14/10/26 - The Grafton Flyford Hairstreak Butterfly Trail

Church Crawling

Walk 23 from the new Cicerone book finds me on a butterfly trail. Seems a bit cheeky stealing the council's work to put in a walking book. Just like blogging about it, I suppose. A publicly available PDF showing the exact same route.

Conservation

Information on the ground

The PDF tells you all you need to know about the Brown Hairstreak - including the conversation work to perfectly maintain their required environment. Hawthorn hedgerow management taken seriously in this part of East Worcestershire.

If only I had read it. The butterflies are out from July to September. Even with global walking, not a single butterfly was observed during an unseasonably warm October.

The walking can only be described as dull. Despite a long stretch on the Wychavon way - this is green field after green field, all flat and little to see. 

That leaves the two churches.

Staring at the doors locked Grafton Flyford.

Car parking availble.

Better investigations found at Himbleton Church - the doors open policy rewarded with a place geocache - requiring information from a war grave to find the final co-ordinates.

Clock added to the wooden tower in 1910

Queen Elizabeth I Coat of Arms on the chancel wall - celebrating a visit, perhaps?

Walk Details

Distance - 7 miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Cicerone Worcestershire, Walk 23

Previous walks from the book;

Walk 2

13/10/26 - Sefton Park and Penny Lane, Liverpool

Magical Mystery Tour to the first 2027 GBG Tick

Two walks close together in the Liverpool A-Z book of City Walks. Parklife in Princes and Sefton Parks - functional but with nothing much to write home about. The second walk in nearby Wavertree fixes that in spades.

My walking life has many inspirations - history, murders, pubs, folklore and so on - but this must be the first walk inspired by a song. Fighting the hordes taking coach trips to take photographs of road signs. Only a special kind of idiot does that.

Penny Lane - in my ears and in my eyes

The parks are OK - easy tracks, moms with pushchairs and large bodies of water.

Easy walking in the park

A replica of Piccadilly Eros

I've never really paid attention to the lyrics of Penny Lane. Released at the same time as Sgt Pepper - but not on the album - it's a jaunty number where the boys whimsically recount real-life places in a small area where they grew up.

I give you;

a barber showing photographs

The corner where there's a banker with a motorcar

The shelter in the middle of a roundabout

I only sing when I'm walking. Whilst in this part of town, I take the chance to see 50% of the childhood homes. I have to say I am impressed with how neat and tidy the little terraced streets are. A million miles away from similar areas of Birmingham (my home town), which can no longer be described as leafy.

Lennon's goes for anonymity 

Harrison gets a blue plaque

And the fun doesn't stop there. Once I have finished the southern half of Sefton Park, I am delivered into Larks Lane. What a wonderful place. A few strategically placed plant pots encourage traffic calming and every building appears to be dedicated to the pursuit of Bacchanalian pleasure. 

Including my first new tick from the recently published Good Beer Guide.

The Masonic Arms

It's one of three pubs in Larks Lane owned by the Pub Co. Presumably in the Good Beer Guide for the extensive collection of cask ales - but quantity doesn't equate to quality - especially when there are no other customers. There is simply no need for three different pale ales and my Kirkstall Three Swords was disappointingly on the turn.

At least it was handsome.

Tastebuds saved directly over the road at the Green Man. A perfect Timothy Taylor Boltmaker washing down Tayto smoky bacon crisps. I've eaten a lot of crisps. I declare these the king.

Scouse CAMRA got it wrong - this is where you want to be.

Finally - and because I can't resist a pub crawl - Bookbinders. I'm unsure what it is from the outside, so I ask the waitress (note I don't use bar staff) if it's a pub or a café? She replies "it's a bar/eatery". We agree on all things to all men.

To help you make up your mind - an extensive breakfast menu has beans on toast for £7.

The beer - an excellent White Rat - offers better value at just over £4.

Thoroughly enjoyed in the autumn sunshine.

The other Bookbinders I know offers free Monkey Nuts...

Walk Details

Distance - 9 miles

Geocaches - 20

Walk Inspiration - Liverpool A-Z City Walks, Walks 14 and 15

Previous Liverpool A-Z City Walks - Walks 1 and 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6 and 7, Walk 8 and 9, Walk 10, Walk 11 and 12, Walk 13

26/09/26 - Abberley, St Michaels

Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas

Two dates very close to each other on the Pilgrimage calendar.

The Autumn Equinox marks the point when day and night are approximately equal, a moment of balance before the long slide towards winter. It sits neatly alongside Michaelmas, celebrated on 29 September in honour of St Michael the Archangel, traditionally seen as a protector and a figure of strength and courage. Michaelmas was one of the four quarter days of the English year, marking the end of the agricultural year and the beginning of a new one. For an Autumn Equinox pilgrimage, the two traditions make a useful pairing: walk through woodland, fields, orchards and old lanes, looking for the signs of harvest and the changing season, before finishing at a St Michael's Church if there is one nearby. The walk becomes a small journey from the balance of the Equinox towards Michaelmas, combining the seasonal landscape with the Christian tradition of the archangel whose feast marks this turning point.

I know just the church - The Norman St Michael's in Abberley - fallen into ruin in the 1850s, with just the chancel and chapel remaining. A proper explore to be had, before the walk gets going.

Gillet on, marking the transition to winter

Flying buttress failing to save the church

Doors Open...

The last feast, cracked

The walk is straightforward and for large parts, on the Worcestershire Way - woodland up onto Abberley Hill, where the occasional (wonderful) view appears through the trees.

Woodbury Hill, from Abberley

Just to round off the day  - lunch at the Manor Arms. Over 300 years old and the building has doubled up as the local court. Over the years, we have seen it come and go - from a village local to its current guise as a posh gastro pub with rooms.

At least it's open.

The parking needs to be paid for.

Walk Details

Distance - 4 miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Adventurous Pub Walks in Worcestershire - Walk 

Previous Celtic Pilgrimages - Imbloc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas

25/09/26 - Worcestershire Cakes and Ales Stage 3 - Upton-upon-Severn to Pershore

Welcome to the Monkey House

I'm taking massive liberties with this stage of the Cakes and Ales guidebook. Again, the author wants a very lengthy walk - 15 miles - and to introduce a big hill. This time, Bredon Hill. It could be argued that I have recently walked over Bredon into Pershore. The real reason for the massive diversion is that I am near to a place that I have wanted to go to for a long time and that is only open on Fridays and Sundays. 

Most of the blog will be dedicated to the Cider House, Defford.

This leaves the walking a little dull - over the river at Upton, to head east on the Wyche Way across agricultural fields. Views of the Malverns behind and Bredon in front. Nothing really of interest until the decision point at Strensham, where I leave the official route to plough my own furrow.

Upton Marina

Hills behind - The Malverns

Hills in front - Bredon

More than just a service station - Strensham Church - Door Locked

The Cider House is one of only four dedicated cider houses left in the country. I've done my research - I know its opening times (Friday Lunch, Sundays and Wednesday in Summer). I know that it's cash only. I know that there is no bar and cider is dispensed from a hatch in a barn door.  I know that it's been managed by the same family for the last 150 years. But time is meaningless here. I could have been drinking in the Middle Ages.

The main door with its weathered sign

Queuing at the serving hatch

Not ordering a beer and having paper money allowed me to be accepted by the landlady and a friendly gang of farm hands and workies taking advantage of the limited opening hours. Unsure how some of them would be going back to work. I had two pints of dry and found myself singing on the top deck of the X50 back to Worcester. Dispense is from the barrel, via a jug and only untappd suggested the brew may have a name - Woodmancote Dry. Note that the ABV is unknown.

Previous check-ins suggested this was my brew

The strength of the brew may go some way to explaining how the place received it's nick-name of the monkey house. I'll leave the CAMRA Real Heritage Guide explain;

 

What else did I discover? I thought I was missing out on a cocktail when a lady asked for a "Carpet Square". Nothing so fancy, it was exactly that - a carpet square to sit on, if the bench seating is too hard on your backside. And if it rains - everyone can go inside to the "tool-shed".

Inside the tool-shed

A roof, a luxury not extended to the male facilities - a roofless wall, which if you are 6ft - you can peer over to view the countryside that you should have been walking.

  

Walk Details

Distance - 7.5 miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Stage 2 of the Worcester Cakes and Ales Trail

Previous Stages:

Stage 1 - Martley to Malvern

Stage 2 - Malvern to Upton-upon-Severn