17/07/26 - Rail Trail - Tewkesbury to Pershore

Pevsner's Pershore

The second part of Jonathan Meades Travels with Pevsner details Pershore. A perfectly intact Georgian town.

A Walk Midlands Rail Trail from WalkMidlands has been on the to-do list for a while. Time to knock this off, and investigate Toyah-town with eyes afresh.

After a couple of city walks, it's good to be in the countryside again, even if this falls at the boring end of the walking scale. We have flat agricultural fields - burnt to a crisp, hard underfoot and with significant cracks in the soil ready to twist an unsuspecting ankle. The prize - Bredon Hill - is permanently in view - with only a couple of Northern Cotswold villages to break up the monotony.

Ashchurch, providing the only geocache of the day

Today's vista

Too early for Kemerton's Crown Inn - a mooch around the church instead

I'm unsure if I have approached Bredon Hill from this direction before but as with the routes I have taken, it's a gentle climb. Shady woodland at the top provides a fine location for a lunch break. 

Pershore - identified by the Abbey below

The descent is via the Wychavon Way, familiar paths touching Great Comberton and the river Avon for a brief moment before more flat walking to the town.

Great Comberton Church

Pershore's old bridge declaring the walk is over

Pevsner dedicates many pages to the Abbey. I decide to only concentrate on Bridge Street - his text providing detail on design features otherwise missed, but I will spare you photos of doorways.

Bridge Street is also home to an ever dwindling number of pubs. The Brandy Cask now a private home.

The ones that remain hardly tear up any trees but after drinking increasingly warm water in a heatwave, the euro fizz available was more than welcome.

Cruzcampo and a riverside terrace

Millers Arms - former GBG and best in town (IMHO)

The Three Tuns in Pevsner's text - now a "not for Mappiman" hotel

For ladies who lunch and also a Championship Timothy Taylor outlet for cooler days

Walk Details

Distance - 10.75 miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - Walk Midlands

12/06/26 - On the Trail of..... Penda's Fen

Play for Today

Always on the lookout for new walking inspiration, I was intrigued when The Dispatch newspaper drew my attention to Penda's Fen. Alan Clarke's 1974 Play for Today—the same director who later made Scum and The Firm—is remarkable for more than just its storyline. In less than ninety minutes it tackles Christianity and paganism, sexuality, nuclear annihilation, working-class identity and the nature of England itself. The hyperlink provides a summary of the plot and its ongoing impact quite nicely.

More extraordinary still, it was broadcast on BBC1 at 9.30pm. At a time when there were only three television channels, the British public effectively had a choice: watch Penda's Fen or go to bed early.

Penda was the seventh-century Mercian ruler remembered as England's last great pagan king. The drama is set in Pinvin, near Pershore - a village whose name in Old English is Penda's Fen - although filming took place in Chaceley, across the River Severn from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.

The only walk I have in the area is from an old Country Walking Magazine. This, and some internet-based sleuthing to determine filming locations and a day out for exercise, followed the previous day on the sofa watching the DVD.

I start in the nearby village of Forthampton. In the play, The Vicar visits a parishioner on his death-bed to perform the last rites. I have my first location - an external shot of an impressive house opposite the church.

The last rites were shunned - the dying man happy that he had lived his life on earth

Forthampton Church is "doors open" and I am distracted before taking a step.

Forthampton Church

A Saxon Devil's Head above the front door - Other treasures include a rare stone altar and medieval pews

I'm off and away. The play's eeriness matched by an unchanged for centuries agricultural landscape, with many ancient dead and dying oaks hosting roosting corvids, which take cacophonous flight as I disturb them on approach. I am aiming for the weir at Upper Lode, with constant views of Tewkesbury Abbey on the opposite side of the River Severn.

Dead oaks and Tewkesbury Abbey in the far distance

The weir at Upper Lode

A long stretch of riverside walking passing a couple of pubs. I am too early for the Lower Lode Hotel and Yew Tree Inn, which marks the return inland. A road leads to Chaceley, the site of many of the filming locations.

The main characters family home at the Old Vicarage

The home of the TV scriptwriter

Chaceley Church features prominently - the main protagonist plays the organ there and during his crisis of faith, has a vision when the floor cracks and a voice is heard imploring "free me". It's "doors open" - with a sign saying to close the door behind otherwise birds will get in. There are already three ravens inside.

Chaceley Church

Church Organ

Another devil's head - in the keystone of the arch

Green lanes take me back to Forthhampton. I've been too early for the pubs found on route and nothing is to be found here. A remote good beer guide tick is available at the Railway Inn, Ripple. A 15-minute drive away.

Walk Details

Distance - 8 miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - The Dispatch Newspaper and Country Walking Magazine, January 1995 Walk 12

15/04/26 - Good Beer Guide Ticking in Gloucester

Variety Abounds

The Drunken Duck, a tiny micropub down a little alley, has a fine collection of Bibles on the window-shelf.

Running back to the last Millennium

The natural thing is to check your home town - in my case - Stourport-on-Severn - to determine who made it in what year. The town has around 15 pubs - and in no time at all, I can see they have all made it during one year or another. Even the ones where I remember the beer quality, and in some cases, the pub itself to be dreadful.

This means the job of Good Beer Guide Ticking is a true Sisyphean undertaking. I expect much work to be done in the County Town since my last visit in Covid. 

I start at the early opener in the fancily gentrified dockyard area. Dr Foster's lacking in naming stakes originality and I must admit to not holding out much hope in a restaurant.

Unapologetically Gastro

Two major surprises - a Tap Takeover from one of may favourite Cotswold Breweries, Goff's. And everything £3 a pint. I mentioned my surprise to the barman, who simply replied "It's Wednesday, innit". Well long live Wednesdays.

Goffs Lancer - just add customers....

A short distance away is the Hop Kettle. Whereas the good doctor opens at 11am, the tardy kettle leave it to 3pm. 

Moving on to the Drunken Duck - which I remember as Angie's and a wonderful landlord who insisted on calling you by your name as he adhered to Covid delivery rituals. Busy with deliveries, beer salesmen and debt collectors, who left fully paid up. Their own house bitter is Butcombe Original.

Drunken Duck - Angies No More

The Fountain was Covid locked up before and I couldn't even get down the alley to take a photograph. It's discussed on the rather excellent Tourist Information audio tour. The oldest brewery and pub in the City, running since the C14th.

The Fountain

7 cask on - most from South West Breweries. My Tribute a panic buy, after being challenged as to what I was doing scanning the Cask Marque QR code. Full of pensioners eating and if I picked poorly on my pint, I made a worse choice on the seating. You try balancing on a church pew with the smell of fish and chips in your nostrils. The Campaign for Comfy Pub Chairs starts again here.

I was looking forward to The Pelican, a Wye Valley House that simply gave up during Covid and didn't open at all. The door was firmly closed and with no sign of life inside. I was forced to re-check Google for opening hours that said it should be open. A push of the door and indeed it was.

Little sign of life in the Pelican

A group of old boys, with the detritus of a serious session on display on their table, provided the eavesdropping entertainment. The Butty Bach was in fantastic condition. It's my regular pint in my GBG local, but it tops it here.

The Audio Guide had brought my attention to the New Inn, describing it as the finest galleried pub in the country. Built in 1440 by monks for pilgrims, I really had to investigate. Not least because Mr Rolls (of Rolls Royce fame) managed to run over himself here in 1896.

Gives the George in Borough High Street serious competition

What it provided in architectural atmosphere, it negated by having a poor beer selection and no-one on point to serve. I was happy with my mooch around, ready to head back to the station in a thunderstorm.

29/01/26 - Rail Trail - Ashchurch to Cheltenham

Highest Part of the Cotswolds

A new website discovery. A rail-trail enthusiast from the West Country is plotting routes between stations. That's right on track for me.

Ashchurch (for Tewkesbury) to Cheltenham looked interesting, but on reflection I should have waited for a better day weather-wise. It wasn't raining but climbing to the Cotswold ceiling in the mist kind of missed the point of the potential views.

From the station, low agricultural land of no merit leads to the Gloucestershire way and the sleepy villages of Oxenton and Gotherington.

Gloucestershire Way short on thrills

Only Iron Age Hillforts can save the day. Nottingham Hill and Cleeve Cloud are part of the same escarpment, each with an ancient hillfort. The former wooded, with an arrow-straight footpath running up and over. The later is wild common land with a rather dramatic golf course. It appears that you can walk anywhere. With the inclement weather, there are no worries about being hit by flying golf balls.

Nothing to see on Cleeve Cloud. Biting wind to feel

A drop down to Cheltenham Racecourse for a handily placed bench providing a perfect lunch stop. The festival starts in 6 weeks, and many memories were made from the 15 years consecutive attendance until Covid got in the way. The live music was always better than the horses.

Of course, the mist clears once I am off the hills

My route avoids the town centre, utilising the disused Honeybourne Rail line as a corridor back to the train station. Fortunately, 2024 has seen a pub/pizzeria open adjacent. Here serve better post-walk refreshments than previously found at the only alternative, Tesco Express.

Jubilee bridge on the disused railway line

Steam and Whistle, in battleship grey

Surprisingly good cask - Bristol Beer Factory Fortitude

Walk Details

Distance - 14 miles 

Walk Inspiration

Geocaches - 4

19/09/25 - Architecture and Oktoberfest in Cheltenham

Traditions and the Death of Pub Exploring

Traditions don’t arrive fully formed – they creep up on us, stitched together from small acts we stubbornly repeat. What begins as a comedy of errors gradually takes on the weight of ritual, the very mishaps becoming part of the story we tell ourselves about why we return.

In 2024, I turned up at Oktoberfest in the Sandford Park Ale House to find plenty of beer but not a hint of Bavarian food. Not on a Monday. In 2025, I try again, this time preparing with military precision: calendars consulted, reminders set, messages dispatched. Yet as I board the 7.27am bus from deepest Worcestershire, I know some minor disaster is already on the timetable. The only question is what shape it will take this year.

I want to earn my lunch - so I start the day on an architectural town tour promoted by the Council.

How to Explore Cheltenham

I concentrate hard on the Montpellier district - an area that is a showcase of Regency elegance: graceful terraces, ashlar façades, and classical detailing like Corinthian, Doric and Ionic orders everywhere you look. Perhaps the most striking are the caryatids lining Montpellier Walk — draped female figures under cornices, modelled on those from the Acropolis, lending the streets a sculptural poetry.

Here's the pictures;

This time yesterday, I didn't know what a Caryatid was

Queens Hotel

Imperial Gardens

Neptune's Fountain

There is more to investigate, as the morning gets hijacked by geocaching. I've been wanting to have another go at a Whereigo for some time. In brief, a more involved treasure hunt that involves collecting information from several places before the location of the treasure-box is revealed. The theme of this one is Penfold Post Boxes. Yes, I walked around 5 miles around town looking for half a dozen of these;

If I hadn't have started looking for Penfold Post boxes from the 1860s.....

..... I wouldn't have found the Pitville Pump Room

The church bells strike midday and I am ready to abandon amateur architecture and treasure hunting. Coordinates set for the heart of the Sandford Ale House. But where is the Deya van dropping off supplies?

Only Favourite Beers!

There's no doubt that the Good Beer Guide takes me to some wonderful places but I often wonder how much I miss. Favourite Beers is an impossibly richly laded Aladdin's cave of beery delights. It also sells keg. Great Keg. At great prices. I shall be forever grateful for being successful in today's mission. Paulaner Festbier. A bargain at £4 for half a litre.

Of course, take out was purchased. One beer made it home more or less intact

I don't know whether to be sad or grateful the shop is so far from home.

Onto my original quarry. The Sandford Park Alehouse - former CAMRA pub of the year - always hosts a fully fledged Oktoberfest. Beer! Music! Lederhosen! and Bavarian Food!. It starts today.

Little Germany

Except when they have marquee issues. The launch postponed until tonight. Not a single Oktoberfest beer available. Boring the staff with tales of my 2nd year of disappointment, I manage to get the Bavarian menu delclared open. But having had the items relayed to me verbally, rather than read on a page, I manage to make a monumental error of ordering.

Sausage sandwich with chips. With chips. With sausage on those chips.

Still, if you want to make friends, go around a pub offering free chips

It's getting to the point of my life when I don't want to go out with a chaperone to question my choices.

And does sauerkraut go with Uley Brewery Old Spot?

The only thing that can save Oktoberfest now is Lidl's suitcase of joy.

There is time for my final Good Beer Guide Tick in Cheltenham. Somehow, I manage to go from loving the Railway to hating it with a passion that has me leaving Google reviews and having a conversation with the head brewer of Nothing Bound.

An unassuming back street local

LOVING IT: £5 for Bristol Beer Factory Fortitude and wondering why more pubs don't play blues music in the afternoon sunshine. Eavesdropping on the boozy pensioners on the next table. Loving the lady who said that her husband can have a Thai bride when she passes as she knows he would be looked after. Mrs M says she is coming back to haunt me when she goes.

HATING IT: With an hour before the train that I know will be delayed, I decide to have a second pint. In the interests of experimentation, I go for (the not ironically named) Count Me Out from my local craft brewery, Nothing Bound. It's a 6% Keg. How much would you expect to be charged?

£7.80 is the answer here.

I am beyond outraged. Not only with the price but with the lack of warning from the server.

I am declaring pub exploring over and sticking to finding old post boxes in newly visited towns. 

04/08/25 - Upton-Upon-Severn to Tewkesbury

The Pear and the Pulpit

A monthly newsletter comes courtesy of Walk Midlands. A man with a beautiful web site and a penchant for walks accessible by public transport. Upton to Tewkesbury appealed and both towns are well worthy of spending a day. Upton, in particular, must be up for the prize of most public houses per capita. 

With AI at our disposal, I can actually tell you that prize would go to Rhayader - a town for another weekend.

Today, I don't hang about in Upton - despite being tempted to spend time in the Map Shop. That's the sort of town it is - a whole shop, just dedicated to maps. More reasons to love it.

I'm straight down to the River Severn - my handrail to Tewkesbury, rendering GPS largely superfluous.

Down by the River

This is the section of "hams" that may be familiar to those using the M5. Whenever it rains for two days, the landscape turns into an inland ocean. As a result, there is very little on the map of interest. It's more or less empty space, with just a walk under the pillars of the M50 to break up the monotony.

This makes a detour to Bushley a necessity before dying of boredom. The church spire spotted from the Severn Way and a single geocache seals the deal.

St Peter’s Church, Bushley was rebuilt in 1843 in Victorian style, using local blue lias stone from Sarn Hill and Postlip stone from the Cotswolds for the spire and decorative features. Inside, it retains several 17th-century Dowdeswell family monuments. The chancel, rebuilt in 1857 by Sir Gilbert Scott, reflects 14th-century design. A font, possibly 12th-century, was once used as a farm drinking trough before being returned. Nearby are the brass figures of Thomas Payne, a woolstapler and retainer of the Earl of Warwick, and his wife Ursula, originally located in the old church’s chancel.

Bushley Church

Gargoyles

Payne Brasses

Into Tewkesbury on a Monday. The more I visit, the more I fall in love. The Black Bear impressing on my last visit but is closed at the start of the week. The Cross House Tavern - the king of micro pubs - is open.

A favourite

A lengthy chat with the Scouse owner - I was impressed with the Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild that was on offer but more impressed with a recent beer. Three types of Spingo beer from the Blue Anchor in Helston. So good, he delivered a barrel to the Roscoe Head in Liverpool.

It seemed more fitting for me to choose a cider or a perry - what with it being Cider Pub of The Year. Couldn't find my chosen drink on untappd. I think it was called Mid Severn and firmly placed in the middle ground of ABVs detailed on the chalk board. It was poured from a bag in a box hidden in a crate.

Information on the Cross House

The Back Room

With 90 minutes until my (cancelled) train, I have time to check out a couple of interiors. Despite the 'spoons being a medieval banqueting hall, it didn't make for good internal photos. Summer holidays ain't it. Kids running around and babies screaming.

The abbey looking magnificently photo friendly.

Saved from Henry the VIII

Walk Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration