Saturday, 5 June 2010

Upton-upon-Severn to Andoversford: The South West Odyssey Days 7 to 9

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.

Into the Cotswolds

Day 7 03-Jun-2010

Crossing the Rivers Severn and (Stratford) Avon on our Way to the Cotswolds

Worcestershire

Francis, Brian & Hilary and Lynne & I travelled down on the 2nd and spent the night at the Tiltridge vineyard. Sadly the vineyard shop closed before we arrived and although it was a very comfortable and welcoming B & B we gained no advantage from it being a vineyard. We dined at the White Lion in Upton-upon-Severn, a pub of some antiquity. Prince Rupert drank too much there during the civil war and Henry Fielding's stay resulted in a mention for the inn in 'Tom Jones' where appropriate use is made of the bedrooms.

Francis, Brian, Lynne & Hilary, Tiltridge Vineyard, Upton-upon-Severn

Mike and Alison T drove down the next morning and we were supposed to meet them and Alison C, now living in Cheltenham, at the Upton car park where the previous walk had finished. As we were about to leave Tiltridge, Alison called to say she had missed her connecting bus and needing rescuing from Tewkesbury.

Tewkesbury is not a long detour and we were only a little late at the start. Had I driven like Nigel Mansell, who was born in Upton, we might have arrived on time, but I chose not to.

In what had become the almost traditional sunny weather we set off down the High Street....

Francis points out the White Lion, High Street, Upton-upon-Severn

...and crossed the River Severn.

Crossing the Severn at Upton

Wychavon

Our morning's walk across the eastern half of the Severn Valley was similar to the afternoon we had spent in the western half the year before. In addition we crossed the M5 - where we left the Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire and entered the Wychavon district - and, more pleasingly, the River Avon.

Crossing the river Avon

Over the river we arrived in Eckington where we paused for a glass of lunch at the Bell Inn.

Eckington

We had now crossed the valley and stood at the foot of the Cotswolds where we would spend the rest of the 2010 walk and all of 2011.

Refreshed, we left The Bell and headed for Bredon Hill.

To Bredon Hill

Bredon Hill offers enough of a climb to raise the heart rate and loosen any limbs that had stiffened up at lunchtime, but as a hill it has featured more in literature than in the annals of mountaineering. We reached the top where A E Housman had been before us.

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.

The 'coloured counties' or at least the Severn Valley as seen from Bredon Hill

Having climbed the scarp, the descent was more gentle, passing through fields of barley; the healthy grain destined, according to the signs, to be wasted on the production of Carling.

Carling, what a waste!

The old buildings of Eckington were black and white, but now we were in the Cotswolds the main, and in some villages only, building material was Cotswold stone. Passing through Overbury.....

House in Overbury

...and continuing to the end of the day's walk at Conderton we had plenty of opportunities to admire the mellow honey-coloured stone.

Lynne, Hilary and Alison T met us at Conderton and transported us to the Tally Ho B & B in Alderton.

Day 8 04-Jun-2010

Conderton to Winchcombe

We returned to Conderton after a substantial breakfast.

Conderton

A couple of kilometres of relatively flat farmland (outside the boundary of the official Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) brought us to the surprisingly redbrick village of Beckford. Despite having only 600 residents it has the air of a larger and more self important place.

Marching through Beckford

Gloucestershire

Tewkesbury

We crossed into Gloucestershire and although we were in the Tewkesbury rather than Cotswold District, the countryside became typical Cotswolds with gentle climbs up wooded hills followed by long descents into fertile valleys. Up and over Alderton Hill took us to lunch at Gretton.

Descending Alderton Hill

It was descending Alderton Hill that I noticed the sole of my right boot was splitting from the upper at the toe. The boots were hardly new, but I didn't think that ought to be happening.

Wildflowers, Gretton

The afternoon started with the ascent of Langley Hll accompanied by the slow, inexorable disengagement of right sole from right boot.

Nearing the top of Langley Hill

By the time we started on the descent into Winchcombe the sole was flapping with every pace. Soon it became so detached that a careless pace would fold it under my foot.

Down towards Winchcombe

Under normal circumstances the long and gentle descent would have been a very pleasant walk, but hampered by my flapping sole, and a little concerned I might have to hop the last mile or two, I was relieved to make it to make it to the town on two feet.

I went in search of duck tape, Mike and Francis went off for a cup of tea and a cake and others sought out a beer. All quests were successful - actually I got duck tape and a beer.

For a town that has been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years Winchcombe has few notable landmarks. Buildings of different eras jostles elbows, but as they are all of warm, weathered Cotswold stone they come together to form a pleasingly harmonious whole.

The Old Almshouses, Winchcombe

We returned to Alderton for a shower and then back to Winchcombe for dinner at the Wine & Sausage Restaurant in the White Hart. The evening ended with more beer at a table outside the Gardeners Arms in Alderton, the warmth of the evening lingering even after the sun had gone down.

Day 9 05-Jun-2010

Winchcombe to Andoversford

After judicious application of several metres of duck tape I was reasonably confident my boots would see out the day. We returned, again, to the delightful town of Winchcombe and after a brief altercation with an elderly dog walker who seemed to believe that people from out of town should not be allowed to use the street parking, we set off up the Postlip Valley towards Cleeve Hill. We traversed a small and ugly industrial area before reaching the wooded valley - even in the Cotswolds, it seems, people have to work.

Up the Postlip Valley

We emerged on the grassy lower flanks of Cleeve Hill where butterflies flitted through the short grass. One Common Blue (or Holly Blue) obligingly sat still long enough to be photographed.

Male Common Blue, Cleeve Hill (maybe a Holly Blue, but probably not)

Unlike other Cotswold Hills, Cleeve Hill is a bare grassy dome....

Nearing the top of Cleeve Hill

...the top offering excellent views over Bishop's Cleeve and Cheltenham racecourse beyond.

Bishop's Cleeve

The hill is also crowned by a couple of telephone masts, which might be unsightly, but at least Mike was assured of a good signal.

Mike takes a phone call, Cleeve Hill

The rest of the morning was spent on a long descent down a wide valley which grew wider as we went.

The descent from Cleeve Hill

It was several, maybe even many, kilometres to the village of Brockhampton and it began to feel something like a route march. Eventually we made it and found Lynne, Hilary and Alison T waiting for us at the Craven Arms. We were soon joined by Matthew and Heather, the 'Crane offspring', who would join us for the afternoon walk.

The weather had not been up to the standard of the previous two days and it rained while we were having lunch. As we were sitting round a large table under an even larger umbrella, we just stayed put and let it rain around us. It was a passing shower and we left Brockhampton in renewed sunshine

Francis strides out of Brockhampton

Cotswold

It is a brief step from Brockhampton to Sevenhampton. Alhtough we had been in the Cotswolds for some time, it was on that short stretch we finally entered the Gloucestershire District of Cotswold. The lush, flower-filled valley from Brockhampton to Sevenhampton and on to Andoversford (brevity in village names is not a quality much admired in these parts) provided a short but very pleasant afternoon's walk.

Passing Sevenhampton

We reached Andoversford and the end of the 2010 walk fairly early...

Andoversford - The End (for 2010)

...so we could all sit in a car for an hour for or more on our way home while our legs stiffened up. I felt a little sympathy for Mike and Francis, who had to be in work the following morning, but not enough to spoil my Monday of relaxation.

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
+
The Last Post

That's All Folks - The Odyssey is done.

Saturday, 30 May 2009

Great Whitley to Upton-on-Severn: The South West Odyssey Days 4 to 6

In the Second Year we Reached the Malvern Hills, Walked along the Ridge then Headed East to the River Severn

28-May-2009

Day 4: Across Farmland towards the North End of the Malverns Hills

Worcestershire

A year later, on another fine and sunny day, we reconvened in the same pub car park in Great Whitley for the second installment in the South West Odyssey. We posed for the obligatory photo looking fresh and eager to go.

Brian, David, Alison, Francis and Mike ready for part two

We set off over the rich Worcestershire farmland, past oast houses....

Oast Houses

....across fields of broad beans...

Brian among the beans

...and asparagus, the pickers riding up and down the rows lying in small carts,....

Asparagus field, Walsgrove Farm

...before embarking on the long, gentle and well-shaded climb up Woodbury Hill...

Up Woodbury Hill

...from where we had our first view of the Malvern Hills, our target for the next day.

The Malverns in the distance

In Shropshire many footpaths were unsigned, unmaintained and, too often, unwalked. The same was not true of Worcestershire, where in some places farmers made it abundantly clear where they wanted us to walk.

The path across Rodge Hill Farm

We moved from arable land into rough pasture and woodland as we descended towards the River Teme. The Teme rises over the Welsh border in Radnorshire and flows for 130 Km through Knighton, Ludlow and Tenbury Wells before joining the Severn a little south of Worcester. Despite its variable water level, the river is clean and healthy enough for salmon to migrate upstream and spawn in its upper reaches. Here, between Tenbury and Worcester, the Teme turns south, running for a short while parallel to our route.

Down to the River Teme

For several kilometres we followed the river, sometimes in the valley and sometimes on the slopes of the flanking hills. We stopped for an early pint of refreshment at The Admiral Rodney in Berrow Green. The pub is named after the commander of the British fleet at the battle of Cape St Vincent - as, apparently, are all the little dipsticks and plonkers subsequently named 'Rodney'(whether they know it or not). Fortified we rounded Berrow Hill.

A Brief Digression: The Battles of Cape St Vincent

A carved memorial near Stone Library (that is the town of Stone in Staffordshire, not a place where you can borrow stones) to local lad Admiral Sir John Jervis, the victor of the Battle of Cape St Vincent, suggests either the battle had two victors or there were more than one battle. In fact nine naval encounters between 1337 and 1833 are known as the Battle of Cape St Vincent. The biggest was in 1797 when Sir John Jervis, with 22 ships, defeated a much large Spanish fleet during the French Revolutionary War. Sir George Rodney defeated an outnumbered Spanish Squadron in the 1780 Battle of Cape St Vincent, apparently an engagement in the American Revolutionary War, though the only participants were Britain and Spain.

Cape St Vincent is generally regarded as the extreme south west corner of both Portugal and Europe, making it a useful reference point for any naval action in a vast area of sea. We have visited the cape several times, and it appears in a 2013 blogpost Algarve: The West Coast.

End of digression.

Around Berrow Hill

By now the Malvern Hills looked much closer....

The Malvern Hills

A little further south the Teme resumes its westward course, so we crossed it at Knightwick, stopping briefly for a late pint of refreshment in the riverside garden of the Talbot Inn.

From here, paths over pastures populated mainly by sheep brought us to the village of Alfrick...

Approaching Alfrick

...and took us on to a bridge on a minor road where Lynne and Hilary were waiting to whisk us to Wyche Keep Country House B & B. The house perches on the side of the Malvern Hills giving our rooms fabulous views across the Severn Valley and the next stage of our route.

29-May-2009

Day 5: Into the Malvern Hills and Over the worcestershire Beacon

Lynne and Hilary returned us to the rather non-descript point where the previous day's walk had ended.

Lynne & Hilary discuss what to do with their day.

We continued our approach to the Malverns. This being Worcestershire it was inevitable that we would pass through orchards....

Worcestershire Orchards

...and hardly surprising when we came across fine old buildings undergoing restoration. Had this building, we wondered, been moved here from another site?

Restoration near Norris Wood

By 11 0'clock we were quite close to the first hill of the Malvern ridge, a smallish tump rather unimaginatively called End Hill.

End Hill

The Malverns are the product of a fold along a line between two terranes. The hard igneous and metamorphic rocks here forced to the surface are pre-Cambrian in origin and, at some 680 million years old, among the oldest in Britain. The rock is non-porous but has many narrow fissures, resulting in a line of springs around the base of the hills. This naturally purified water has been appreciated since the middle ages, when clean water was a rarity. The first record of bottled Malvern Water dates from 1622 and large scale commercial exploitation started in 1850 when Schweppes built what may have been the world's first bottling plant at the Holywell in Malvern Wells. I remember in my teens - and I was a teenager long before the current fashion for bottled waters - the mark of a pretentious pub or club was a bottle of Malvern water standing on the bar for mixing with whisky.

There are 70 sources around the hills. We passed the Beauchamp Fountain as we rounded End Hill.

Malvern Water - The Beauchamp Fountain

Having not bothered with End Hill, we had to climb the next one....

Ascending Table Hill

..which gave us a fine view over Malvern and the haze in the Severn Valley.

Malvern and the Severn Valley from Table Hill

Having toiled up to the 373 m summit we immediately descended to the village of West Malvern for refreshment. It was a warm day, and with the prospect of climbing the Worcestershire Beacon to the Malvern's highest point straight after lunch, real ale man Francis chose to forsake his usual beverage in favour of a doubtful concoction whose advertisers would like you to think of as The Real Thing. I don't think it could have done him any good. Warning: the photograph below is not suitable viewing for beer drinkers of a nervous disposition.

Francis and 'The Real Thing'

Regardless of our chosen refreshmnet, the drag up to the 425m summit of the Worcestershire Beacon, was slow but steady.

Atop the Worcestershire Beacon

We stayed on the summit ridge until we reached the Wyche cutting, from where it was a short walk to our B & B.

30-May-2009

Day 6: Continuing along the Ridge and Over the HerefordshireBeacon, then Descending into the Severn Valley

We set off from Wyche Keep in glorious morning sunshine...

Preparing to leave Wyche Keep

...and returned to the Wyche cutting. This pass through the hills was once part of the salt route from Droitwich to South Wales and a hoard of metal money bars found in the 19th century suggests it was in use as early as 250 BC.

We used the path from the cutting to climb back onto the ridge. It was distinctly breezy along the top and we stopped to watch the para-gliders. Their colleagues on the ground said the wind strength meant they were safe on the windward side of the hill, though they could not cope with the turbulence on the other side, and if the wind got any stronger they would have to pack up and go home.

Along the Malvern ridge watching the para-gliders.
For other versions of this view see Croome Court and the paintings of Antony Bridge

We descended towards the A449, the main pass through the the hills before climbing up and over the Herefordshire Beacon. The summit is covered in earthworks, some from 'British Camp', an iron age hill fort, and others from a later medieval castle. British Camp, like Caer Caradoc, has been touted as the site of Caractacus' last stand. The story comes from Tacitus, whose description places the battle far closer to the River Severn than either contender we encountered, but as he wrote fifty years after the event and never visited Britain, his accuracy may be questionable. It almost certainly happened somewhere, and the location of that somewhere is, and will probably remain, unknown.

British Camp on the Herefordshire Beacon

As the ridge began to peter out we turned east and descended into the broad, flat Severn valley

Across the Severn Valley

Despite being in more heavily populated farmland, our route provided no suitable pub for lunch. We arrived in Upton on Severn early enough to enjoy a cup of tea and a cake - a process which Mike always seems to find unreasonably pleasing - and a have a stroll through the market. Lynne bought two of the largest cauliflowers I have ever seen.

Walk over - posing by the Severn at Upton

And that was it for 2009, now for 2010