27/04/13 - Graceless Fields

Distance - 7.3 Miles
Walk from - Jarrold Shakespeare Country
Geocaches - 3 Found, 2 appear lost

Bretforton

There's a reason to be in this are today - St George's day marks the start of Asparagus season (2nd best veg after the majestic corn on the cob) and they take this very seriously in this part of the world.

Stuff your Glastonbury - we are off to Asparafest

There is another bonus reason to be in the area.  Not just a Top 10 County Pub, but the best in the county - The Fleece at Bretforton.  I  look through my books for a suitable walk and in the main, the Jarrold series does not disappoint.

Until today.

We park up, a little too far from the pub, but we do get the to walk through the village and look at the properties that we will never be able to afford.  The pub is on a little square, with perfect thatched cottages and an impressive church.  You could not get a better slice of little England.

Start of the Walk

At the end of this road, we turn left and enter what will haunt me for a long, long time.  Fields.

 

That's all this walk has to offer.... Green Field, Green Field, Brown Field, Green Field, Field full of Sheep, Green Field, Brown Field, Roped off field full of cabbages.  There's not even a contour line to break up the monotony.

 

Sonia says that surely Jarrold should have told us.  On our return, I checked the walk instructions and indeed it did say "Don't bother with this, unless you like fields."

 

We plod on.  Get to Stoneford Bard on the map and get to cross the road, into some more fields.  Even the Farm is called Willersley Fields Farm.

At this point, we have the unbridled excitement of an old railway line to break up the tedium.  There are meant to be three caches along here but two appear missing and none have been found for nealy a year.  Geocachers need more excitement than fields can offer.

The detour to get the caches means we have a short amount of nasty road walking.  The farmer has bigger problems, as he is trying to get his sheep from his farm out across the road.

We are pleased to see the footpath sigh - but it leads us into a great big dirty brown field.

 

Some fields are worse than other fields

We are being brought out to Honeybourne.  This, at least, offers some respite.  We get a cache on entering and exiting the village.  We also think long and hard about stopping for refreshments.  There is no tea shop, but an interesting looking pub.  We need to save out pennies for the County #1.

Pottery, but no Tea Pots

On any other day, a 13th Century Thatched Pub would have been perfect

We make a mistake, as the heaven's open if the form of a hailstorm.  Shelter with the sheep under some branches.  Mercifully, it doesn't last long.

The walk is nearly done and our stomachs are rumbling.  The fields deteriorate to the point where we have a roped off cabbage field that we cannot even enter.  This leads to more road walking....  at least the road takes us to the pub.

Uniquely owned by the National Trust

The Fleece Inn is a rambling old pub, converted from a 17th Century Barn.  It was left to the National Trust in 1977 and lost its thatched roof in a fire in 2004.  Its also very busy.

Doesn't matter, as we can sit outside and enjoy our sandwiches and (my) pint of Pig's Ear.

1/4 of a pint cannot erase the misery

And we never even saw a field full of asparagus.