From the Quantocks to the Sea: Day 22 of the South West Odyssey (English Branch)

The South West Odyssey was a long distance walk.

Five like-minded people started in 2008 from the Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire and by walking three days a year finished at Start Bay on the South Devon Coast in May 2019.

For various reasons this year’s instalment of the Odyssey was moved forward to April. Early spring weather is notoriously unreliable so we were prepared for anything, but hoped it might at least be dry. The forecast, though, suggested much better than that. The morning was cool as we reassembled outside the Sun Inn in West Bagborough, but once the mist burned off we were promised a day of unbroken sunshine.

Lynne, the party’s only non-walking member this year, took the obligatory photograph and then, as we walked west along the road, she drove off to research family history in the Somerset archive.



Ready to go, West Bagborough

West Bagborough (pop 358) sits on the southern slopes of the Quantock Hills. Bagborough probably means Badger’s Hill and as badgers cannot tell left from right it matters little that there is no East Bagborough. The village is best known for the ‘West Bagborough Hoard’, 681 Roman silver coins buried here in the 4th century and unearthed in 2001.

 

The Somerset section of the South West Odyssey

We turned uphill towards the church which is dedicated to St Pancras, not the London railway station but an obscure teenage martyr beheaded in Rome in 304AD.



Pulling out of St Pancras, West Blagborough

From the church our path contoured along the flank of the hill. A kilometre later, a right and left round Rock Farm led to more contouring forty metres higher up until we reached Triscombe.



Contouring from Rock Farm to Triscombe

The hamlet of Triscombe is a kilometre up a narrow road off the A358. It is too small to be expected to have a pub, or if there was one once, it would now be closed, but the immaculately thatched Blue Ball Inn looked both traditional (well as traditional as gastro-pubs go) and prosperous.

The Blue Ball Inn, Triscombe

From Triscombe we headed up Triscombe Combe (so good they named it twice), a stiff climb up a rocky gully. An even steeper climb on a grassy track around Great Hill cut off the corner to the Macmillan Way West which runs along the top of the Quantock’s southernmost ridge. The path is an offshoot of the Macmillan Way, which we encountered near Chedworth in 2011, a 290 mile route from Boston in Lincolnshire to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast promoted to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

Starting up Triscombe Combe

Skylarks sang above the grassland as we paused for coffee at a point which the map calls 'Fire Beacon' though there was no obvious reason why.

 

Coffee at Fire Beacon, Quantock Hills

We followed the ridge for four kilometres. Sometimes rocky, sometimes grassy it was a lovely path through flowering gorse and heather with fine views over the valley to our left and the rest of the Quantock range to our right.

 

On the Quantocks (picture, Francis)

Brian and Francis identified meadow pipits and stonechats perching on the gorse. They hung around long enough for all to get a good look at them, but the chiffchaffs, though easy to hear are harder to see and only the serious birders got a sight of them (they are not that exciting, anyway).

 

On the Quantocks

We passed some wild ponies. 'Dartmoor ponies are different from Exmoor Ponies,' Brian informed me before asking 'Are Quantock Ponies different again?' I had no idea, which did not prevent me getting into a complicated conversation which led to our questioning whether Exmoor ponies were a 'breed' or a 'sub-species' (and what, if anything, is the difference).

It was not the first conversation I have been involved in on a subject about which my ignorance is total. Subsequent research tells me that Exmoor ponies are a particular breed related to the primitive wild horse. There is little special about Quantock ponies which have been living wild on these hills only since 1956.

Quantock Ponies

Despite the good views, the broad ridge is a little featureless. The map labels several otherwise undistinguished points such as Halsway Post and Bicknoller Post. Reaching them we discovered that the ‘Posts’ actually are posts and what is more they tell you that they are. I find this oddly reassuring.

 

The Halsway Post, proud to be a post

Nearing the end of the ridge we swung left onto a track inappropriately called The Great Road; great in neither width nor length, it is a track not a road.

The (not very) Great Road, Quantock Hills

The Great Road soon came to its end in a car park where a small but undeniably real road toils up to the ridge. Ignoring this road, we turned right, dropping down the edge of the ridge into Vinny Combe, the steep and slippery descent made easier by a set of steps. It was a pleasant walk along the combe bottom until it widened into an ugly disused quarry from which we exited onto the A39 at the village of West Quantoxhead (there is an East Quantoxhead a few kilometres away, but why both have an 'x' when the hills are spelt with a 'ck' is a mystery).

Alison arrives in Vinny Combe

The village is a cluster of prosperous looking houses off the main road, while St Audrie’s church stands across the road. It was built in 1858 on the site of its dilapidated medieval precursor. Opposite the church is the modern looking Windmill Inn, which provided us with a couple of satisfying pints of lunch.

 

St Audrie's, West Quantoxhead (picture, Francis)

After walking northwest all morning we turned southwest through the village and continued down Luckes Lane, from where well-signed field paths took us down to Williton (yes that is its name - puerile jokes are available and you can make them yourself).

Field paths to Williton

We crossed the West Somerset Railway at Williton Station. With over 20 miles of track between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead, the West Somerset is Britain’s longest standard gauge heritage railway. The line operates from March to October running several trains daily, mostly operated by steam. It is largely single track but the station provides one of the passing places and we were lucky to see two steam trains.

West Somerset Railway steam train leaves Williton Station

A scruffy track around the Williton industrial estate was enlivened only by a few chickens marshalled by this self-important character. More field paths took us to Watchet, which sounds like another made up name though the town is much better known (though only slightly bigger) than Williton.

I'm beautiful, and I know it

Less than a kilometre of field paths separate Williton from Watchet. A perfectly good farm track seemed to run just the other side of the hedge from the path so we set off up it. It quickly became clear that it was not a perfectly good track, but a linear quagmire. We abandoned track for field only for the path to end and decant us back into the clarts.


Alison picks her way carefully round the mud, Watchet

We walked Watchet from south to north, passing the West Somerset Railway station and reaching the harbour with its statute of the Ancient Mariner by Scottish sculptor Alan Herriot. Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived at nearby Nether Stowey for several years and the setting off point for the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was inspired by Watchet harbour. I can't say it looks very inspiring with the tide out but it did make me think…

‘Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.’

The Ancient Mariner, Watchet
'Instead of the cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung.'

Our B&B was beside the harbour - and for Lynne and me there was a sea view, though limited by the sea wall which is high, concrete and ugly but sometimes very necessary. It had been an excellent day’s walk under blue skies in a temperature that would have graced early June never mind April. The Quantocks in the morning had been great walking country, and if the afternoon was less impressive, the steam trains made up for it.

With a harbour and a muddy shoreline but no beach Watchet, unlike nearby Minehead, is hardly a holiday resort, indeed walking through the town’s landward side, it had looked a little depressed. Around the harbour, though, all we needed was close at hand. A fifty metre stroll took us to the Pebbles Tavern, which serves no food but is eccentrically rated by Trip Advisor as the town's best restaurant. Its attraction lies in its range of gravity served local beers, and an impressive selection of Somerset ciders. Somebody had to check them out and Brian nobly volunteered to sacrifice himself. I don't mind cider being cloudy, but some of the rougher, and therefore more highly prized specimens seem to me to have a flavour of rotten wood. Still at 6+% alcohol, Brian thrived on them.

Indian restaurant and our B&B, Watchet

From the Pebbles we made our way to Trip Advisor’s second ranked restaurant, which does sell food, in fact it was the Spice Merchant Indian restaurant nextdoor to our B&B. So that was it, a walk in the sunshine, a couple of pints and a curry - good day!

The South West Odyssey (English Branch)

Introduction

Day 1 to 3 (2008);Cardingmill Valley to Great Whitley

Day 4 to 6 (2009) Great Whitely to Upton-on-Severn via the Malvern Ridge

Day 7 to 9 (2010) Upton-on-Severn to Andoversford
Day 10 (2011) Andoversford to Perrott's Brook

Day 11 (2011) Perrott's Brook to the Round Elm Crossroads

Day 12 (2011) Walking Round Stroud

Day 13 (2012) Stroud to North Nibley

Day 14 (2012) North Nibley to Old Sodbury

Day 15 (2012) Old Sodbury to Swineford

Day 16 (2013) Along the Chew Valley

Day 17 (2013) Over the Mendips to Wells

Day 18 (2013) Wells to Glastonbury 'The Mountain Route'

Day 19 (2014) Glastonbury to Langport

 Day 20 (2014) Along the Parrett and over the Tone

 Day 21 (2014) Into the Quantocks

Day 22 (2015) From the Quantocks to the Sea

Day 23 (2015) Watchet, Dunster and Dunkery Hill

Day 24 (2015) Dunkery Beacon to Withypool
Day 25 (2016) Entering Devon and Leaving Exmoor
Day 26 (2016) Knowstone to Black Dog on the Two Moors Way
Day 27 (2016) Morchard Bishop to Copplestone
Day 28 (2017) Down St Mary to Drewsteignton
Day 29 (2017) Drewsteignton to Bennett's Cross
Day 30 (2017) Bennett's Cross to Lustleigh
Day 31 (2018) Southwest Across the Moor from Lustleigh
Day 32 (2018): South to Ugborough
Day 33 (2018): Ugborough to Ringmore
Day 34 (2019): Around the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove
Day 35 (2019): Hope Cove to Prawle Point
Day 36 (2019): Prawle Point to Start Bay: The End
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That's All Folks - The Odyssey is over

Into the Quantocks: Day 21 of the South West Odyssey (English Branch)

The South West Odyssey was a long distance walk.

Five like-minded people started in 2008 from the Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire and by walking three days a year finished at Start Bay on the South Devon Coast in May 2019.

  

 [With updated text and photographs 21/09/14]

It is always pleasing when the B and B is the finish of a day’s walk and you start the next day by simply walking out the door. So it was today – but not for me.

Leaving home on Thursday I picked up my boots and felt a hard piece of the casing protruding inwards. An attempted repair was, at best, ineffective, at worst counter-productive and by mid morning on the first day a blister had already formed and burst.

Blister pads kept me going, but once the damage is done they can only slow the deterioration. By the end of the second day the inside of my right heel was an angry mass of raw, red meat. Despite medication (Ibuprofen, red wine & Famous Grouse) the pain woke me around four o’clock and I made my decision: I could not possibly manage another day.

I was unhappy watching the others set off without me, but there was nothing I could do. [In September I returned in the company of Francis and did the day's walk. We could not have picked a better day; bright sunshine, warm but not too hot for walking] Also galling was that after seven years of the Odyssey, this was the first day I could not blog from first-hand experience. However, others rallied round, and with their assistance Day 21 is not going unrecorded.



Leaving me behind at West Monkton

 Francis wrote. ‘Today we actually started from the B and B, Springfield House, something I always like, and walked up the lane towards Walford House stopping to admire its well-used dovecote.



Dove Cote, Walford House (Pic: Francis)

The lane took us round a U-curve and into West Monkton village…past the main door and through the garden of the pub where we had dined the night before….

[Francis and I dined there again and this time I ate the zebra. Before ordering I asked another diner about his  zebra experience and he said 'Well it's just a big slab of horse, really.' I disagree, Zebra has its own distinctive flavour and it was also gamey in taste and texture - I suspect it requires long hanging to make it tender enough to eat (unless you are a lion). Having walked to the pub on Saturday evening, we felt justified in starting from there on Sunday. When paying for our meal we had asked the landlord if we could borrow a space in his car park for the day. He agreed immediately and thanked us for having the courtesy to ask. Apparently a lot of people don't. They should.]



Francis strides past The Monkton

Shortly we met two alpacas in a field. The owners of the West Monkton Inn clearly must be unaware of their existence or else they would have them on the menu! (on the specials board with the zebra, ostrich and crocodile.) [The alpaca had gone, whether it had starred on the menu or just moved off we do not know]



Not our first  example of the rare Somerset Alpaca
(Pic: Francis)

Along with the alpacas, Alison noted a glamping site with 4 yurts, and Francis photographed a fine horse chestnut which looks more at home in this environment.



Horse Chestnut, West Monkton (Pic: Francis)

The route followed the West Deane Way (we had encountered the East Deane Way yesterday) to Hestercombe House. Alison noted …A few ploughed fields, but the soil was much more friable than the clay of the Somerset levels, and it was only muddy in parts, with ways round possible. There are over a quarter of a million words in this blog, but this is the first time ‘friable’ has made an appearance. I am delighted to welcome it. I had to look the word up, and for those as ignorant as I am, it means ‘apt to crumble.’



A field full of remarkably friable soil (Pic: Alison)

Hestercombe House is a sixteenth century country house with a chequered history including being the headquarters of the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service until 2012. The Gertrude Jekyll designed gardens are open to the public.

Francis writes enthusiastically We climbed through fields and bluebell woods enjoying our return to more hilly country after two days on the Levels, Alison is a little more laconic A noticeably hillier day than the previous days.



The Vale of Taunton from Hestercombe (Pic: Alison)

After descending into and out of Gadd’s Bottom.....
 

Down into Gadd's Bottom (pic. Alison)

Francis admitted they arrived a little late in Kingston St. Mary for a coffee break. We found a bench in the churchyard which served our purpose only to discover, after leaving, a nicer one in a better, more sheltered location in the village.

Coffee break, Kingston St Mary (Pic: Alison)

 [The descent to Kingston St Mary's involves glimpses of the village through trees and gaps in hedges. It is a delightful place and I could not help comparing the soft lushness of southern England with the desolate moors and windswept hills we had crossed on our approach to Hadrian's Wall ten years ago. If humankind could not organise a comfortable and prosperous life for itself here then it had no hope anywhere. And this area did grow rich, mainly on the wool trade which is why a small village could afford such a fine church.



St Mary's, Kingston St Mary
Mostly 13th century, though the tower is 16th century

Benefitting from experience we went on to the second bench in the village. The oak tree was planted to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1896, the bench was added to commemorate the Millennium. We drank our coffee leaning back on wrought-ironwork depicting the village past, present and future.



Millennium Seat, Kingston St Mary

And then the route…took us up through the extensive grounds of Tetton House from where Alison observed we could see the main climb of the day, Cothelstone Hill, ahead. [I looked at Cothelstone Hill and said 'that's not much.' 'Wait til you get to Ball Lane,' Francis said ominously]



Cothelstone Hill looking less than imposing from Tetton House

Tetton House was built in 1790 but largely remodelled between 1924 and 1926 by H S Goodhart-Rendel, architect, writer, musician and all round clever clogs – though I am sorry to say I had never heard of him before.

Leaving the grounds over a stream, way finding, in the words of Francis, became a little confused.. but it was Alison who saved the day with some clever map deduction and good observation skills spotting a gate with a sign on a high fence that we had all missed. Or as Alison put it I brought us back to the route from which we had strayed. I feel pleased at my improved map reading since leaving Stafford, due to a combination of varifocal glasses, having a map, and practising. Well, having a map does help. Mike saw the incident as Alison frantically pointing out the path across the stream and the gate into the wood which was easy to see by all except Francis who was determined in the direction he was taking (60 degrees to the east of it) and that we were to follow! He goes on, with commendable honesty to admit, I was no use … as I had left day 3 map in my 'van!



The site of the navigation difficulties.

That does look the obvious place to cross the stream and the stile into the woods that only Alison

could see is on the left hand edge of the picture two thirds of the way up.

Francis and Brian had strayed into a field over to the right

Once on the right route it did not take long to reach Ball Lane and to start slogging up its 1.5km ….
[Francis warned me, and he was right. Ball Lane is always just steep enough to feel like hard work, but never quite steep enough to get the climb over and done with swiftly. It is a slog, more precisely, a long slog.]




Ball Lane



Resting after the climb up Ball Lane (Pic: Francis)

…and then a bit more to reach Cothelstone Hill, a dizzying height of 332m, part of the Quantock Hills. Cothelstone maybe considerably lower than Dunkery Beacon, assuming we reach Exmoor next year [we did], but it is the highest point on the walk since the Herefordshire Beacon (338m) on the Malvern Ridge.
 

View west from Cothelstone Hill (Pic: Francis)

Having reached the top, Francis continued we didn’t hang around up there long as the wind was strong and quite cold and we were running late. He did pause on the way down to photograph the bluebells in Twenty Acre Plantation. I am delighted to say they appear to be the native British bluebell - and looking as good as they get. [It was warm and sunny on top of the hill this time. The view west was the same but the weather conditions gave us an even better view north. Ignoring the nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, we could see the whole sweep of the Somerset coast to Weston Super Mare and beyond, and across the Bristol Channel to Barry and Penarth. What we had no chance of seeing in September were the bluebells in Twenty Acre Plantation.]


Bluebells, Twenty Acre Plantation (Pic: Francis)

Alison observed that we were beginning to realise that it would be another long morning. …There was even another climb up from the bottom of Cothelstone hill before descending to the pub at West Bagborough along the road, as a last minute short cut.

[I understand the need for a shortcut on the third day of three, but we were only there for the day so we carried on, taking a fine path that does not quite cross the summit of Lydeard Hill, though at 350m the path set a new high point for the day. They are proud of their colony of Dartford Warblers here, but Francis did not see one. I might have done, but I have no idea what a Dartford Warbler looks like]



Francis looks for Dartford Warblers on Lydeard Hill

We descended to West Blagborough on a path that was rougher and steeper than Ball Lane. It was redeemed by a) being downhill and b) being shorter.

The descent to West Bagborough

This was intended to be a short day’s walk before the long drive home. The previous evening we had chopped the finishing point from the hamlet of Triscombe to West Bagborough, and now a short-cut was necessary to make West Bagborough in a reasonable time. This year’s instalment of the South West Odyssey (English Branch) ended in the Rising Sun at West Bagborough. Well done! to those who made it. I am sorry I was not there.

[Well I got there, - four months late. We had a very welcome (and, I think, deserved) pint of shandy sitting in the sun outside the Rising Sun]



Wild ponies, Cothelstone Hill (Pic: Francis)

Perhaps we are walking a little slower than we used to, it does not feel like it, but we were all in our forties for 'Go West', we are in our sixties, now. I think these walks were slightly longer than the last couple of years, but then Cothelstone Hill apart it was as flat a three day walk as can be arranged without going round and round a running track. Something to think about before next year perhaps – but there will be a next year, and I will find time, hopefully during this summer, to get down to Somerset and fill in my missing section. Thanks to those who offered to accompany me. I hope to take at least one of you up on it. [Big thanks to Francis who was willing and available on the date I picked]

Thanks to Francis, Alison and Mike for the contributions and to Brian for doing two shuttle runs in the afternoon so that I could go home in the morning.

The South West Odyssey (English Branch)

Introduction

Day 1 to 3 (2008);Cardingmill Valley to Great Whitley

Day 4 to 6 (2009) Great Whitely to Upton-on-Severn via the Malvern Ridge

Day 7 to 9 (2010) Upton-on-Severn to Andoversford
Day 10 (2011) Andoversford to Perrott's Brook

Day 11 (2011) Perrott's Brook to the Round Elm Crossroads

Day 12 (2011) Walking Round Stroud

Day 13 (2012) Stroud to North Nibley

Day 14 (2012) North Nibley to Old Sodbury

Day 15 (2012) Old Sodbury to Swineford

Day 16 (2013) Along the Chew Valley

Day 17 (2013) Over the Mendips to Wells

Day 18 (2013) Wells to Glastonbury 'The Mountain Route'

Day 19 (2014) Glastonbury to Langport

 Day 20 (2014) Along the Parrett and over the Tone

 Day 21 (2014) Into the Quantocks

Day 22 (2015) From the Quantocks to the Sea

Day 23 (2015) Watchet, Dunster and Dunkery Hill

Day 24 (2015) Dunkery Beacon to Withypool
Day 25 (2016) Entering Devon and Leaving Exmoor
Day 26 (2016) Knowstone to Black Dog on the Two Moors Way
Day 27 (2016) Morchard Bishop to Copplestone
Day 28 (2017) Down St Mary to Drewsteignton
Day 29 (2017) Drewsteignton to Bennett's Cross
Day 30 (2017) Bennett's Cross to Lustleigh
Day 31 (2018) Southwest Across the Moor from Lustleigh
Day 32 (2018): South to Ugborough
Day 33 (2018): Ugborough to Ringmore
Day 34 (2019): Around the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove
Day 35 (2019): Hope Cove to Prawle Point
Day 36 (2019): Prawle Point to Start Bay: The End
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The Last Post

That's All Folks - The Odyssey is over