A Community Forest Path of about 5.5 K or 3.4 miles
The route is waymarked with stickers like this
https://www.komoot.com/tour/1975343566
This route is fully wheelchair accessible except for the path between Crossways Lane and Shrew Gardens, which can get muddy when wet. The route is based on the Streamside Walks created by the late Allan Burberry with the aid of pupils from the Castle School and others. I have included some of Allan Burberry’s nature notes.
Start by the pedestrian lights next to the St Mary Street Shopping Centre.
Cross Rock Street towards the car park and turn right. Turn left down Bath Road. Continue past the car park entrance on the left and Turnberrie’s on the right. If you are in a wheelchair, you may prefer to take a shortcut through the car park to avoid the adverse camber in Bath Road.
The name Bath Road commemorates an open air swimming bath, which stood opposite the back entrance of Gillingstool Primary School, where there is now a block of flats called The Bathings.
Follow the tarmac path that runs between the back of Gillingstool Primary School and a stone wall.
Turn left at a T-junction at the end and follow the path around until it splits into three. Take the middle path and bear left on the main path between two rows of houses. Bear right as you emerge in a more open space and take the path that goes under Streamleaze via an underpass, which gives the impression that you are going through an actual Gateway!
Head up the path between some trees and some houses until it bends to the left into a long open space with a path along each side. I prefer to walk along the grass up the middle, but this depends on the state of the ground. Keep going until the space opens up a bit and some young trees have been planted on the right. Turn left and follow the path through to Grovesend Road.
Turn right a little and cross the main road into Malvern Drive. Turn right (or straight on – it depends how you look at it) on a metalled path. Keep going downhill, past a small sort of car park and a house on the left until you can go left alongside a tree-lined stream on your right.
Allan Burberry writes, “The land on both sides was built up on both sides when the houses were erected: the original level before the mid 1970s is shown by the mature trees on either side of the stream. There is a wider range of native trees along this stream than along most of the others with some fine oak ash and willow, some of which have been pollarded. There are also both hazel and alder, which produce plenty of catkins in early spring.
Pass three footbridges on the right. At a grassy triangle keep straight on on the left hand side of a grassy open space. Crossways School is behind a fence on the left.
Keep right through the subway and follow the road more or less straight ahead past Hacket Lane and an interesting cottage.
At the end of this piece of road, cross Morton Way into Crossways Lane.
A bit over a hundred and fifty metres along Crossways Lane, a stream flows under the road from the right, where it comes through a gap in the wall. This stream rises from springs at Grovesend and flows through Cleve Wood and the Hacket to get here. There is a footpath sign on a telegraph pole pointing to a footpath opposite just before Crossways Farm.
Follow the enclosed path alongside the stream on your right and some new allotments on your left to a small car park.
Look for a tarmac path on the right that winds its way down between the houses on the left and the stream hidden in the hedge on the right, which joins a similar stream in the valley bottom.
This stream flows from springs on Buckover Farm via The Knapp. Turn left to follow the combined stream past a shallow lake on the left to a bridge over the stream.
Over the bridge, follow the path up into the next field and then through the underpass beneath Morton Way.
Continue to follow the stream (second on the left.) Before you reach Gloucester Road, you pass a Community Orchard and a Wildflower Meadow.
On the other side of Gloucester Road, continue to follow the stream.
Allan Burberry writes, “There has been a mill on this site for at least six centuries, if not longer.”
The Anchor Inn BS36 1JY, on the left as you cross the road is a convenient place to stop for lunch if the time is right. It is now serving coffee when it is not time for a beer.
After you pass two footbridges and some tinkling waterfalls turn left over the third footbridge then left over another, which crosses a tributary stream. Follow the path past the silted up remains of a pond.
According to Allan Burberry, the pond used to have “a good variety of aquatic life including frogs, small fish, snails and leeches. The four trees near the top of the pond are alders whose seeds are eagerly sought by tits and possibly siskins in winter. The hawthorns fringing the opposite side of the pond are a good place for fieldfares and redwings during hard spells in winter.”
Follow the Brook upstream. This is The Streamside Walk, one of the jewels in Thornbury’s crown. It is well used by pupils from the Castle School who use it as a safe route to and from school.
Allan Burberry writes, “As you walk along the path, notice the rocky outcrop on the left. This is one of several exposures along the streamside walk of Thornbury conglomerate, a mixture of various rocks in a limestone [matrix]. It might be a good idea to cut back some of the vegetation so we could see the rocky outcrops.
Follow the path upstream and go through an underbridge beneath Park Road.
“On the left of the stream is a small enclosed garden with seats. The area on the right, now a car park and scout headquarters, was once the site of Thornbury’s gas works in the days when many small towns produced their own gas.
Follow the path past the Scout Hut and continue to follow the stream (now on your left.) When the tarmac path crosses the stream so the stream is on your right, you have the option of using the muddier path on the other bank, which leads to some stepping stones. The two versions rejoin after the pond.
Allan Burberry writes of the muddier path, “This track leads to a circular pool, once the filter bed of Thornbury Sewage Works. There are stepping stones across the pool. If you take this route, do not be deceived by the apparent shallowness of the water for there is a fair depth of silt – the pool bottom is nearly two feet below the water level, certainly more than wellie deep.
“On the other side of the footbridge, the valley opens out.”
The pollarded willows here could do with some attention..
Continue up to Gloucester Road and cross the zebra crossing
On the other side of the zebra crossing, bear right to rejoin the stream.
The building set back on the left started life as the local Work House. It was then a hospital and is now flats.
There is another outcrop of Thornbury conglomerate on the left at the beginning of the next stretch. Continue to walk upstream until you come to a cross path. Go straight ahead between the houses into St David’s Road.
Cross the road into an enclosed path that takes you through to a grassy open space. The path runs on top of the culverted stream that used to drain the Bathing Pool. Allan Burberry writes that this was an open stream comparatively recently. Bear left on the tarmac path across the Oakleaze Open Space to some concrete bollards.
This open space has not been built on because it used to be a tile works. I wonder how this relates to the coming and going of silt on this stream.
Continue to the underpass across Gillingstool and turn right up the ramp.
On the other side of the road is the Borough Stone with an interpretation panel nearby, which will explain that the bricks set into the pavement show the course of the culvert that carries the brook from The Bathings. Head up the hill to return to the pedestrian lights next to Rock Street car park.
Thornbury Wayfinders 