25/04/20 - Wyre Forest at Button Oak

Distance - 5.5 Miles
Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine Oct 1994, Walk 11


For the first time since lockdown (5 weekends and counting), the car was used for the weekend walk.  I'm not being irresponsible - the rules have been "clarified"

The guidance says driving to the countryside and walking is considered reasonable - but only where far more time is spent walking than driving.

Using common sense, I am much less likely to meet other people in the massive expanse of the Wyre Forest than I am on my daily route that takes me along narrow towpaths and through town centres.

A 30 minute round trip drive to Earnswood Copse - moments past the forlorn Banks Button Oak pub - for a 2 and half hour qualifying walk.

The Wyre Forest offers 10 square miles of woodland.   This, the Shropshire part, is far more wild and remote than from the Long Bank Visitor Centre.  I have two features to bring you - trees and a lengthy stretch along Dowel's Brook.

The only people we see are the odd groups of Mountain Bikers - 4 in the largest party and I cannot say with certainty that they lived in the same house.

But who am I to cast aspersions?

Bluebells are out in the Wyre Forest.   It all looks like this.

Same Household walking Partners

Dowles Brook

19/04/20 - Stagborough Hill

Distance - 8.5 Miles



Weekend 4 of Lock Down.  Rules appear to be relaxed to say that "You can drive for a walk, but the walking must take longer than the exercise". Not much help - I've been known to walk for longer than it would take me to complete a return drive to the Lake District.

For this week, I will continue with walks from my front door.  The 3rd nearest Trig Point to home is my aim.


So it's back through town to pick up the River Severn, before abandoning the waterway for the road known locally as the Switchback.  No need to worry about traffic today

View from a bridge and a walkers shadow

The path to Stagborough Hill (all 124m of it) is at Coneygreen Farm.   The right of way skirts the actual trig point but there appears to be a permissive path for those baggers that have to touch their quarry.

The ROW over Stagborough Hill, summit to the right

For me, the paths through Ribbesford Woods are the highlight.  I've rarely walked them and the shaded woodlands paths offer tranquility, where the only sound is birdsong.   Except I have my earphones in, trying valiantly to work my way through the NME Top 50s from 1978 to 1985 that someone has been sharing on a Spotify Playlist.   Reggae diminishes as the years pass.

Paths get vague on the exit to the woods, but I work my way to Gladderbrook Farm and lane walking on Jennings Wood Lane all the way to Dunley.   A geocache in the community library/phone box and a pub called the Dog that's of little use today.  I'm slowly losing the gained height but there are some fine views over Malvern, Abberley and Stourport.

Looking over Stourport from Jennings Wood Lane

Back through Astley, town and shopping for essentials at the Co-op.  We're out of Bread and Gin.

Next week, I may see if the car starts.   Its currently achieving a fuel efficiency of 5 weeks per litre.

10/04/20 - The Devil's Spadeful

Distance - 5 Miles

Weekend 3 of Social Isolation.  As a nation, we look to our leaders for when lockdown may end, like kids going on holiday asking "are we there yet?".   We're not, and I doubt we will be for a long time.

Today's walk from my front door is a beauty.   Golf courses, once they have gone bankrupt, get reclaimed by the walkers.

Golfers Loss, Walkers Gain

The destination is the Devil's Spadeful.  Sometimes referred to the Spittleful.  In the absence of pubs, I've nothing else to write about so I may as well bang on about a sandstone outcrop.  From the name, you can guess Beelzebub was involved.  Local legend says there was an epic battle between the devil and a giant and the devil tried to hurl a rock to destroy Bewdley.

Said Rock now has 45 Steps to climb and information for an Earthcache to retrieve.   For booze blogfans, an earthcache is like a regular geocache, without the tupperware and with homework.

First we have to wait for a young family to complete their explorations.  Guide dog in training Abi doesn't mind the water break.

Guide Dog Abi showing no signs of Lockdown Strees.   Owner putting on a brave face

Waiting for the ascent

Some of the questions relating to the rock formation

Half correct answers to the CO sent and in the spirit of the times, I have been allowed to make the claim.  On reflection, I'd like to change my answers to the what caused the erosion layering to the melting ice sheets at the end of the last ice age.

Back home is through the nature reserve and a cat and mouse distancing game with cyclists and joggers.

04/04/20 - A Doctor, A Bishop and A Saint

Distance - 6.5 Miles
Geocaches - 2

Weekend #2 of the Lockdown.  The town's natives on social media are getting anxious.  People walking their dogs are the new tyre burners. People who drive their car to walk their dogs will be burned on tyres.

Strange times.

To avoid lynch mobs, I consult the map to complete another walk from my front door.

Dr Beeching provides the first part of the route.  Leapgate is the former railway line between Stourport on Severn and the rest of the world.   Like many, its converted into a decent footpath running to Hartlebury.

Leapgate Railway Line

A small crossing of farmland and a walk into the grounds of Hartlebury Castle - home of the Bishops of Worcester between 855 and 2007.   I cannot believe there were plans to knock it down for housing.  It seems to be surviving for now - normally you could pay to enter the grounds and the house.  Just me and the Postman today.

Hartlebury Castle

The way back is provided by Hartlebury Common - a wild space of myriad paths.  Views over the place that I have always called home.

Plenty of options for exploration

Down to the river and the hard part....  out of bounds are the Angel, the Crown, the Bridge, the Wheatsheaf, the Swan, the Black Star and the Rising Sun.

I'll just have to find what Saints are left in the garage.

St Bernardus - such a happy chappy