First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
In the early twentieth century Charles Paget Wade created a world for himself in his Cotswold manor and Arts & Crafts garden at Snowshill. His family motto was ‘Let nothing perish’, and he followed that dictum to the hilt as he collected over 200,000 objects – clocks, toys, chairs, musical instruments, craft tools, bicycles, suits of armour.
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Snowshill manor, its garden and collection are curated by the National Trust these days. Setting off from Snowshill, we followed the Winchcombe Way down across a slope of coarse pasture into a valley of springs and streams. Sheep grazed among the thistles and scrub bushes where last autumn’s sloes and rosehips still hung. The light chakker of jackdaws made a tenor counterpoint to the harsh baritone cawing of rook in the parkland oaks.
Up on the opposite ridge we paused under a great spreading ash to look back across the valley to the manor and silver-gold cottages of Snowshill crowning their hilltop. A crunchy byway led north, with fine views opening east to the folly of Broadway Tower on its knoll. Then the path swung west, and suddenly we were contemplating thirty or forty miles of countryside laid out in the sunshine, the low-lying Vale of Evesham leading off past the broad dome of Bredon Hill to where a tsunami of bruise-coloured cloud marked the distant Malvern Hills and hazy blue hills beyond.
Now it was south again along the ridge track of the Cotswold Way, hurdling the bumpy slopes on pale oolitic limestone. I very stupidly picked and sampled a blackberry that somehow still clung to its bramble. After spitting out the rank, disgusting mess, I spent the rest of the walk picking seeds from my molars.
The mound and ditch of Shenberrow hill fort lay ahead, preserved from destruction by the plough thanks to the line of sturdy trees along its ramparts. Here at 997ft, the highest point in Gloucestershire, we stood looking across the plain at the outliers of the Cotswold Hills. A tiny steam train crept across the landscape, passing over a viaduct and away out of sight toward Cheltenham, leaving behind a dissolving trail of smoke and a mournful owlish hoot.
The homeward bridleway edged past ploughed fields of dark, iron-rich earth. Snowshill appeared ahead, having apparently shunted itself from its hilltop into a valley we hadn’t even noticed till then. A mystery we failed to unwrap as we spread out the map by the fire in the Snowshill Arms. In that cosy place with a pint of Donnington Best Bitter at our elbow – frankly, my dear, we didn’t give a damn.
How hard is it? 4½ miles; easy; field paths and well-marked trails
Start: Free overflow car park, Snowshill, Broadway WR12 7JU (OS ref SP 097340)
Getting there: Snowshill is signposted off B4632 in Broadway (A44, Evesham – Stow-on-the-Wold).
Walk (OS Explorer OL45): Left down road; at Snowshill Manor entrance, through gate (‘Winchcombe Way’/WW). Follow yellow arrows/YAs for ½ mile into valley, across stream, uphill (YAs) to byway (088345). Right (WW). In ½ mile through gate (089352); left through kissing gate (WW); in 200m, left along Cotswold Way/CW (087354). In 50m, ignore WW on right. Follow CW for 1½ miles to Shenberrow hillfort (080335). CW continues ahead, but turn left here (‘bridleway’). By Shenberrow Buildings barn, left (080333, ‘bridleway’). In 400m dogleg left/right (084331, WW); on across fields to road (091335). Right; in 550m, left at junction (093336) into Snowshill.
Lunch: Snowshill Arms (01386-852653, donnington-brewery.com)
Accommodation: The Lodge at Broadway, Keil Close, 2 High Street, Broadway WR12 7DP (01386-852007, thelodgebroadway.co.uk)
Info: Snowshill Manor (01386-852410, nationaltrust.org.uk)