22/10/16 - Wye to Thames Walk 5 - Worcester to Pershore

Distance - 15 Miles
Geocaches - 10
Previous Walks - Walk 1, Walk 2, Walk 3, Walk 4
Pub - The Pickled Plum, Pershore, Butty Bach


An unexpected free Saturday.  A chance to knock off Stage 5 of this epic journey that is taking me from the Wye in Hereford to the Thames in Oxford.

Today, we can throw the Severn into the River Mix.

Its a lengthy one - 15 Miles.  It would have been 14, if Pershore Station was actually in Pershore.  I could have taken a short cut to miss out the town, but there is a Good Beer Guide Pub to tick off.

Train timetables indicate that the drivers have a afternoon Siesta.  If I don't leave early, I will be waiting two hours for the 15:30 to return.

7:30am and I am alighting at Worcester Foregate Street, pounding the streets as the City prepares for a busy Saturday.

The first part of the walk is easy walking along the River - from the bridge to Kempsey.

Worcester Cathedral

Worcester Bridge in the pre dawn light

The route provides the chance to add a few geocaches to the total, including one previous fail.  I'm sure it wasn't there last time.

Kempsey sees me leave the River.  Cruelly, I pass the yet to open for the day Walter de Catelupe.  I'll be back to get the GBG tick.

Doesn't look much but I hear it has Timothy Taylor Landlord

Cutting in land and heading east, I walk across a Kempsey Common.   There is little to report - the weather is gloomy, the paths have been diverted to cater for horse enclosures and the only elements of potential comedy moments include electrocution and getting told off when I follow an arrow into a field full of alpacas.

Mr Alpaca was far more angry than a man with poor signage had any right to be.

Gloomy View from Kempsey Common

Stoulton, leads to Drakes Broughton and eventually - bang on opening time - Pershore.

With weary legs, I enter the Pickled Plum in Pershore.  A tongue twister of a Good Beer Guide Entry.

Pickled Plum

This pub used to be called the Plough.  It looked so down at heel that in all my previous walking visits, I was never inclined to visit.

It's received a makeover, mainly been aimed at diners, with 2/3's of the pub set for dining.

But drinkers are equally well looked after - six real ales on - with the clips for six real ciders (it's that part of the world) sharing the same beer pumps.

I can remember seeing Purity Ubu, Brakspear but no more perusal was required when my eyes locked on the Butty Bach.

My local is a Wye Valley tied house.  Whisper it quietly, but it may have been in even better condition here.

Butty Bach in the Pershore's Pickled Plum