Thornbury Wayfinders

8 Tortworth Estate about 12 K or 7.5 miles long

The Tortworth Estate is the patrimony of the Earls of Ducie, whose family name is Moreton. Unusually, the family has sold off the house and kept the land. Many formerly wealthy families have sold off their land to maintain a noble pile, which is not a good idea! The walk visits the estate shop and cafe, the ancient Tortworth Chestnut, St Leonard’s church, the estate office, the Lodge, Tortworth Court, the arboretum and lake, some parkland, and the Buckover farmland.

To get to the start, take the number 60 bus from Rock Street Thornbury to the Tortworth Green bus stop.

From the bus stop head down the road you have just passed in the bus towards the Tortworth Estate Shop.

To get off the road, go through the car park, which leads to a footpath through to the Tortworth Estate Shop, which specialises in local meat, and The Farmer’s Table cafe.

Coming out of the shop, turn right along the road between a pair of crenellated lodge houses. Continue down to the church. Head up to the church and turn right to find the Tortworth Chestnut, which is a famous and ancient tree. 

Return to the church and follow the drive around to the village hall and the Tortworth Estate Office.

On the road, turn left and look for a gate marked by a footpath sign on the right.

Head up the field, following the line of a former hedge and pass a disused quarry to find a kissing gate into some playing fields.

Head across the pitch to a kissing gate on the far side to the right of a house.

Follow the path through to the Tortworth Primary School car park and onto the road.

Cross the road into Tortworth Road and follow the footway alongside a wall to Tortworth Court and Arboretum.

Turn right past a lodge house into the driveway leading to De Vere Tortworth Court.

Leyhill Open Prison is over the fence on your left.

Turn right in front of a stone house and then look for a gate into the Arboretum on your left.

Follow the path down through the Arboretum.

Go over a metal stile at the bottom and continue past Tortworth Lake. Keep going straight up the hill to emerge on a driveway near the B 4509. 

Turn left away from the road and follow the driveway for about six hundred yards. You will need to negotiate a couple of barriers. When you pass some farm buildings on your right, look for a stile/kissing gate in the fence on the right.

Follow the path to the far left hand corner of the field, where there is a footbridge and a ford.  Keep going on a similar line to emerge through a kissing gate onto Gambril Lane.

Turn left up Gambril Lane.

On the way, you will pass the impressive back entrance to the park of Tortworth Court, complete with lodge house and metal spiked gates. As you continue up the hill you pass the Bloody Acre Hill Fort behind the boundary on the left.

At a junction near the Keepers Cottage, turn right on the farm track that goes between Abbotside and Abbotside Farm.

Past the farm buildings, turn right through a field gate onto a field track along a fence on the right. Keep going on the same line to a gate into the next field.

Here the slope descends more steeply to a stile and then down the next field to another. Continue down to the motorway and turn right over another stile.

Look for a gate to a tunnel under the motorway on the left.

On the other side, turn left and cross a bridge over a stream into the next field. Follow the right hand hedge up the field to a rather awkward field gate. 

In the next field, continue to follow the hedge to a gateway on the right. Go through the “yard” onto Brinkmarsh Lane and turn left.

Go past some houses and a pylon in the field on your right and look for a footpath sign next to a gate.

Through the gate, follow the left hand hedge to a fixed gate. Climb over the gate and follow the hedge to another, where the right of way swaps to the other side of the hedge. Follow the hedge on the right until you emerge on the A38.

This is a fast bit of road for motorists, so cross carefully into the drive across another field that comes out on the Old Gloucester Road opposite Buckover Farm.

Turn left and follow the footpath past another farmhouse, and turn right onto a farm track.

Follow the track around to the left, but when it bends to the right, go straight ahead to a kissing gate into an enclosed path.  Turn right and follow this to the bottom of the paddock and cross a footbridge into another field.

Follow the diagonal path across the field to a stile in a hedge. Continue on the same line to a gate onto Whitewall Lane.

Turn right and follow Whitewall Lane to Clay Lane and turn right again. Turn left on Crossways Lane (aka Knap Road).

Just after you pass a farm on your right, turn up an enclosed path to some allotments.  Head up Shrew Gardens to Morton Way.

Cross the road to an enclosed path through the houses opposite. Follow this until you emerge opposite The One Stop Shop.

Take the path on the right hand side of the shop. Bear left at the path junction then bear right at the next onto the path in front of some houses, which goes down some steps onto Eaton Hill Road.

Cross the road to a patch of grass, where you will find a concealed path behind the houses and along the top of the Christ the King Primary School playing fields. Keep going straight ahead until you come out at the top of some steps and a slope,

Head down and turn right on the continuing path. If you keep straight ahead, you will come out on Maple Avenue. Follow the footway, which carries on the same line and points to another enclosed path leading down to a stream.

Go straight ahead, either in the path around the backs of the houses on the left or straight across the former sixth form playing field. (This will depend on how the developers have got on. 

In either case, follow the enclosed path through to Hillcrest. Turn left and then right into Crispin Lane, which leads through to Pullens Green, where you should have sight of Rock Street Car park and the St Mary Centre.