The Dig

From the Stroud Common Bus Stop, Alveston

Head out of Alveston into the countryside until you come to a bridlepath on the left.

Follow the enclosed path until you emerge in a field. Go through the stone gateposts on the left and descend the field to a gate.

Through the gate, turn right and follow the track round to the right. After a path joins from the left you will come to the archaeological dig on the left.

After you have explored the dig, return to the track and turn left through the gate. (There is an interesting “dew pond” on the right.) The path joins the bridle path as it descends to a gate onto the road.

Turn left onto Greenhill Lane. (Don’t be seduced by the private drive on the left.) And head up the hill until you emerge on Greenhill Road in Alveston.

Turn left and follow the road past the shops up to Down Road. (Unless you have time to visit the highly recommended Square Bakehouse and Coffee Shop.)

Turn right on Down Road and follow it towards the Ship Inn. We recommend you divert to the right to cross the B4061 using the pedestrian crossing. On the far side, turn left and follow the road past the Ship Inn and Old Gloucester Road to a stone stile straight ahead that leads into the grounds of the Ambience Paddock smallholding. (Unless they have finished the new pedestrian cycleway of course!)

Make your way downhill, through a couple of kissing gates and continue to the bottom of the smallholding, where there is another kissing gate into the field behind the Leisure Centre.

Go through a gap onto the path around the Leisure Centre and turn left. Follow the path around the building and across the entrance drive to the Leisure Centre bus stop.

Cross the road using the traffic island and go up the drive towards the Thornbury Golf Centre. Just before you reach the golf course, turn right over a stile into an enclosed path that leads you to the Mundy Playing Fields.

Turn right past the football pitch, down the field and up past the play equipment to emerge via the Close into Thornbury High Street.