
Cross the footbridge, turn right and follow the upper path alongside the river to The Dingle.
At the end of the Dingle, turn right onto Down Road and follow the road round to Damson’s Bridge.
The Frome Valley Walkway between Damson’s Bridge and Frampton Cotterell can be challenging or even dangerous after heavy rain. One woman went in a ditch up to her neck on the side of the path away from the river.
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.
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.
Go left and then right down Mill Lane between the Globe and the Church.
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.
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.)
The footbridge is a signal to leave the river. Head up the bank and keep right to look for a gate out of the field onto an enclosed green lane called Cogmill Lane.
Follow the lane for a long kilometre until you come to a T-junction. Turn right on the tarmac road and follow it around a couple of right angled bends., ignoring a lane to your left. After you reach Sheephouse Farm on the right, look for a footpath sign on the left.
On the other side of the stile follow the path across the field to another one. Go straight ahead to a gateway at the bottom of the field.
In the next field, follow the right hand hedge down to a footbridge and stiles into the next field.
Go slightly right of straight ahead to find a footbridge and stile concealed in a row of trees. The stile out of the next field is on the horizon ahead.
Follow the path parallel to the hedge on the left to a stile about twenty metres from the corner of the field.
Keep going parallel to the left hand hedge to find a stile concealed behind a willow tree on the site of an old pond.
Bear left across the next field. The aim is to get to a stile next to a gate near an oak tree. However, this large field is often subdivided and it may be better to veer to the right and follow the hedge down to the stile.
In the next field, shadow the wonky left hand hedge to a stile in the hedge to the right of a field gate.
You will come out on Old Gloucester Road. Cross carefully to a plank bridge and a stile.
Head for a pair of stiles/gates on a farm track and carry on to find a footbridge guarded by stiles over the Dockham Ditch in the hedge ahead. Turn right and follow the right of way through the paddocks.
The route on the ground is different from the one on the OS map which is based on a nineteenth century map. The old route has been covered by buildings.
Go over a stile next to the ditch and then a footbridge. Bear left to a gate and then head for a gate next to a telegraph pole.
Make your way around the left, where there is a gate in the corner.
Go up the enclosed path to come out on the driveway leading to the farm and stables. Turn right. At the end of the drive, turn left.
Go past a white house on the right and turn right on the drive up to Angers Farm and then turn immediately left alongside the hedge and ditch.
At the end of the field, go over a footbridge and stile into the next field and turn right to follow the hedge and ditch (now on your right) across two stiles until you come to a footbridge over the motorway. Over the footbridge turn right.
Here we join the route from Horfield to Alveston and Thornbury.
The field is now used as a motorbike track as well as grazing for horses and cattle. You need to follow the left hand hedge as best as you may until you reach a footbridge with stiles. Go over the footbridge and turn left up the hedge side to a kissing gate into another field.
Up to this point, you are still following the pale of Tockington Park.
Over the stile, the path heads for the diagonally opposite corner of the field. Go over the footbridge with stiles next to the right hand gate and head straight across the field to a stile by the gate onto a cutoff section of Church Road, which is to the left of a large white house.
On the left as you approach the road stood the Royal Manor owned by King Harold before 1066, which was confiscated by William the Conqueror as spoils of war. For Harold, Alveston was a handy resting place on the way to the ferry to Portskewett in Gwent. William Rufus, the Conqueror’s son, also stayed here. He was taken ill here and was carried to Gloucester, where he was persuaded that his illness was caused by his preference for having sex with men and by his refusal to have St Anselm as Archbishop of Canterbury.
William Rufus was later killed by an arrow “accidentally” fired in the New Forest, a forest which had previously claimed his elder brother Richard, who was killed by a low hanging branch.
There was certainly a Royal Deer Park associated with the manor and probably the Forest of Horwood too.
Turn left to join the main road and note the remains of Old St Helen’s Church on the left
Cross Old Church Road when you reach a board advertising the five star accommodation at Old Church Farm to a gate into a field.
Follow the right hand hedge through two fields, then head for a path to the left of a large house ahead, called the Loans.
This path follows the northwest pale of Alveston Deer Park. A nearby farm is called Lawnes Farm, which implies a clearing in a forest. “Loans” is probably a corruption of Lawnes.
Follow the path through the trees to emerge on Forty Acre Lane.
On the other side of the lane is the Wolfridge Alpaca Farm, which houses an excellent cafe. It produces coffee and food of such quality that you may find it difficult to get a seat. Wolfridge is on the other side of the A38, which is where the alpaca farm started off.
If you have not visited the Alpaca Farm, turn left up the lane to Gloucester Road and use the inconveniently placed pedestrian crossing to reach the new St Helen’s Church.
Go up Greenhill Road to Down Road and turn right to reach the Ship Inn.
This is the quickest way to get back to Thornbury. But if you have been to the cafe, you may well feel so refreshed that you fancy a longer route.
The Ship is a grade II listed coaching inn, built as a farmhouse in 1589. Its most famous customer was probably Dr Jenner of Berkeley who debated vaccination against smallpox here with local doctors at their regular meetings.
From the Ship, turn left down the hill. You can avoid the unpleasant route alongside the road, by taking the path down through the fields on the right by using the stone stile past the Old Gloucester Road. The path goes through Ambience Paddock, a smallholding with cattle, sheep and pigs. Some of the cattle look off-putting but are very placid.
The path comes out at the back of Thornbury Leisure Centre. Head for the gap to the right of the building and turn left alongside the car park.
Past the skate park, go straight ahead down a cycle path beside a wood, which takes you around the Tesco car park to a tunnel under the former Midland Railway. Through the tunnel, turn left up Streamleaze. Turn right into Rock Street, where you will find the main car parks for Thornbury, including a long stay car park on the right.
How I eventually found the true location of Boscum de Furcis: The most likely time for this classical Latin term to have been attached to a place in the Bristol District is during the tenure of Robert of Gloucester aka Robert the Consul, because of his classical education. Robert was the illegitimate elder son of Henry I, who supported his sister, the Empress Matilda during the civil war between the supporters of Matilda and her cousin, who became King Stephen. During the conflict, Robert looked after Matilda’s son Henry, who was to become Henry II at his castle in Bristol, and the following is just the sort of story he might have told his teenage nephew.
According to Livy: “This is the character of the spot; there are two passes, deep, narrow, with wooded hills on each side, and a continuous chain of mountains extending from one to the other. Between them lies a watered grassy plain through the middle of which the road goes. Before you reach the plain you have to pass through the first defile and either return by the same path by which you entered or, if you go on, you must make your way out by a still narrower and more difficult pass at the other end.”
Here, according to Livy, a Roman army was trapped by the Samnites.
The Samnite general, Gavius Pontius, consulted his aged father Herennius who advised his son to let the Romans go and negotiate an honourable peace, or alternatively to kill them all. Instead, he decided to humiliate the Roman army by disarming them and making them bend under the yoke formed by tying a spear across two others. This meant that an intact and furious army arrived back in Rome intent on exacting revenge for their humiliation. This infamous incident is depicted in the coat of arms of the modern town of Forchia in Italy that stands on the site of the battle.
In the days when rivers were often more reliable than roads for getting from A to B, it was more obvious than it is now that Bristol stands, like Forchia, between two gorges: the more famous Clifton Gorge, which was made even more iconic by the building of Brunel’s Suspension Bridge, and the less well known gorge at Hanham.
For millennia, Bristol has been defined by these gorges, particularly the Clifton Gorge. The Suspension Bridge connects two iron age hill forts, one of which seems to have been called Caer Odor in early Welsh, which means the City of the Chasm. The hill fort on the Clifton side used to be linked by a ford across the river to two similar hill forts on the Somerset side of the Gorge. It is not clear whether the name applied to the Clifton fort only or to all three taken as a unit. What is clear is that Bristol in its present location was not a place of consequence during the iron age, nor during the time of the Romans, when the local centre was at Sea Mills at the mouth of the River Trym.
Indeed it was not until the Viking Age that the modern situation of Bristol came to prominence during the reign of Aethelred the Unready, a thousand years ago. Rivers were as good a way of moving troops around as roads – as the Viking raiders had often demonstrated. The Normans were descended from Norsemen after all and it was only seventy six years since a Viking army had sailed up the Yorkshire Ouse and destroyed the northern army of the Saxons at the Battle of Fulford near York in 1066, The gorge, whose sides were even steeper before they were hacked about by eighteenth and nineteenth century quarrying, became the effective Sea Walls of a growing town.
This is the obvious meaning of the city’s coat-of-arms, which is otherwise unintelligible.
The Debacle at the Caudine Forks was an ideal story for Robert Earl of Gloucester to pass on to his young nephew, Prince Henry of Anjou, later Henry II, who was entrusted to his care in Bristol in 1142. Telling the story showed off Uncle Robert’s classical education and demonstrated how important it was for a young prince to follow the advice of aged advisors like Uncle Robert.
The gorge was the secret of the port’s success in an age where raiders often set up bases on the islands in the Bristol Channel, and it is also the secret of the location of the boscum de Furcis, which marks the southern boundary of the Forest of Horwood.
The unifying message was to avoid dishonour between two forks, be they gorges or the uprights of a gallows.
There was a poignant twist for Robert of Gloucester, because, if his birth had not been tainted by illegitimacy, he would have been king, as eldest son of Henry I and not stuck in a less honourable position between the Clifton and Hanham gorges!
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