North Nibley to Old Sodbury
Walked by Sally and Richard, Sunday 24th April 2016
15 miles (8 hours including stops), almost all on the route of the Cotswold Way
Click here for all our photos of this walk.
Our original plan had been to walk just to Dursley yesterday and then to walk all the way to Old Sodbury today, a total distance of 17 miles or so. However, the accommodation that Richard tried to get us in Dursley claimed to be full, so we went to Nibley House instead. Although this gave us a walk yesterday that was slightly too long (given that we had to travel from home in Norfolk too), I'm very pleased that things worked out as they did. Today's walk, down the right hand edge of OS Explorer Sheet 167, was lovely and just about the right length for us, and we got to stay at Nibley House, a Grade II listed Manor House, built in the 18th Century on the site of a previous house. Today it is run by the Eley Family and they do weddings and B&B in addition to other enterprises; mother and son seemed to be in charge of the B&B/catering side of the operation, and we were served a lovely breakfast in extremely elegant surroundings.
We left Nibley House and walked down through the village of North Nibley and began the climb up to the Tyndale Monument, on a sunken track through trees; the map and guidebook show a route that climbs steeply up steps from the track, but these were roped off (and there didn't appear to be a lot of the steps left, it looked as if they'd been washed away). We were routed further up the track, and then up a steep section through the trees to emerge on a plateau a short distance from the Monument. The Tyndale Monument was built in 1866 in honour of William Tyndale (1494-1536), a protestant reformer best known for his translation of the bible into English; there seems to be some disagreement about whether he was born in North Nibley or in nearby Stinchcombe.
There were excellent views from here, and the next section of the walk was relatively level, initially on grassland, then through woodland and past the remains of an Iron Age hill fort at Brackenbury Ditches. There were quite a lot of dog-walkers about and when we emerged onto another grassy area, with a group of conifers surrounded by a circular stone wall, it was positively busy. The trees were first planted in 1815 to commemorate the battle of Waterloo, but the trees here now are not the original ones!
The guidebook says that "the path heads to the left of this enclosure, heading downhill to a marker post where a narrow footpath is joined which continues on down to the road at Wotton-under-Edge. It actually took is a little while to find the right path here (from memory, the correct route is more straight on than left and then you turn right onto the narrow path that takes you down to the road). We could hear the
Church bells ringing as we walked down into Wotton-under-Edge and as we walked through the town we admired first the ornate clock celebrating Queen Victoria's Jubilee and then the pretty "Hugh Perry's almshouses". Wotton-under-Edge is a hilly place, and we climbed up again onto a path through the churchyard and then onto a lane heading out of town.
We followed a path alongside a busy little stream to the hamlet of Holywell. There were hills all around and it was obvious there would be more climbing coming soon; we turned right onto a road, removed a layer of clothing, and the climb began. From the road we took a sunken track through trees and climbed steeply, passing an abandoned broken safe - now how did that get there? abandoned by burglars?
The sunken track brought us to a high-level road and we continued to climb up Blackquarries Hill, with attractive views opening up to our left. We were approaching the entrance to the National Trust's Newark Park, but before reaching it, we almost doubled back on ourselves on a track with lovely views down to Wotton-under-Edge, with the distinctive clump of trees of the Waterloo Monument visible beyond, and the Tyndale Monument further into the distance. As our route curved around the edge of the escarpment we gained more distant views to the Severn Bridges.
We entered woodland, initially coniferous with recent felling activity but then merging into more mixed woodland, We descended on a glorious sunken path, beneath the roots of the trees above us. At the foot of the long descent we emerged onto open farmland above Wortley. The place we were passing had pretensions of grandeur, with gateposts topped with sculptures of deer and trees with fancy protective cages - or perhaps it really is a grand house; I can't comment because we never worked out which property these things belonged to. We crossed a road and headed across open countryside to a bridge across a stream and then along a track to the little village of Alderley. Alderley has lots of attractive buildings (guidebook: "is distinguished by some very fine Cotswold vernacular architecture"); it also has a bench on a bank above a crossroads - we sat and ate our lunch, passing the time of day with other walkers and watching several cars which appeared to be looking for some event (the passengers were holding the same leaflet...).
We passed the Church and some grander buildings and left the village on a track. On the map, the route at this point has close contours on either side and I'd struggled to see whether we would be walking in a valley or at the top of a ridge - in fact it's neither; the track is on a relatively level "shoulder" and we had a tree-crowned ridge to our left and a pretty valley to our right. It was lovely walking.
We turned right onto a track, being joined by the Monarch's Way, a 615-mile long-distance footpath that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. We've encountered the Monarch's Way before and walking it had never appealed, but checking its route in writing up today's walk, I can see possibilities; I'm not tempted to walk the whole thing, but sections might be interesting. It loops around through Worcestershire and Warwickshire to Stratford-upon-Avon, then heads through the centre of the Cotswolds and down via the Mendips to the Dorset coast at Charmouth, then east in another huge loop to Brighton and Shoreham-by-Sea.
To return to today's walk along the Cotswold Way...we turned left along another minor road, running parallel with a stream and passing a series of houses which were formerly water mills. As we passed the hamlet of Lower Kilcott, it started to rain (though it didn't come to much). The Monarch's Way turned right and shortly afterwards so did we, onto a stony track which climbed steeply through woodland. At the top of the hill there had been quite a lot of tree clearance; we turned left to follow the edge of the wood and then we turned right across open countryside. Ahead of us was the Somerset Monument, built to commemorate the achievements of General Lord Robert Somerset (not exactly a household name - apparently he was something of a hero in the Battle of Waterloo). We emerged onto a road - our route was to the left but we turned right for a short distance to take a closer look at the monument.
We followed the road towards Hawkesbury Upton, once again sharing our route with the Monarch's Way. We passed the old drovers' pond, complete with bullrushes but no sign of water. We turned left onto a broad track and followed this for a mile or so. It wasn't terribly exciting walking but there were good views down to the Severn Valley to the right. There were quite a few other people about, including a man with one child whose older son had gone ahead in a huff and the father was anxious he might have taken the wrong route.This happened to us once when the children were younger; I hope he found his son OK (as we did all those years ago).
We followed a path alongside a road then cut across past a motocross track and through a wood. The delightful National Trust manor of Horton Court came into view in the valley below and we found ourselves on a waymarked National Trust "Court to Fort" trail, which climbed up through woodland to a hill fort. We had a chat with a couple who were walking in the opposite direction, and then we stopped for a break on a bench with excellent views over the valley. The "Court to Fort" trail (along with the the Cotswold Way and the Monarch's Way) continued across the fort and then descended to the hamlet of Horton, passing a recently built folly and crossing a field with two horses racing about.
We descended to a little reservoir then climbed again to Little Sodbury, turning left by the Church and continuing to climb on a minor road. I was getting tired and so was less than impressed by the fact that our route turned left and climbed steeply to Sodbury Camp. The guidebook describes this as "probably the finest and best-preserved Iron Age Fort to be met along the Cotswold Way". It's certainly big, but I wasn't impressed. We descended steeply at the other side of the fort then turned left and crossed a field, sloping gently down to the Church at Old Sodbury.
This landscape was more to my liking, as was the view from the old side of the Churchyard and the view back up to Old Sodbury Church as we continued to descend to the village.
It was about 5pm when we reached the busy A432 and crossed it to the Dog Inn where we were staying. There were a few people in the bar and a helpful young woman showed us to our room, accessed via a courtyard to the rear of the pub. It was a fairly ordinary room, but perfectly fine (and the route of the Cotswold Way ran right outside our window) and in the evening we had a pleasant meal (we both ate fish) in the bar. I don't know whether it was a coincidence, but a lot of the visitors to the Dog Inn had canine companions...