Winchcombe Walkers Are Welcome

Viaduct St. Andrew’s Church Toddington Cricket New Pavilion B4077 To w n Stanway House St. Peter’s Church GWR Stanway Station Stanway Watermill y a W e n B4078 r u o b Is 0 0.25 0.5 mile 0 0.5 km R i v e r St. George’s Isb Church ou rn e Didbrook Wood Stanway Church Royal Oak Gretton B4362 Hailes Hailes Church Church Stanley Hailes Pontlarge Wood Hailes Greet River Isbourne Abbey Prescott Pottery Hayles ay Fruit Farm ay Cups Hill W W Gotherington Stanley ld ld wo o Winchcombe ts w Halt Station Hill Wood o s C t GWSR Station o Climb C T Manor i Glos Way rl e y Farm B a ro o W k ne Petrol r ou Station b Winchcombe Walkers are Welcome Is Farmcote www.winchcombewelcomeswalkers.com Herbs Langley Hill 275m Farmcote hire Way WINCHCOMBE Gloucesters Langley Little Hill Farm Farmcote Walk 5 Winchcombe to Belas Knap walk Farmcote Church k c Stancombe a r Farm T n This walk offers both a linear and e Ha d r p ve circular walk with some ascent. ys m La a Heading out from Winchcombe along ne Tourist Information Centre C Nottingham Hill the Cotswold Way to Belas Knap before S al W Winchcombe t in ch 279m Rushbury St. Peters Church W co returning via the Sudeley Valley. Lovely mbe House W a Way inchcom y views of the town, Sudeley Castle and be Way the surrounding countryside. Distance: 5.5 miles/ 8.8 km Lodge St Kenelm’s ay Duration 2 - 2.75 hours W Longwood d Well ol Farm sw Sudeley Hill Dryﬁeld Difficulty: Moderate but some steep ot Langley 32 C Farm Farm sections Brook B46 e A n Sudeley r Start/finish: Back Lane car park, u o Castle b Apple Tree Winchcombe (Grid Ref: SP 023/284) Is . The Home Pub R 2 £1 all day. Toilets 20p in car park. 3 Parks 6 4 B swold Way Cot OS maps: Outdoor Leisure 45, Postlip Mill Cricket C Refreshments: Winchcombe o r Club n d Postlip e Golf Club House Ascent: 771feet/235 metres a B Hall n e e & refreshments L s a m n o Sudeley Corndean e o r Farm B Lodge r Leave Back Lane car park via the far o o F k corner pedestrianPostlip access into Cowl Lane. Turn right and followFarm the road to the High Rising Street. Turn right and walk along Abbey Sun Terrace until you are opposite Vineyard Parks Wadﬁeld y Topograph Street. a Farm Washpool Farm W e No Man’s b m Patch co Deadmanbury Carefully cross the road and continue Car parking h B nc Gate down Vineyard Street, cross the bridge for Belas Knap i Woodbine W Newmeadow 2 3 D 6 and shortly turn right through a gate Farm 4 Cleeve Common Source of B Castle waymarked the Cotswold Way. Follow the y R. Isbourne Postlip Warren a Rock W Cotswold Way straight across the field to ld 286m o w another gate and continue for approx 450 s Humblebee Breakheart t o Cottages metres until you reach a road, CorndeanPlantation C E Lane A. Turn left along the road for 300 Southam metres and turn right through a gate Hill Barn Spoonley . 322m waymarked Cotswold Way. Farm Waterhatch W Spoonley Villa Wood Limehill S i 0 0.25 mile ou ane n tham L Solitary ch Wood c Tree o Follow the tarmac drive as it rises past 0 0.5 km m b the cricket pitch. Shortly after a horse Belas Coles’s Hill 5 e 3 C 4 W dressage training area, go throughC the Knap A Post a o Ellenborough Stone y tsw gate on your left and follow the Cotswoldol Park Hotel Blocks d W Way up the hill, noting the fine views backay GWSR towards Winchcombe and beyond. © OpenstreetMap contributors and WWaW Station Queen’s Wood At the top of the field, pass through the Cheltenham Radio Dew pond gate and go down a short ramp to a Race Course Masts . 330m T-junction of minor roadsWontley B. Here Farm you can take a slightly shorter route(Disused) to Belas Knap. See ‘Cotswold Way route to Belas Knap’ at end of the route description. View on the Cotswold Way near Corndean Lane Prestbury No ve rt on Pittville Lane Turn right along the lane, noticing the and continue across the third field to join column) back to Winchcombe via the good view over the Isbourne valley to a lane. Turn left along the lane (the Old Sudeley valley. the hills north-west of Winchcombe. Brockhampton Road) and follow this until After approx 350 metres at a Y-junction you reach the entrance to Sudeley Castle. © Winchcombe Walkers are Welcome 2017 of lanes, turn left and climb steadily along Keep left and follow the lane, (Vineyard the lane through woods. You may be lucky Street) over the bridge and up the slope enough to see deer lurking in the trees. The to Abbey Terrace. Points of interest. buildings of Hill Barn Farm come into Turn right at the top, noticing the view at the top of the lane. Carry on in Belas Knap: the same direction past the farm along a Belas Knap is a Neolithic chambered gravel track for 300 metres then turn left long barrow situated just below the crest to join the Cotswold Way C. Looking of a prominent ridge with panoramic forward, you will see the smooth form of views over the surrounding countryside. Belas Knap, an ancient long barrow. The long barrow consists of a mound trapezoidal in plan and orientated north- south. It is about 55 metres in length, roughly 20 metres at its widest and Winchcombe from Old Brockampton Road between three and four metres tall. attractive Dent’s Terrace on the right (originally alms houses) and retrace your Belas Knap owes much of its present footsteps to the car park. character to a programme of restoration carried out by the Ministry of Works Belas Knap Long Barrow Via Cotswold Way to Belas Knap between 1929 and 1931. Prior to this Walk along the edge of the field and climb the site was excavated in a series of over the low stone wall and enter the excavations from 1863 and again in 1928. Neolithic site. The exit path is directly ahead. Under the lintel stone of the ‘false entrance’ were the remains of five infants Go over the low stone wall and through and an unusual round-headed adult, a type a gate on the left, follow the Cotswold not normally found in Gloucestershire Way beside a stone wall to another gate. burials prior to 2200 BC. However dating Dents Terrace Go through and descend to the bottom of the Belas Knap human remains in 2000, where the path turns left to follow the placed them all between 4000 and 3700 field boundary beside a wood. (The right of (From point B on the map is approx 0.5 BC. way path follows the edges of the field: it does mile (0.8km) shorter by following the not cut diagonally across). Upon reaching a Cotswold Way). Dents Terrace: Almshouses built by gate go through and descend on a sunken the Dent family in 1865. path through woods to a gate leading Cross the road, pass through the gate onto the road, signposted Winchcombe opposite and follow the Cotswold Way. Vineyard Street: Once also known Way D.* After about 100 metres D turn right as Duck Street. During excavation for the along the Cotswold Way and up a short new bridge a stump of the towns ducking Turn right along the narrow road for steep section through a wood to a field. stool was found. approx 500 metres being careful of traffic. Go through the gate, turn left and follow Ignore a path on the left before the top of the edge of field keeping the wood on Cotswold Way the rise and continue to meet a track on your left, then turning right directly up the This is one of 15 National Trails, long the left waymarked Winchcombe Way E. hill. (The right of way path follows the edges distance walking routes through the best of the field: it does not cut diagonally across). landscapes in England and Wales. The trail Turn left down the gravel track, pass some passes through Winchcombe on its route cottages and bear left down the slope At the top go through a gate and turn between Chipping Campden and Bath. following the Winchcombe Way signs. left following the path beside the wall Ignore the path leading right just after leading to a gate by Belas Knap. Notice the the cottages. Continue down the track, view over Sudeley Valley to your left. At the passing to the right of Wadfield Farm, and Neolithic site there are historical notes on the join the narrow path between hedges to a board. stile entering a fieldF . There is a good view here towards Sudeley Castle and St Mary’s To return, retrace your steps back to Church. Go diagonally across the field to point D by the road. You have a choice a stile on your right in the hedge, go over here. the stile and enter the next field. Turn left along the edge of the field for 100 metres If you wish to take the quickest route and enter the next field. back to Winchcombe, use the Cotswold Way as on your outward journey (start The path goes diagonally across this field by turning left to the gate beside the T-junction and cross over to the gate, WWaW hope you enjoy the walk, however the walk is undertaken at to a footbridge, continue diagonally across your sole risk and WWaW have no responsibility for loss, damage, the second field to a gate.

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