This is a very mixed walk, across fields, through woodlands and sunken tracks and lanes. It is essential to have waterproof footwear, as for about 20m you have to walk along a shallow stream at one point. Good boots are OK - it doesn’t need to be wellies.

Directions

1. Park in the Beaufort Arms car park, Monkswood. There is no landlord to ask permission from at the moment (October 2015).
2. Leaving the car park, turn down Glascoed Lane. Walk along the lane, bearing left over the Berthon Brook, and then up and over the disused railway line.
3. Take a track on your left to Bryn Farm. Walk straight through the farmyard, then through the gate and follow the slight track keeping the wood on your left-hand side. When you reach the top of the wood stop for a breather, and turn around to take in the view.
4. Follow the hedge-line to a stile, and into the next field, and carry more or less straight on towards the house on the horizon. The views are even better from here - you can see from Twm Barlwm via the Folly and Blorenge to the Sugar Loaf. On your left is the boundary fence (covered in warnings) to Glascoed Ordnance Factory, and at the corner of the fence is an elevated pillbox.
5. When you reach the gate turn left into the lane, and after about 200m right again into Cwm Road. Follow the lane past the turn to Upper Farm to a wooden footpath sign, pointing you to the left through a field gate.
6. Go through or over this gate across the field to a second field gate, then down to the left to the far corner, where a stile takes you back onto the lane.
7. Follow the lane down to your right, then right again at the cross-roads.
8. After about 100m you follow a track to your left (this is well before the telephone box). Follow the track for around 300m, then turn uphill to the left, following the fence-line. Follow this path until you reach the lane. This area is common land, called Jenny’s Bushes.
9. Turn Right on the lane, and follow it until you reach Pergoed Lane on your left. Follow this lane straight down. It reaches a house , carry straight on past the house, through a gate and follow the sunken track in front of you.
10. Carry on down the track until it crosses a small stream and comes out on a bend in a lane. Turn down the lane to the left, to a gate leading to Glascoed Fach Farm. Take the footpath signed Little Mill to the right of the farm gate.
11. Very soon the path turns into a stream for about 20m. It is shallow, with a good firm bottom but care must be taken, particularly after heavy rain. The path emerges from the right hand side of the stream. Follow it past a couple of houses and back to a lane.
12. Turn sharp left down the lane, and follow the signs to Hill House and Hill Barn. When you get to them bear left onto a path alongside the boundary fence. (Avoid the path further to the left, which is very heavily eroded.)
13. Follow the path downwards until it opens out to a track which bears round to the right, with a sign saying ‘Private Land’. At this point look for a gate ahead and to your left, and take it to cross the disused railway - complete with rusty tracks.
14. From the stile on the far side of the railway go slightly right across the next field to a gate and stile to the left of the sheep-pens. Go through and across the field to the next stile, which takes you onto Glascoed Lane again. Turn left and follow it back over the Berthon Brook and back to the Beaufort Arms.

Points of Interest

The main point of interest is the one you don’t see - ROF Glascoed - today BAE Systems Munitions Glascoed, but known locally as ‘The Dump’. The site is well hidden by the topography of the valley, and can only be viewed from outside from a few points. Built between February 1938 and April 1940, it reached full production in 1942-43.

This walk crosses the factory’s own branch railway, which had 17 miles of railway in total, bringing 13,000 of its total of 20,000 workers to work each day.

The Folly Tower which can be seen from this walk was demolished at the start of the war, as it was believed to be a marker for Luftwaffe bombers to find the ROF, and not rebuilt until 1994. The Factory was bombed twice. Once by a lone bomber which killed one worker and injured several others - but believed they were bombing Filton airfield.

Map