29/05/23 - January Man - May at May Hill

 

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man - Month by Month

May sees Christopher setting his alarm very early.  Every May 1st, Morris Men celebrate the battle between Winter and Summer by dancing on the top of May Hill, Gloucestershire.  He timed his walk to tie in with the festivities.

We had our own May Day encounter with Morris Men. On another day, Upton Folk Festival could have been a hoot - the whole town awash with eccentrics, bursting into spontaneous jigging. We had looked for somewhere quiet to take our Guide Dog in Training, Ivy. Men with painted faces and women with feathers poking out their hats terrified her.

May Hill straddles the border of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. I've walked it before - remembering woodland, mud and fine views over the meandering Severn Estuary and the Black Mountains.

Early disappoint provides an excuse for a post walk visit to Newent.

A couple of days early - alternative refreshments required

The walk is a straightforward, circular route on forest tracks. An Adventure Lab Cache completed on the ascent and traditional caching on the descent.

Tree Clump at the Top

Views of the Severn Estuary

Trees planted for the Silver Jubilee

Newent was a pleasant, historical place to mooch around - the chipper is housed in a building with the date 1465 etched into the brickworks. Two quick ALCs and then the pub. But which one?  Newent locals don't seem to use their pubs. The Wye Inn looked impressive but was bolted closed. Cobblers, the Good Beer Guide Micro Pub doesn't open till 5pm, even on bank holidays. The Black Dog and an impressive coaching house, The George - couldn't have had more than 3 punters in each.

Lose them or lose them, Newent.

George Hotel - just add punters

Walk Details

Previous Walks - January, February, March, April

Distance - 3 Miles

Geocaches - 9 and three Adventure Lab Caches

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks for Motorists, Bristol & Bath, Somerset and Gloucestershire - Walk 36

07/05/23 - January Man - April at RSPB Marshside, Merseyside

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man - Month by Month

Slight delay to April's chapter. I need to think of my global footprint.

April sees Christopher on the Southern banks of the Ribble Estuary, near Southport. His book is based on an English folk song and April's chorus leads;

 "Through the April rain the man goes down to watch the birds come to share the summer...."

In search of feathered friends, Christopher heads off to RSPB Marshside. An area that I find myself passing, following an early May sojourn to the Lake District.

RSPB Marshside

I've come prepared. Which Magazine best budget binoculars have been purchased. Possibly overkill for my first brush with nature.

Flap Flap Flap.... that'll never get off the ground

The bird sanctuary is a weird place to walk. It's half surrounded by a footpath shared with a golf course. The external perimeter is a fast road called Marine Drive. A mixture of freshwater wetlands and saltwater marshlands. Both loved by a variety of permanent and migrating bird-life.

Optical envy from professional twitchers, with bigger telescopes and camera lenses.

Odd rambling along Marine Drive

Easily the most interesting part of the walk was along the Old Haul Road. A dead end track to the sea, used historically by the sand works and according to signage, by commercial fishermen in the present day.

Even without the binoculars, its possible to make out the funfair entertainment in both directions. The pier and big wheel at Southport. The tower and the big dipper at Blackpool.

Old Haul Road - Path to the Sea

Walk Details

Previous Walks - January, February, March

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Marshside Visitors Map

18/03/23 - January Man - March on the West Mendip Way to Wells, Somerset

 

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man, Month by Month

March's chapter throws up its first surprise. Three walking areas are detailed but I decide to ignore Worcestershire and Yorkshire and stick with the opening location, Somerset. The theme is new beginnings and birth, with more text dedicated to lambing in Nidderdale than to mating toads along the A371.

In Somerset, Somerville is scaling the heights of the Mendip hills, walking through the woodland of Stoke Woods Conservancy from Rodney Stoke. It doesn't take me long to plot a suitable route and it's my favourite type. Linear, using public transport to make the return.

All things are planned. I'll park at the Rodney Stoke in, walk 10 or so miles on the West Mendip Way and return on the 126 at 13:55 to pay for the parking through a lunch purchase. The landlord is even coming out of the pub at 8:50am for me to explain this plan to him as I pull up in the car park. His response? I'm welcome to park, but the pub is closed for a refit until April.

Rodney Stoke Inn

My path to the Mendips is Hill Lane - which lives up to its name in its steepness - to find the West Mendip Way at the top.  The climbing over, I get to know how a Cheltenham race horse feels. A straight path through fields, interrupted every quarter or mile or so by a huge stone stile that needs to be clambered over.

Bullocks in the mist, over the Somerset Plains

Two pubs in Priddy, walks-bys only at 10am. The Old New Inn, looking for purchasers but by the state of it, I can't see that happening. Their facebook page detailing a previous failed renovation, alongside the auctioning off of all furnishings of interest. Around the corner, the Victoria Inn, showing signs of how they beat the plague.

The Old New Inn - Ridiculously named - surely to be flattened

Oh I do like to be beside the pubside - Priddy's Victoria Inn and their beach huts

Into the National Trust owned Dursdon Wood estate, where the height is lost on a descent through Ebbor Gorge Valley to Wookey Hole. Glastonbury Tor reveals itself, through a gap in the clouds.

Glastonbury Tor, illuminated by a gap in the clouds

The top of Ebbor Gorge

Mud all the way back to Wells. I try to convince owners of impeccably clean dogs that perhaps another route would require less afternoon hose pipe action but they seem sanguine about the path states.

I have 90 minutes in Wells before the public transport. I can save money on organsised tours of Hot Fuzz locations by using an Adventure Lab Cache. Sites include the falling spire, the swan capture and of course, the "Battle of Sandford". Architectural sight-seeing also included.

Hot Fuzz

Bishops Palace, Wells

Wells Cathedral

Refreshments, are of course, also required.  Although not if you follow Somerville's Dads advice from the book. A keen walker himself, he had a very different outlook on life to most other ramblers.

Everything about his preparations was very sparse and frugal.  No pies, no pints, no pubs - God Forbid.  That sort of thing was for self indulgent chaps who were busy "digging their graves with their teeth"

Well I'm not having that - what a grump! Wells has two Good Beer Guide Ticks to aim for.

The Full Moon is the pick of the pair and one that I would be happy to call my local.  A genial Irish Landlord who when he bans mis-behavers, its not for life. A huge courtyard with the most permanent looking temporary structure ever found. Have you ever been in a gazebo with a pool table, table football, Chesterfields and a large screen for watching the seasonal egg-chasers?

Party Party at the Full Moon

Proper Job - Cheddar Ales Crown and Glory 

The age of The Crown can be determined by it's Wi-Fi code of 14501450.  The bible talks about a Quaker preaching to the masses in 1685.  In keeping with my ALC, it was the local in the 2006 Edgar Wright film.  Bistro all the way, but at least the pub bit was separate.  Even if every table was occupied by diners.

Interior shots were in the Royal Standard, Beaconsfield, Film (and pub) fans.

Walk Details

Distance - 9 miles

Geocaches - 5 and an Adventure Lab Cache

Previous Walks - January, February

Walk Inspiration - 100 Walks in Somerset and Avon, Walk 97 

Good Beer Guide Ticks  - #805 and #806

05/02/23 - January Man - February on Long Mynd, Shropshire

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man, Month by Month

Distance - 9 miles

Previous Walks - January

Walk Inspiration - Self developed from the book references 

Pub - Bottle and Glass, Picklescott

February's theme is snow. Somerville reflects on childhood memories at the vicarage, his father battling to get his ancient Austin started and onto the A34.

He chooses the Long Mynd for this month's walk and recounts the well told story of the Reverend Carr almost losing his life in an 1865 snow storm. The Reverend was responsible for hosting services across a number of villages and set off to walk from Ratlinghope back to his home in Woolstaston, 5 miles away. Disorientated in the snow-drifts, he lost his hat, gloves and boots and nearly his life. 27 hrs after setting off, he stumbled into Carding Mill Valley, snow blind and half dead.

No snow today, but there is a hard frost, as I tackle the minor roads to Picklescott. Somerville stayed the night at the Bottle and Glass pub, so my first walk necessities are easily achieved. Parking and post walk refreshment.

My planned route is developed from the clues in the text and it doesn't disappoint. From Picklescott, I climb Betchcott Hill to drop down the Golden Valley to Ratlinghope. Fine walking on a crisp winter's day.

View from Betchcott Hill

Dropping down into the Golden Valley

Views from the valley floor

Ratlinghope Church has another story. The last of the English Sin Eaters, Richard Munslow, is buried here. The Sin Eater's job was to spend a night with a corpse, and to drink ale and eat bread that had been balanced on the dead person's body. The fodder absorbing their sins before burial. The story, and hope to correctly pronounce Ratlinghope, detailed in this video.

Richard Munslow, the last of the Sin Eaters

A interesting diversion before more uphill walking to the Shooting Box and the Portway - an old drovers road - which carries me arrow straight to Woolstaston.

The Portway

Reverend Carr's other Church - Wollstaston

Just another mile back to the Bottle and Glass to pay for my parking through the purchase of lunch.

A fine Country Inn....which is best explained by the fact that two horses are parked in the bay next to my car. The place was doing a fine trade with the Sunday lunch crowd, but I was able to commandeer a bar area for my tuna chiabatta and decent Ludlow Gold.

The huge roaring fire, an added bonus to thaw out in front of.

Bottle and Glass, Picklescott

A blissful fire

Ludlow Gold in a Three Tuns glass.

I struck lucky with February. A brilliant ramble, relatively local...... let's see what March brings!

22/01/23 - January Man: January at the Severn Estuary in Gloucestershire

Walking the chapters of Christopher Somerville's The January Man, Month by Month

Christopher Somerville is the Times journalist responsible for the "weekly walks" in the Saturday weekend section. He is also a published author and his book, "January Man:  A Year of Walking Britain" looked a suitable contender to carry me through 2023. Each chapter represents a walk in a different part of Britain and I am always looking for more psychogeophary inspiration. 

Can I follow the monthly routes, as I read each chapter in the appropriate month?  

January is a nice easy start. The location is relatively local to me, just south of Tewkesbury. The Leigh, Gloucestershire, was Christopher's childhood home. 

I most enjoyed the 20 minute read, as he muses on his childhood friendship with Roo, his relationship with his WWII scarred father and growing up in a tiny farming community on the banks of the River Severn. There's a lengthy extract and some photos of Christopher and Roo at Frontier Magazine.

Fittingly, his revisit and walk sometime in the mid 2010s was blighted by floods. I found a suitable route but completing the basics of pre-trip research, I was able to see that the Red Lion, Wainlode, had been unable to re-open after Christmas.

I won't be visiting Christopher's Local

The flooding was worse than expected. I started my walk from The Leigh's Church, where Christopher spends time reminiscing on the surnames of childhood neighbours, now populating the graveyard. I get about half a mile into the walk before hitting the floodwaters, at least half a mile from the river. The fact the waters are frozen does not help me much. I have not brought ice-skates and the ice is not thick enough to support a grown man.

Looking back over The Leigh's Church

Hitting the flood waters

The red line shows my planned walk. The blue line shows the reality.

Planned 7m becomes 3m

Still, I was able to complete the loop of the Leigh. The Cyder Press (Roo's childhood home) and Hoefield House (Christopher's) were found, the latter Grade II listed and the most impressive building in the village. It now hides behind a gated wall, with no indication of the name.

The journey continued by vehicle, as I was keen to see the first crossing north of Gloucester and see what pub archaeology could be completed. The Hawbridge Inn painting a desolate picture of the lot of a publican all the way back in 2017.  A Gloucester news article detailing the following;

In a post on its Facebook page, it said: “It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that we will be closing the doors to the Haw Bridge Inn after this evening’s service. We had a good run in the little bit of summer we traded in, but, sadly, we were plunged into one of the quietest quarters we have experienced in the 12 years of our pub experience.

Last week, the snow at the start, theft of all our heating oil, and no water at the end, was the week that sealed the deal, and unfortunately we had no other choice but to close down trading.

The journey down through a bleak landscape, with the B4123 raised just high enough above the icy floodwaters. Enough to bring the drone enthusiasts out to get some interesting footage.

The road to Red Lion at Hawbridge, not faring so well

There were actually two pubs at Hawbridge, on either side of the road. The Riverside Inn falling into dilapidation but I can bring good news from the Hawbridge Inn. New owners in the garden confirmed that it was re-opening but no time frames given. I hope they took my advice of putting a lock on the oil tank.

Hawbridge Inn - Phoenix from the Flames - notice floodwaters behind

The view from Hawbridge

Refreshment was found further up the road at Apperley.  The Farmer's Arms trading on the strength of their food, offering what looked a pleasant dining experience in an ancient farmhouse.  Concessions made for the drinker, with three Chesterfields surrounding a log fire.

Farmers Arms, Apperley

Wadworth 6X from Wiltshire.  Scratchings from the Black Country

Walk Information

Distance - 7 miles planned, 3 miles achieved

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks for Motorists:  Bristol, Bath, Somerset and Gloucestershire 

Pub - The Farmers Arms, Lower Apperley

Geocaches - 1