Christopher Somerville

A golden afternoon after rain, with the sun spread like a layer of butter across the rich Cotswold stone of Chedworth’s houses.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Old and new together, they huddled along the lane, sending columns of sweet-smelling applewood smoke vertically into the still air in the hollow. Up in Chedworth Woods above the village we turned down through ancient hazel coppice and came by Chedworth Roman Villa.

What a moment that must have been on a workaday afternoon in 1864 when a gamekeeper, digging out his hideaway ferret from a rabbit burrow, unearthed fragments of ancient pottery and faded mosaic tiles. He told his employers, they passed on news of the find, and piece by piece the remains of one of the largest and finest Roman villas in Britain were excavated from the skirts of the wood – hot sauna, cold plunge pool, sacred spring, servants’ quarters, latrines, corridors. Also a dining room with a glorious mosaic floor celebrating the Four Seasons – Winter cloaked, hooded and clutching a bare tree, Spring plump and comely with a bird in the hand.

Jane’s sharp eyes noticed a big edible snail inching through the leaves, its canary-yellow foot wrinkled like an old man’s lips. These snails have been living here for 2,000 years, ever since the conquerors introduced them as delicacies for the pot. What a fabulous quality of life those Roman law-givers and road-builders enjoyed. Were they insecure in their luxury houses, aware of being envied and hated by the locals? Or were they like popular uncles, jolly and sybaritic, givers of great parties? Did they give a damn either way? Musing on that, we followed the wood edge down to the lovely cluster of buildings at Yanworth Mill, then swung up again through the trees.

Out onto the roof of the Cotswolds, tramping enormous fields of winter wheat; a steep descent by hedges hung with withered bryony berries into the roadless valley of Listercombe Bottom; up again by a wonderful old stone barn at Greenhill Farm, filled with the winter’s firewood. On across a field where a rangy wire-haired lurcher crouched, furtively eating a young rabbit.

‘A lovely afternoon you’ve picked for it,’ smiled the rider of a skittish glossy black hunter in the paddock at New Barn. ‘Go across, he won’t hurt you.’ Nor did he. Huge wild weather clouds were building on the southern skyline, but we beat them back to Chedworth by a short head. Old Winter from the mosaic in his cloak and stout leggings would have outfaced the blast, for sure.

Start & finish: Seven Tuns PH, Chedworth GL54 4AE (OS ref SP 052121)
Getting there: Bus – 864 (Cotswold Green: 01453-835153) Tue, Wed, Fri.
Road: signed from A429 (Northleach-Cirencester).
Walk
(7 miles, easy/moderate, OS Explorer OL45): From Seven Tuns, right
along road. In 100m, left by Corner Cottage. At top of slope, right
(‘Roman Villa, footpath only’), over stile. Bear left to cross
stile; through plantation (053125, yellow arrow/YA, Macmillan
Way/MW). Ahead through gate at top; on into Chedworth Woods. In ¼
mile, right at post (051132, MW, ‘Roman Villa’). Pass Roman Villa
(053134); continue to ‘Give Way’ at crossroads (056135). Right
through green gates; continue for just over a mile. Through gates at
Yanworth Mill; in 30m, right up footpath (072130, fingerpost) through
woods (YAs, fingerposts). At edge of trees (066127), aim half left
for pole; on to 3-finger post; don’t turn right, but keep ahead to
pole by gate. Cross road (065123, fingerpost); ahead into Listercombe
Bottom. Through hedge on descending path to bottom of dip (064120).
Over crossroads of paths, and look for YA; make for fingerpost on
skyline. Diagonally left across field; over stile (YA); cross next
wall; right (066117) along broad walled ride to join Monarch’s Way
(MoW) at crossroads (065115). Ahead downhill, following lane down and
then up to cross road at Bleakmoor (063110). Right up lane by Emma’s
Cottage; in 50m, ahead; then swing left across disused railway. Track
bends right to cross Fields Road (058109, fingerpost). On across
paddocks (MoW), round New Barn (MoW) to cross road (049108). Aim half
left (fingerpost, MoW); follow blue arrows/MoW across 4 fields. At
end of 4th field (037103), right on Macmillan Way; follow it for 1
mile past Setts Farm to cross road (050117). Follow track opposite
into Chedworth.

Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch:
Seven Tuns PH, Chedworth (01285-720242;
http://www.youngs.co.uk/pubs-more.asp) – wonderful gem of a characterful country pub
Chedworth Roman Villa (NT): 01242-890256;
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chedworthromanvilla;
www.chedworthromanvilla.com
More info: Cirencester TIC (01285-654180); www.visitcotswolds.co.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.com
www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

‘Is it really Essex?’
Jane’s amazement was easy to understand. Essex just isn’t associated with scenes like this. Thatched, colourwashed, timber-framed houses line Ashdon’s village street; the River Bourn courses dimpling under diminutive brick bridges; gentle farmlands rise all around.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A place that wears its ‘Best Kept Village’ trophies up on its walls, with pride, for all to admire. Go to the Thames Estuary shore of Essex to have your prejudices confirmed (or challenged – but that’s for another walk); but come to the north-west corner of England’s most maligned county to have them scattered to the four winds. Here are rolling green hills, catkin-laden copses and delectably-situated medieval hall houses enough to delight any country walker with all five senses alert.

Children’s shouts drifted from the village school playground as we climbed past beetfields with flapping scarecrows to the crest where Ashdon windmill raised its white sails. Crossing the ridge to walk the descending field path into Steventon End, we gazed ahead at what must be the most perfect juxtaposition of two houses in all Essex – the beautiful half-timbered Tudor house of Ashdon Place, pink-washed, sheltered under a wooded slope; and beyond it the mellow red brick Waltons, its ranks of windows flashing back the sun, every inch an early Georgian country house, but with an Elizabethan hall buried inside it.

The way led through the Waltons parkland, where drifts of winter aconite with yellow hairdryer hoods and ruffs of green grew under the trees. Six chestnut foals watched us with wary curiosity from a paddock. Out among huge wheat and bean fields, their hedges white with old man’s beard, we crossed the wide roof of the hill and came down by Bowsers End with its farmhouse standing quiet among willows.

Back in Ashdon’s little sub-hamlet of Church End we found the lumps and bumps of a former village abandoned at the time of the Black Death, its remnants a couple of old cottages and a crooked, timber-framed old Guildhall. Here stands All Saints, one of those rural Essex churches cobbled together over the centuries out of bricks, flints, timber chunks, blocks of limestone. A splendid mishmash with round porthole windows on high, the whole building a bit skew-whiff and out of kilter. And in one of the south windows a few fragments of delicate, ancient glass – leaves and flowers, angels’ faces, wings, hands, and a wight with mournful countenance and golden, curly hair.

Start & finish: Rose & Crown, Ashdon, Saffron Walden CB10 2HB (OS ref TL 587421)
Getting there: Bus: Four Counties Buses (01799-516878;
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk) Service 59 (Haverhill-Clavering)
Road: Bartlow, then Ashdon, signed from A1307 Cambridge-Haverhill at Linton

Walk
(5½ miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 209): From Rose & Crown take
road opposite (‘Radwinter’). In 200m, left up Kates Lane. In
100m, left (fingerpost); at top of bank bear right past bench
(589421; yellow arrow/YA) and follow YAs (Harcamlow Way on map). At
next bench don’t turn right; keep ahead to Ashdon Windmill
(595425). Left along road. Don’t take first 2 paths on right (black
fingerposts); keep on round bend and turn right on path (concrete
fingerpost) diagonally across field, aiming to left of buildings
below. Cross road in Steventon End (593429); up drive (fingerpost),
past Waltons house and on. Through shank of woodland; at its end,
sharp left (591434; no waymark) on bridleway along its north edge.
Cross road (584432; NB blind bend! take care!). Down lane
opposite; follow it for ½ mile. Opposite Aulnoye, left (580437,
‘bridleway’) up wood edge and on for nearly a mile to Bowsers
End. Sharp left here (568431, fingerpost) along broad footpath. In ⅔
mile pass woodland; through gate; in another 150m, left over
footbridge (577424, YA). Cross stile; aim half left for bottom left
corner of wood; cross stile with waymark here (579423). Up steps to
lane; right; at top of hill, right (581422; fingerpost) past cottage
and along farm track. In 50m, left through hedge (YA); right along
field edge past Hall Farm to road (580417). Cross; down lane to All
Saints Church (581415). On far side of church pass to left of
Guildhall; bear left past gate. In 20m, left at crossing of paths;
follow fence past east end of church and on to gap in hedge (582415).
Diagonally left across big field to far bottom corner (585418). Left
to road by village museum; right to Rose & Crown.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch:
Rose & Crown, Ashdon (01799-584337); Ashdon village museum (tea and WI cakes!)
Ashdon village museum (01799-584253): Open 2-5; Sun, Wed, BH Mon, Easter to end Sept; Sep-Christmas, Sun only.

More info: Saffron Walden TIC (01799-524002); www.visitessex.com
www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.com

It was a bleak and blowy winter’s day over north-west Berkshire, with a sky full of those bruised-looking clouds that foretell a hell of a lot of rain before you’re much older.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Even the charms of Cuddington – thatched houses of silver-gold stone, an excellent village shop and a gorgeous church on a knoll – couldn’t hold us. We longed to be out in the subtle, low-rolling landscape, walking off sloth, that insidious old enemy, before the Clerk of the Weather should spy us.

The River Thame was bubbling full of snowmelt floods. It raced under its flimsy footbridge and lapped into the fields around Old Mill. Out along the Thame Valley path swans paddled in the flooded aspen groves, and a big red kite went balancing over them, adjusting crooked wings and forked tail to each nuance of the wind.

The whole land lay muted, still and beautiful. This was a countryside swept and sailed through by winter. Giant old oaks stood stark and bare in the fields of winter wheat. The close-shaven hedges guarded ditches brimming with brown water. The field paths clogged and bogged us so that we wore two pairs of boots apiece, our Brasher Supalites encased in huge clown boots of mud and flood-scattered straw.

Up at Eythrope Park the river surged with a soft roar under the bridge beside a fabulous fantasy house of carved wood, fishtail tiles and Tudor chimneys. The splendidly individualistic Alice de Rothschild had it built in the 1870s as the lodge for her nearby country house, The Pavilion. She laid her hand decisively on the stable block along the drive, too, with lashings of half-timbering, bright red brick and candlesnuffer roofs.

Long paths through parkland and fields brought us up to the church and manor house at Upper Winchendon, down again over ridges and silent little dells to church and manor at Nether Winchendon. What a contrast to the garish gloriosities of Eythrope, these settled and graceful old compositions of house, church, gardens and trees. If you wanted to show visitors from Xiaoquandong the essence of England, you’d probably show them Nether Winchendon.

Back across the eddying, still rising Thame; back over the fields to beat the rain into Cuddington by a short head, with the lights of the Crown shining through the dusk like welcoming beacons at the harbour mouth.

Fact File

Start: Crown Inn, Cuddington, Bucks HP18 0BB (OS ref SP 738111)

Travel: Rail (www.thetrainline.com;www.railcard.co.uk) to Haddenham (2 miles)

Bus: Service 110 (www.arrivabus.co.uk), Aylesbury-Thame

Road: Cuddington is signed off A418 between Aylesbury and Thame

Walk (9 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 181): From Crown Inn,
down Upper Church Street. By church, left down Tibby’s Lane. Past
cottage, left (yellow arrow/YA), then right along hedge. Cross River
Thame (737120). Right by Old Mill; follow Thame Valley Walk for 2
miles to Bridge Lodge (767135). Left up drive (‘Bernwood Jubilee
Way/BJW’; blue arrow/BA). Right by Beachendon Cottages (‘Swan’s
Way’); left by Eythrope Park gate (770140; fingerpost). Follow
Swan’s Way for 1 mile to North Lodge (760151). Left (BA) for ½
mile. At post 100 m before drive, right (754148; no arrow) up bank;
YAs to cross road (752150; fingerpost). Though trees; right along
drive, and follow it for ½ mile. On right bend, left through gate
(745156); YAs across 3 fields, heading south for ⅓ mile to newly
planted avenue (744150). Left up avenue. Pass pond on right; in 50 m,
aim right of church to bottom right corner of wood (745145). Through
gate; left and over stile; right across field (YA) to cross road in
Upper Winchendon (744141; fingerpost). Pass to right of cottage; over
stile; along top of bank to stile/YA (746139); bear half right across
field; follow stiles/YAs for 1¼ miles across fields (743133 –
742129 – 741125) to Old Mill. Right along drive (BJW) to road
opposite church in Nether Winchendon (733122). Left past Manor Farm;
in 50 m, left (731120; fingerpost) on paved footpath for ¾ mile to
Cuddington.

NB: Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk.

Refreshments: Crown Inn, Cuddington (01844-292222;
www.thecrowncuddington.co.uk) – warm, friendly, welcoming.

Information: Aylesbury TIC, off Market Square (01296-330559);
www.visitbuckinghamshire.org

www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.co.uk.

The Shotley Peninsula lies east of Ipswich on the Suffolk Coast, a tongue of low-lying farmland that separates the broad estuaries of Stour and Orwell.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Down at Pin Mill this cold and frosty morning the full tide of the Orwell slapped the wall of the Butt & Oyster, putting me in mind of summer days in its dark, atmospheric bar, idly watching sunlit ripples reflecting on the ceiling. A great pub for being lazy and watching the boaters scooting around in the shallows outside, or strolling down to inspect the tottery old barges, fishing smacks, houseboats and coasters that have found their long home down here, moored deep in Suffolk mud.

Up across the Shotley road we walked the margins of flat winter wheat-fields under a huge mackerel sky. Boats and rain pools were skinned with thin ice, and hoar frost whitened the few dried leaves still trembling on the big field oaks. By Broomfield Covert the headland was crowded with soft prickly sweet chestnut shells, each one neatly eviscerated by squirrels. Every so often a far and faint bleep! bleep! came across the Orwell from the east, where Felixstowe container port lay hidden by the slight roll of the peninsula fields.

A beautiful sight greeted us at the road – the mellow brick arch and pinnacles of Erwarton Hall’s gateway, with the square red face and mullioned windows of the hall itself rising beyond. Anne Boleyn’s uncle Sir Philip Calthorpe lived here, and stories say that King Henry VIII would have himself rowed round here from London to dally with his red-haired temptress while the royal bargeman waited patiently in the River Stour below.

Nobbled and gnomish oaks lined Erwarton Walk, all ancient and weather-blasted like a procession of gnarled old Ents with skinny arms akimbo. We passed half-timbered Shotley Hall hidden behind trees, and came to the cottages and church at Church End on their knoll overlooking the Orwell. Now the port of Felixstowe stood in full view, its cranes hump-backed like skeleton camels, a giant vessel the size of a city block moored alongside.

St Mary’s Church is an extraordinary gem in a very remote setting, a mish-mash of medieval styles with brick, ragstone and knapped flint, its tall and dignified interior covered with a beautiful hammerbeam roof, its chancel a shock of pure 18th century baroque with dark panelling and dramatic altarpiece. Ranks of wartime submariners and seamen lie in its graveyard, German and British side by side.

Down on the seawall we turned upriver. Brent geese and swans, pochard and tufted ducks, lapwings and curlew, turnstones and dunlin – a cornucopia of winter wildfowl.

Start: Pin Mill pay-and-display car park, Chelmondiston,
Suffolk, IP9 1JW (OS ref TM 205379)

Travel: Road – A14, A137 (‘Ipswich Docks’); B1456 (‘Shotley’); Pin Mill signed to left in Chelmondiston.

Bus – Ipswich Buses (0800-919390; www.ipswichbuses.co.uk) Service 202

Walk (8 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 197): From car park, right up lane; in 30 m right over 2 stiles; diagonally left up field, then lane. Facing church (204373), right to cross B1456. Down right side of former Red Lion PH, now closed (fingerpost); follow field edge for ¼ mile to 3-finger post (204368); right (‘footpath’). At next post, left. In 30 m, ahead past next fingerpost, following line of oaks to corner of Broomfield Covert (209365). Right (‘bridleway’) along wood edge to Crouch House (211361). Left along drive; in 50 m at right bend, ahead through wicket gate; pass New Covert and follow Warren Lane to Erwarton Gateway and Hall (223352). Sharp left up Erwarton Walk (unnamed; fingerpost) to B1456 (225356). Cross (take care!); left up field edge; at top, right, and follow yellow arrows. Dogleg right and left; in another 150 m, ahead at 3-finger post (229359) to path T-junction (232359). Left to road; right to Church End. Pass church (237360); ahead down lane to T-junction (239362); right (‘footpath’) to sea wall (245361), left for 3½ miles to Pin Mill.

More info on Shotley Peninsula Tours: http://www.shotleypeninsulartours.com

Refreshments: Butt & Oyster PH, Pin Mill (01473-780764;
www.debeninns.co.uk/buttandoyster)
– famous, characterful waterside pub

Accommodation: Hill House, Wades Lane, Shotley, Ipswich IP9
1EW (01473-787318; www.wrinchfarmstay.co.uk)
– extremely helpful and welcoming B&B.

Information: Ipswich TIC (01473-258070);
www.visit-suffolk.org.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.com

A brisk, blowy, blustering day on the North Devon coast, with a scudding grey sky and big Atlantic waves racing onshore to smash against the wicked black rock teeth of the cliffs. I actually felt the ground quake beneath me as I pushed north into the wind along the line between sea and land, wondering whether leaving the warmth and light of the Hartland Quay Hotel had been a good idea after all.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Tides are strong and cross-currents treacherous out at Hartland Point, where the Devon coast cuts at right angles from north to east on its outer entrance to the Bristol Channel. Curved and contorted bands of sandstone, ground by the sea into upturned razor edges, lie just below the surface – they have brought thousands of sailing ships to grief down the years. I paused by the lighthouse on the point and took a last breathless prospect of dark sky, dark sea and black rock before heading inland along the high-hedged lanes so characteristic of this part of the world.

In the shelter of the lanes the wind, roaring high overhead, scarcely trembled a leaf. The loom of the ground shut away the hiss and crash of sea against rocks. I threaded the deep holloways past farms with Betjemanic names – Blagdon and Blegberry, Berry and Wargery – with the sounds of trickling water and tentative robin song for company.

In the ridge-top village of Stoke, master craftsmen down the centuries have beautified St Nectan’s Church. I admired the Tudor panelling of the rood screen, all slender ribs and exquisite floral detail, and the roof with its coruscating stars and carved bosses. Then it was out and on along the field lanes, dropping down to the cliffs and the roar of the wind once more.

The great waterfall at Speke’s Mill Mouth was a lace veil blown to rags, the floor of the cove a seethe of white foam among black rock scars. Above the green shark’s tooth of St Catherine’s Tor a raven was struggling unavailingly to fly north, kept at a standstill in mid-air by the counterblast of the wind. I put my head down and shoved on, a midget in motion among the huge forces of nature. Later, sitting in the warm bar of the Hartland Quay Hotel, I found my cup of tea tasted salty – legacy of all the sea wind and spray absorbed by my beard on this wild and entrancing walk.

Getting there: M5 to Jct 27; A361 to Bideford; A39 towards Bude. ¼ mile beyond B3237 Clovelly turning, bear right on minor road to Hartland and Hartland Quay.

Walk (7½ miles, moderate/hard grade, OS Explorer 126): South West Coast Path/SWCP (fingerposts, acorn symbols) north to Hartland Point. Just before radar station, inland. In 100 m, ahead (‘bridleway, Blegberry’) past Blagdon Farm; bridleway for 3/4 mile to road. Right to Blegberry Farm. Left (‘unmetalled road’); green lane for ½ mile to road. Ahead past Berry Farm, across Abbey River; road up to Stoke. Left; immediately right up lane by Rose Cottage. In 200 yards pass ‘Unsuitable for Motors’; keep ahead for a good half-mile. At Wargery, right to road at Kernstone Cross; right (‘Kernstone’) for 450 m to T-junction; left through gate (‘Speke’s Mill Mouth’) on grass path; SWCP north to Hartland Quay Hotel.

NB – Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Conditions
Beware strong wind gusts on exposed cliff tops! Many steps, many climbs and descents. Allow 3-4 hours.

Lunch: Hartland Quay Hotel (01237-441218;
www.hartlandquayhotel.co.uk) – friendly, characterful and welcoming.

More info Bideford TIC (01237-477676);
http://www.visitdevon.co.uk/site/areas-to-visit/north-devon-and-exmoor;
www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.com