• Explore the Mendip Hills – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty • Eight themed walks, each with fascinating background information • Clear, easy-to-follow route descriptions for each Wild Walk • Additional information on wildlife and wild flowers

• Includes a Wild Food Calendar: how and 8 Wild Walks where to safely pick wild produce throughout the year

www.mendiphillsaonb.org.uk Walking the Mendip Hills maps to Key in safety

ll eight Wild Walks in this book Walking is great exercise for people of Aare suitable for any reasonably all ages and the perfect way to keep fit fit person, but the less experienced and healthy. For the occasional walker walker should try the easier routes first. it’s not really necessary to spend a

Walking in safety Following the route directions should be fortune on the basic equipment, although straightforward, but you will find that the a sturdy pair of comfortable boots or relevant Ordnance Survey map is a useful shoes and a reliable waterproof jacket is addition to the information presented a must. Experienced walkers wear layers here. Carry a compass as well – just in of clothing which can be put on or taken case you lose your way. off as conditions change. The secret Each walk has been carefully is to maintain a comfortable and even researched to minimise any danger to temperature throughout your walk. walkers but it should be stressed that Carry a small rucksack with a spare no walk is completey risk-free. Walking top, hat, gloves and waterproofs and it’s a in the countryside will always require an really good idea to take a drink and some element of common sense and judgement food with you to keep liquid and energy to ensure that it is as safe and pleasurable levels up. Walking is exercise, after all, and an activity as possible. you’ll need to refuel as necessary. A few words to the wise… • Take particular care on upland areas summer months it is advisable to wear where the consequences of a slip or a hat and carry spare water. fall could be serious. • Carry a torch and a fully-charged • Several of the Wild Walk routes use mobile phone in case of emergencies. or cross busy roads. Please be aware • Respect the working life of the that even country lanes and countryside and follow the Country unclassified roads are not traffic-free. Code at all times. • Take particular care around farm • Protect plants and animals and always machinery or livestock, especially if take your litter home with you. you are walking with children or dogs. • Be careful not to disturb ruins and • Our weather is very unreliable and historic sites. conditions can change very quickly. Check the forecast before you set out • Fires can be as devastating to wildlife and ensure that you are equipped with and natural habitats so be careful not suitable warm, waterproof clothing to drop a match or smouldering and appropriate footwear. In the cigarette.

 WALKING IN SAFETY 8 Wild Walks

A fully illustrated guide to eight Wild Walks in the Mendip Hills – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – including a fascinating Wild Food Calendar Contents             2 Contents

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Acknowledgements Wild FoodCalendar Three PriddyDroves King’s Wood East Harptree Woods &Combe Draycott Sleights Chew Valley Lake Bleadon Hill Blagdon Lake Black Down Key to Wild Walks Introduction totheMendipHills CONTENTS 40 38 34 30 26 22 18 14 10 6 4 3

folding and grinding to leave us with the the leave to with us grinding and folding again, them moulding, squeezing, crushing, destroyed rocksand created repeatedly forces; unimaginable by have forces that years of millions of over hundreds made been has England of corner peaceful this man. early gaveto shelter cavethat ancient systems above the built settlements Saxon and towns Roman systems, field overlyingmedieval with agriculture landscape, modern with seasons. the throughout layered a is This offer to areahas fascinating this scenery of variety remarkable the experience to chance a – time through journey a is land. the on mark Mendips the to visit A time. leisure our enjoy quarrying, to and place a mining through living defend,a out dig to place a to food,fortress a or worship to place a for hunt cropsor families, farm to place a our people: raise all liveand to place a T Mendip Hills ancient beautyofthe Exploring thewildand Look back further and you realise that that you realise and further back Look own its left has uses these of Each Mendip Hills have been all things to to things have all Hills been Mendip history, long their hrough the Mendip Hills Hills Mendip AONBService. the of management and protection special the deserving and everyone lanscapes, finest areatreasuredby an England’s of are one Mendips the that Beauty. Natural (AONB) recognises This an designated was Outstanding Areaof it 1972 in that quality scenic exceptional such of place a is Hills Mendip the – beautiful, valued Outstandingly universally heritage our Valuing protecting and remarkable. something new, always is There something always gorges. and combes the of greenery Leap, Deer spring fresh the in rejoice and the in Vale of viewed from when Avalon mist winter the bystirred yourspirits Chew across colours ValleyLake, have Down, autumn Black the at marvel today. we see ridges undulating and slopes barepeaks, of range familiar green-clad Spend a hot summer afternoon on on afternoon summer hot a Spend INTRODUCTION

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3 Introduction to the Mendip Hills Mendip the to Introduction Key to Wild Walks Wild to Key

N

3 1 2 4 Key toWildWalks

6 Key to Wild Walks  1 Black Down  2 Blagdon Lake  3 Bleadon Hill 7  4 Chew Valley Lake  5 Draycott Sleights  6 East Harptree Woods & Combe  7 Kings Wood 5  8 Three Priddy Droves AONB

Built Up Areas

Woodland

Visitor Area 8

4  KEY TO WILD WALKS KEY TO WILD WALKS  5 2 2 Devil’s darning needles The colourful life Lake Blagdon at Walk • Wild BLAGDON LAKE: That’s just one of the old country names for dragonflies and damselflies. The two story of the ruddy Man-made, adopted by nature sub-orders are distinguished by the way darter they hold their wings – those of the • The nymphs use plant stems to crawl dragonflies (anisoptera) are held flat like up out of the water in the early f it weren’t for the Victorian an aeroplane when perching,while the morning. The skin then splits to more delicate damselflies (zygoptera) Idam that runs for a third of a allow the fully-formed adult to bring their wings together. mile along its western end, you emerge Several species are common at Blagdon could be forgiven for thinking • Mature males occupy perches near Blagdon was a natural lake. In in summer including two of the largest breeding sites and defend small fact this peaceful 440-acre dragonflies, the spectacular Southern teritories. They will try another reservoir has been there so Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) and the even long – the dam was built back larger golden-brown emperor dragonfly perch if they fail to spot a female in 1891 – that it has long since (Anax imperator). blended into the landscape of the The ruddy darter dragonfly northern flanks of the Mendips. (Sympetrum sanguineum) is locally Blagdon takes its name from common in the South of England and nearby Black Down. The work widespread at Blagdon (this one was of building the massive dam photographed in Rugmoor Bay on the WildWalk at Blagdon Lake •

took eight years – the larger Glendell/NaturalPaul England lake's north shore). The mature male materials had to be brought has a blood red face and abdomen, with in on the Wrington Vale Light a marked constriction or ‘waist’ shape Railway Company’s branch line. to the abdomen. Immature males and A large Gothic-style building mature females have orange-brown was constructed to house four abdomens, while both have black legs. massive steam-powered beam They grow up to 35mm in length when engines to pump the water. They mature and fly from mid-June to October. have now been replaced by electric motors, but two of the Chris Newton • Females are intercepted as they original engines were preserved and can moths, frequent them in summer. The approach, and the two mate on still be seen at Blagdon pumping station. trout which have been stocked by the nearby vegetation A rich variety of wildlife soon water company for anglers since the lake • The female lays her eggs while still colonised Blagdon and in more recent was created (predominantly the faster- in tandem with the male. She dips times it has been designated a Site of growing rainbow trout these days) have her abdomen in open water, on Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Its a rich variety of food to choose from vegetation or in mud to deposit the meandering 7 miles (11km) of shoreline – particularly the larvae of insects such eggs (damselflies may crawl deep into alternates sheltered bays, reedbeds, carr as damselflies, dragonflies, water beetles, the water to lay their eggs) woodland and grassland. Reed sweet- midges and sedge flies (caddis flies). • In high summer the eggs hatch grass, reed canary-grass and common There are also sticklebacks, eels, perch within a few days, but if they are laid reed populate the shoreline and there are and gudgeon. late in the season they will not hatch aquatic plants such as flowering rush and The lake’s rich supply of food ensures until the following spring shoreweed. a thriving population of waterfowl. They • The nymph feeds on the bottom Species-rich meadows border parts include coot, moorhen, tufted duck, for a year, hiding among the roots of the north shore and these are home teal, wigeon, mallard, great crested and of water plants and gradually growing to saw-wort, wild carrot and pepper little grebe, reed bunting, sedge warbler, bigger. Small invertebrates and saxifrage. Many interesting insects, shoveler, goldeneye, ruddy duck, Bewick’s tadpoles are among their food.

including a wide variety of butterflies and swan, heron and kingfisher. Chris Newton

10  BLAGDON LAKE BLAGDON LAKE  11 2

2 Lakeside vegetation to 6 Lake Blagdon at Walk • Wild look out for Blagdon Lake 1 Common reed (Phragmites communis) Distance: 4km (2 ⁄2 miles). 1 This familiar lakeside plant is characteristic Time: About 1-1 ⁄2 hours. of shallow, freshwater margins, wet ground 5 around ponds, marshes, lakes and slow Starting points: Free car park moving rivers. It often forms large beds. next to Blagdon Village Club OS Grid When mature, this tall and elegant plant Ref ST 501 591. is topped with a large cluster of purple Terrain: Some steeper gradients on plumes. lanes, otherwise an easy, fairly level route on the footpaths. Route: From the car park, walk north down through the village (1) – note the lane becomes steeper here. 7 Turn right into Dark Lane (2). At 4 the bottom, turn left along the road towards Blagdon pumping station (3). Follow the road across the dam; at the end on the right there is the entrance

WildWalk at Blagdon Lake • to a footpath (4). Take this footpath along the lake shore. At the very northern tip of the lake, look out for a 3 footpath bisecting the path you are on. Take the left path (5) across two fi elds to Blagdon Lane. Turn left down this lane (6) and return to the dam (7). Retrace the route you have already

taken back to the car park. Chris Newton The common reed used to be a far 2 Waymarking: Look for the special more economically important plant waymark plaques wherever there are than it is now, as this is the plant that stiles, gates or changes of direction. START/ 1 is used to make thatch for roofi ng. It FINISH is also home to two bird species which O.S.Maps: Explorer 141: Cheddar are named after it, the reed warbler and Gorge & Mendip Hills West; Explorer the reed bunting (the latter is common 154: Bristol West & Portishead at Blagdon). It is a vital element in the ecology of Blagdon and neighbouring Other Chew Valley Lake, as it stabilises muddy Information: Pubs in Blagdon: areas and provides cover for many birds New Inn, Live and invertebrates. & Let Live, Other things to look out Seymour Arms for at or near Blagdon and Queen Adelaide. Village Lake post offi ce • Blagdon pumping station (see right) and stores in • Blagdon Village and Church Blagdon. • Eldreds orchard Richard Law

12  BLAGDON LAKE BLAGDON LAKE  13 Wild Food Calendar Food Wild Hawthorn-berries Wild Food Calendar Bolete mushrooms Bolete mushrooms Crab apples Wood sorrel Rosebay willowherb Heather Heather Hazel nuts Ground ivy Wild strawberries Wild strawberries Sloes, Blackthorn Raspberry leaves Raspberries Raspberries Rose hips Ramsons, wild garlic Meadowsweet Blackberries Bramble stems Comfrey Comfrey Hawthorn leaves Blackcurrants Bilberry Silverweed Dandelion flowers Field mushrooms Sweet chestnut St George's mushrooms Lime leaves Lime blossom Lime blossom Elderberries Wild Food Calendar Sorrel Sorrel Chickweed Chickweed Nettles Nettles Dandelion leaves Dandelion leaves January February March April May June July August September October November December

Rules and precautions 9. Do not pick more than you need. If landowner’s permission. You are however, 1993 Mushroom Pickers Code allowed to pick leaves, fruit and nuts along www.forestry.gov.uk. 10 guidelines for gathering wild food you take everything, there will be none available for next season. public rights of way. There is always a risk associated with 10. Only collect the best leaves, fruit and A Code of Conduct for the Useful books gathering wild food. Here are some nuts. Any showing signs of mould, Conservation and Enjoyment of Wild Wild Food by Roger Phillips. points to remember: being eaten by animals, bruising, Plants has been produced by the Published by MacMillan Botanical Society of the British Isles and 1. If in doubt, do not pick or eat it. browning or rot should be left. the Forestry Commission has produced Food for Free by Richard Mabey 2. Only pick small quantities from the 1993 Mushroom Picker’s Code. Published by Collins plants growing in profusion, so as not Make sure it’s legal While the advice and information in to diminish populations. The aim of this series of wild walk A Cook on the Wild Side this guide are believed to be true and 3. Never pick protected or rare plants. guides is to increase your enjoyment, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall accurate, neither the author nor the 4. Sustainability, care, responsibility and appreciation and awareness of our native Published by River Cottage Mendip Hills AONB Service can accept respect is key for the environment, wild food plants within the Mendip Hills Wild Food by Ray Mears any legal responsibility or liability for any wildlife and other countryside users. AONB. You should not assume that you and Gordon Hillman harm or injury arising from the content 5. Be 100% sure of your identification. are allowed to gather the wild foods in Published by Hodder & Stoughton of this guide. Have a good quality ID book with you this guide without checking your right to Collins Pocket Guide: Trees of and/or consult an expert who can do so. Finding out more Britain and Northern Europe identify species for you. Wild plants are protected by various by John Mitchell and Alan Wilkinson 6. Avoid fields with crops growing in pieces of legislation, primarily the Wildlife Visit the Joint Nature Conservation them as chemicals may have been used and Countryside Act 1981. More Committee website at Collins Pocket Guide: Wild Flowers – look out for yellowing of plants. information can be found on the Joint www.jncc.gov.uk. of Britain and Northern Europe 7. Avoid main roads and areas known to nature Conservation Committee website by Marjory Blamey, Richard Fitter and A Code of Conduct for the be heavily used by dog walkers. www.jncc.gov.uk. Please read this Alastair Fitter Conservation and Enjoyment of 8. Do not pick or eat any poisonous to understand the legal aspects of wild Wild Plants plants, or plants known to produce plants. Generally, it is illegal to uproot www.bsbi.org.uk. an allergic reaction. or destroy any wild plant without the

38  WILD FOOD CALENDAR WILD FOOD CALENDAR  39 Text: Adrian Boots Editor: Chris Newton Photography: Steve Bond Adrian Boots Paul Glendell/Natural England Jim Hallet/Countryside Agency Richard Law Mendip Hills AONB Service Chris Newton Peter Roworth/Natural England Peter Wakely/Natural England Illustrations: Neil Ross

Acknowledgements Designer: Neil Ross (Four Square Design 01275 371913)

© Mendip Hills AONB Service 2009

This publication includes maps reproduced from Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence no. 100023366 (2009).

Mendip Hills AONB Service ISBN - Wild Walks 978-0-9559110-1-9

While every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the route directions, we cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions, or for changes in the details given. The countryside is not static and is subject to changes to field boundaries, footpath routes, and property ownership resulting in the closure or diversion of concessionary paths. We have taken all reasonable steps to ensure these walks are safe and achievable by walkers with a reasonable level of fitness. However, all outdoor activities involve a degree of risk and the publishers accept no responsibility for any injuries sustained to readers whilst following these walks. Mendip Hills AONB Service Charterhouse Centre nr Blagdon Bristol BS40 7XR www.mendiphillsaonb.org.uk E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 01761 462338

Working together for equalities This document is also available in Braille, large print, on tape or on disc and we can translate it into different languages. We can provide a member of staff to discuss the details.

RNID typetalk This book is printed on Howard Smith Greencoat Plus paper containing 80% recycled fibre. The remaining 20% virgin pulp is TCF (Totally Chlorine Free).

40  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS