We have a fantastic breakfast at the Bear Inn, with possibly the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had, and they supply us with packed lunches to speed us on our way. The day feels cool but this may be because Bisley is at 260 metres elevation and there’s a stiff breeze blowing.
We walk up out of the village and onto the main road. Although it’s unclassified, there’s a fair bit of traffic in the rush hour and the lack of verges makes for uncomfortable walking. We soon turn off onto a restricted byway leading to a path Patch recommended. Restricted byways are a relatively new category of right of way created by the Countryside Right Of Way (CROW) Act 2002. Walkers, cyclists, riders, non-motorised vehicles and some herded animals can use restricted byways. This one is so overgrown beyond the gate however, that even two walkers are struggling.
The path in the field afterwards is lovely though with fantastic views. At the corner of the field, we come across a local dog walker with a lovely russet rescue spaniel and discuss our potential routes. The valley below is an intricate network of paths and local knowledge is always helpful in navigating the best itinerary. As we’re chatting, a familiar face approaches. Janet is out with their lively black spaniel, Ruffle, who comes over for some fussing. Janet offers to guide us down towards the valley and provides us with a sound journey plan through the woods. We say goodbye and Ruffle bounces off home with her.
Entering the woods in the valley, there is a Woodland Trust welcome sign and we join the Chalford Biodiversity Trail. The 12km trail was devised by ChalCAN, a local community group set up in 2019 in response to a declaration by Chalford Parish Council of a climate and environmental emergency. It’s a very positive and engaging approach.
We walk a short way along the road and cross the river Frome, picking up a path running between the river and the now derelict Thames and Severn canal. This canal was built to connect Bristol and the Midlands with London, starting at the top of the navigable Thames in Lechlade and linking it to the Stroudwater navigation and thence to the river Severn. It closed in 1933 and is said to be undergoing restoration, though there is little sign of that here. The path is part of the 43 mile Thames and Severn Way, devised by the Cotswold Canal Trust in 2016, and following the course of the canal where practicable. As we continue on the path, it becomes more overgrown. Through the bushes, we spy a pair of swans and their three cygnets and, excitingly, a little egret keeping an eye out for fish.
We exit the path and meet a man who lives on the riverbank and feeds the swans. He remarks that he usually wears long trousers to walk along that stretch. He also asks after the cygnets: there were six originally and he wants reassurance that no more have disappeared. We head up the hill via a short section of the Wysis Way (55 miles linking Offa’s Dyke Path to the Thames Path) to a traffic lighted railway crossing and onto Frampton Mansell.
We continue our climb out of the village on an unclassified road to reach the A419. The land is now much more open than and the roads have started to yield the occasional pothole (we saw our first one yesterday). This is in stark contrast to the disintegrating Norfolk highways. The villages are also now becoming more inhabited; in the heart of the Cotswolds, they were picture postcard but empty. Janet suggested yesterday that this might be because of the prevalence of weekend homes for wealthy Londoners.
We decide to walk down the A419 to a farm shop a few hundred metres away, against the advice of a man mowing the grass verges. The coffee and cake is tasty but the signage and service is somewhat lackadaisical.
We walk back to the exit of the unclassified road and pick up a path directly opposite. This starts out all right but we soon find ourselves picking a way through saplings recently planted in the path itself and enter a field of oil seed rape that has obliterated the path. We use our legs as battering rams to get through this and finally emerge at a stile, scratched and sore. On crossing the stile, there is an officious notice affixed to it imploring walkers to stick to the marked route!
We follow a slightly better path across the road and then take a track to rejoin part of the MacMillan Way. Our hopes of better terrain are initially dashed as Rich comments that it’s a shame we’ve not brought our swimmers. The track does improve, however, and we make for the village of Rodmarton and have our lunch on a bench outside the church, overlooking the village green.
We leave Rodmarton and a man expresses concern about our shorts if we’re going across the next field of oil seed rape. We reply that we’re already raw from our last encounter. We pick up the Monarch’s Way through the field which is mercifully reasonably clear. This section is also the Palladian Way again, though again there’s little sign of any Palladian architecture.
We cross the A433 and head through Culkerton to the tiny hamlet of Ashley. From here, we follow quiet roads and tracks until we reach a path on a dismantled railway and the source of the river Avon (the Bristol one) bubbling from a spring. A little further on and we climb steeply into the town of Tetbury and The Close hotel.
Total distance: 253 miles
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