26/09/26 - Abberley, St Michaels

Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas

Two dates very close to each other on the Pilgrimage calendar.

The Autumn Equinox marks the point when day and night are approximately equal, a moment of balance before the long slide towards winter. It sits neatly alongside Michaelmas, celebrated on 29 September in honour of St Michael the Archangel, traditionally seen as a protector and a figure of strength and courage. Michaelmas was one of the four quarter days of the English year, marking the end of the agricultural year and the beginning of a new one. For an Autumn Equinox pilgrimage, the two traditions make a useful pairing: walk through woodland, fields, orchards and old lanes, looking for the signs of harvest and the changing season, before finishing at a St Michael's Church if there is one nearby. The walk becomes a small journey from the balance of the Equinox towards Michaelmas, combining the seasonal landscape with the Christian tradition of the archangel whose feast marks this turning point.

I know just the church - The Norman St Michael's in Abberley - fallen into ruin in the 1850s, with just the chancel and chapel remaining. A proper explore to be had, before the walk gets going.

Gillet on, marking the transition to winter

Flying buttress failing to save the church

Doors Open...

The last feast, cracked

The walk is straightforward and for large parts, on the Worcestershire Way - woodland up onto Abberley Hill, where the occasional (wonderful) view appears through the trees.

Woodbury Hill, from Abberley

Just to round off the day  - lunch at the Manor Arms. Over 300 years old and the building has doubled up as the local court. Over the years, we have seen it come and go - from a village local to its current guise as a posh gastro pub with rooms.

At least it's open.

The parking needs to be paid for.

Walk Details

Distance - 4 miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Adventurous Pub Walks in Worcestershire - Walk 

Previous Celtic Pilgrimages - Imbloc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas

25/09/26 - Worcestershire Cakes and Ales Stage 3 - Upton-upon-Severn to Pershore

Welcome to the Monkey House

I'm taking massive liberties with this stage of the Cakes and Ales guidebook. Again, the author wants a very lengthy walk - 15 miles - and to introduce a big hill. This time, Bredon Hill. It could be argued that I have recently walked over Bredon into Pershore. The real reason for the massive diversion is that I am near to a place that I have wanted to go to for a long time and that is only open on Fridays and Sundays. 

Most of the blog will be dedicated to the Cider House, Defford.

This leaves the walking a little dull - over the river at Upton, to head east on the Wyche Way across agricultural fields. Views of the Malverns behind and Bredon in front. Nothing really of interest until the decision point at Strensham, where I leave the official route to plough my own furrow.

Upton Marina

Hills behind - The Malverns

Hills in front - Bredon

More than just a service station - Strensham Church - Door Locked

The Cider House is one of only four dedicated cider houses left in the country. I've done my research - I know its opening times (Friday Lunch, Sundays and Wednesday in Summer). I know that it's cash only. I know that there is no bar and cider is dispensed from a hatch in a barn door.  I know that it's been managed by the same family for the last 150 years. But time is meaningless here. I could have been drinking in the Middle Ages.

The main door with its weathered sign

Queuing at the serving hatch

Not ordering a beer and having paper money allowed me to be accepted by the landlady and a friendly gang of farm hands and workies taking advantage of the limited opening hours. Unsure how some of them would be going back to work. I had two pints of dry and found myself singing on the top deck of the X50 back to Worcester. Dispense is from the barrel, via a jug and only untappd suggested the brew may have a name - Woodmancote Dry. Note that the ABV is unknown.

Previous check-ins suggested this was my brew

The strength of the brew may go some way to explaining how the place received it's nick-name of the monkey house. I'll leave the CAMRA Real Heritage Guide explain;

 

What else did I discover? I thought I was missing out on a cocktail when a lady asked for a "Carpet Square". Nothing so fancy, it was exactly that - a carpet square to sit on, if the bench seating is too hard on your backside. And if it rains - everyone can go inside to the "tool-shed".

Inside the tool-shed

A roof, a luxury not extended to the male facilities - a roofless wall, which if you are 6ft - you can peer over to view the countryside that you should have been walking.

  

Walk Details

Distance - 7.5 miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Stage 2 of the Worcester Cakes and Ales Trail

Previous Stages:

Stage 1 - Martley to Malvern

Stage 2 - Malvern to Upton-upon-Severn

21/09/26 - Balham

The Self-Styled Mayor of Balham

Time Out have two wonderful books of London Walks - all curated by writers/comedians/artists. This walk is a quick jaunt in Balham, created by the comedian Arthur Smith. The associated essay suggests that he lives at the visited Du Cane Court - as you may see him on the way to the shops. In his capacity as the self-styled Mayor of Balham, he promises a gold embossed certificate for those completing the walk. But we know he is a comedian, so it is unlikely to be true.

I like Arthur - he suggests stopping for a pre-walk livener at the Bedford Pub. And who am I to argue with that. An impressive looking comedy/music and food venue that has been smartened up considerably since it was known as a den of iniquity for prostitutes plying their trade.

Would probably be my local, if I lived here

Lots of pop music memorabilia 

Residential streets - spotting the new builds, presumably replacing the holes left from the WWII bombing raids - and into Tooting Bec Common. One of those surprising little pockets of countryside that can be found in London. Amidst the woodland, football pitches and tennis courts can be found the lido. Security lax enough that an urban rambler can enter for a discreet photo of the UK's largest freshwater outdoor swimming pool, holding one million gallons of unheated water.

London Walking

London Swimming

Back into civilisation and past Arthur's Mayoral home. Du Cane Court.

Du Cane Court on Balham High Road was built between 1935 and 1938 and, with around 677 flats and roughly two miles of internal corridors, was reputedly the largest privately owned block of flats in Europe when completed. Designed in a striking Art Deco style, it was intended as a complete 1930s lifestyle, with residents originally having access to a restaurant, bar, club, billiards room, rooftop garden, Japanese gardens, central heating, constant hot water and even piped radio. Its residents included a number of entertainers, among them Margaret Rutherford, Hermione Gingold and Tommy Trinder, giving the building strong connections with London's theatre and variety world. During the Second World War it survived the bombing of London, giving rise to the persistent local rumour that Hitler had earmarked Du Cane Court as accommodation for German officers after a successful invasion of Britain.

Just a sliver of Du Cane Court

Walk Details

Distance - 3 miles

Walk Inspiration - Time Out London Walks Book 2, Walk 3

Geocaches - 1

17/09/26 - Craycombe House, Fladbury

Serendipity

The sort of strange coincidence that I love.

Five weeks ago, I had never heard of the author, Francis Brett Young. Yet there was enough motivation to join a Walkspace West Midlands group walk to find locations that were important to him and his haunted house novel, Cold Harbour.

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My latest Travels With Pevsner walk provided the usual high amount of inspiration. I could have walked to the Chateau Impney, one of the Wells (Tenbury/Malvern) or Ribbesford House but how could I ignore Craycombe House? 

The former home of Mr Young!

Craycombe House sits to the North of Fladbury - a charming village on the River Avon, with a mill, a couple of pubs and a doors open church. In planning, it remained a question of how close I could get to the house. A promising looking footpath sits in the woodland above the property. Another rambler - attempting to create a long-distance path in honour of Tolkien - states that the property does come into view.

On the Wychavon Way

Only one way to find out.

For transportation purposes, the walk starts at Cropthorne - with a handy stop on the X50.  A collection of thatched cottages and a firmly closed church.

The main street in Cropthorne

Cropthorne Church

Across the River Avon at Jubilee Bridge, through the village and across the golf course - homing in on the target. Somehow, I did manage to receive a personal tour of the church by the warden. On explaining my quest, he did say that the house is now owned by a banker, who likes his privacy. He's certainly let the trees grow to provide cover.

The Avon

Fladbury Signage - the Anchor Pub in the background

Banker's Privacy

I start to think my quest is going to end in failure. Yet perseverance at Machine Farm - where they have removed all PROW markers and let the hedges consume the stile - provides the required result.

There she is!

As good a view as I am going to get - short of knocking on the front door.

Success celebrated at the Anchor Pub - a solid looking locals pub, with outdoor seating on the village green. They keep excellent Wye Valley HPA.

Walk Details

Distance - 7 miles

Geocaches - 1

07/09/26 - Worcestershire Cakes and Ales - Stage 2 - British Camp to Upton-upon-Severn

Chasing our sheep, waving a machete, shouting "Meat"

The second stage of the Cakes and Ales book takes me across Castlemorton Common. A name that will be of significance to ravers, hippies and New Age Travellers of a certain age.

Castlemorton Common in Worcestershire became the unlikely epicentre of Britain’s early-1990s free-party movement when an estimated 20,000–40,000 people descended on the common over the late May Bank Holiday in 1992, following the police disruption of the Avon Free Festival. For almost a week, sound systems including Spiral Tribe and DiY provided a huge, largely uncontrolled outdoor rave of techno, acid house and free-party culture. The sheer scale of the event—and the intense media coverage and political alarm it generated—turned Castlemorton into a symbol of a supposedly lawless youth counterculture. It was not the sole cause of the government's subsequent crackdown, but it provided the perfect political pretext: the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 gave police extensive new powers against unlicensed raves and trespass, most notoriously defining a rave in terms of gatherings of 20 or more people where music was characterised by a “succession of repetitive beats”. The Act also strengthened trespass laws and targeted New Age Travellers, squatters and other forms of protest and direct action.

Last week, I watched a documentary film - Free Party:A Folk History. Ironically, paying a tax dodging, American multinational £4.49 for the pleasure. I am unsure this is what the creators would have wanted. It all came flooding back. The youth tribes that no longer exist or indeed have been replaced by anything new. Whereas we had distinct subcultures - which drugs and repetitive beats brought nicely together - today we have insular, morose kids that if they do go out, it is wearing massive headphones. Lost in both their and to our worlds.

The moral outrage seems rather quaint too. I can remember the nightly news updates. I can remember the politicians and the press in a tizz. And for personal impact, you cannot help but feel sorry for the lady in the above video at 3:15 minutes in. No one wants their livestock bothered by machete wielding carnivores. 

The Walk

The guide book ambitiously demands that you walk 15 miles, including five miles on the ups and downs of the Malvern Hills from Worcester Beacon to British Camp. This needs to be curtailed. A) I have walked it many times and B) there is a hard stop on the last bus home from Upton-on-Severn. A combination of buses and uber gets me to the British Camp Car Park for a compromise.

British Camp reservoir under grey skies

The hills are lost after Hangman's Hill, dropping down to the east and the rave site of the common. Castlemorton village providing a break from the bleak and sheep but even then, little to explore. The doors to the church firmly "doors locked". They may have had trouble in the past from dreadlocked crusties in paratrooper boots.

Barred from St Gregory's

I'll entertain myself with a Tump

The Tump

Flatlands - that saw plenty of Civil War action - through the grounds of Eastington Hall and before long, into Upton-upon-Severn.

Looking back across Castlemorton to the Malverns

There is plenty to admire from this small, yet historically important town. They run many and varied festivals over weekends - with a Country and Western event added in 2026 to the more established folk, blues and pop weekends that took place earlier in the year.

There are enough pubs - 8 - that I have had it down as a potential pub crawl location. This might need addressing - as the Kings Arms and the Star Inn offered no cask ale. 

Ye Olde Anchor Inn - the single Good Beer Guide recommendation - becomes a two pint stop.

Proper Job at the best pub in Upton

Walk Details

Distance - 11 miles

Geocaches - 7

Walk Inspiration - Stage 2 of the Worcester Cakes and Ales Trail

Previous Stages:

Stage 1 - Martley to Malvern

12/08/26 - Rail Trail - The Hawthorns to The Jewellery Quarter

The Winston Green Island

A simple walk from my "Home of Football" and into the City outskirts at the Jewellery Quarter.

The Birmingham Canal providing a green-ish corridor through an urban landscape. Graffiti, some of it excellent, rubbish and the most unusual hobo. Living in a tent at a bridge, with a pontoon harbour made of milk bottles to protect his canoe. He is friends to the geese.

Today's Walking

Ted Lasso Vibes with the Graffiti Vibes

There is a detour from the straight line of the Birmingham Canal at Asylum Bridge. The Soho Loop is the original stretch of canal from 1769. This was straightened in 1829, effectively making the Winson Green Island. And what did the Victorians put on this island? You will have guessed the prison - a mock castle building - but there was also the lunatic asylum and workhouse.

I was there

Asylum granted

Icknield Street marks the entry into the Jewellery Quarter - as well as a bit of Tom*, you will find some of the city's finest restaurants and bars/pubs. And the Red Lion reopened in the summer of 2026.

Back from the dead

Joules have done a fine job but at a cost. It's immaculate inside and out - painted a striking but not unattractive brown externally and inside, a finely polished parquet flooring. Every wall surface covered in pubby memorabilia - a lot advertising Green Monkey Helles Lager. In the heatwave, I was susceptible.

Hit the spot

Outdoor terracing - both sheltered and elevated, it's a fine addition to the area. The Rose Villa Tavern is going to have to up its game (poor beer last two visits).

The cost? The Red Lion was possibly the only place in the city you could get Bathams. The landlord told me they still have people phoning up and asking if it is still on.

Listen to your customers, publicans.

* Tom Foolery - Jewellery..... Old Brummie Rhyming Slang

Walk Details

Distance - 3.25 miles

Geocaches - 2

Previous Stages on the Wyre Valley Line - Worcester to Droitwich, Droitwich to Hartlebury, Hartlebury to Kidderminster, Kidderminster to Hagley, Hagley to Stourbridge, Stourbridge to Cradley Heath, Cradley Heath to Old Hill, Old Hill to Langley Green, Langley Green to Smethwick Galton Bridge, Smethwick Galton Bridge to The Hawthorns

11/08/26 - The Thatched Tavern, Honeybourne

Comparing Ancient Worcestershire Pubs

It's a matter of days before the new edition of the Good Beer Guide is replaced. Where does time go?

My usual commitment is to ensure that my home county, Worcestershire remains "greened". There are two entries to tick.

Today, it is Honeybourne. Technically two villages - Church Honeybourne and Cow Honeybourne. Until 1958, one was in Worcestershire and one was in Gloucestershire. Its fortunes have improved with the coming of the railways - first being on the Cheltenham Line and more recently on the London-Worcester line.

The walking was always going to be agricultural. At times the paths were lost to 6ft corn crops. At others, I was walking - quite legally on the right of way - through strawberry poly-tunnels.

Lost again

Lunchtime snacks available. Bring your own sugar.

The walk was largely perfunctory - designed to work up a thirst. 

The Thatched Tavern, Honeybourne is the new 2026 tick. And I am having no problems in finding it.

One day, all pubs will be so well signposted

However, the walk takes me through Bretforton. Lovers of pubs know what this means. It would be rude not to say hello to an old friend. The Fleece Inn is described in one of my pub books as "one of the best half dozen historic pubs in England".

Both pubs appear in my 1960s guide "Historic and New Inns of Interest" and are of a similar age. A chance for me to compare and contrast.

The Fleece Inn, Bretforton

The memories of my last walk here - snow on the ground. What we would give for such days again!

The Fleece in a heatwave

The building is more than 500 years old and half timber-framed. A former longhouse farmstead - home to animals and humans - and in the same family until donated to the National Trust in 1978. 15 generations of the Byrds, the former owners, are found in the adjacent churchyard.

Rambling inside - there are low doorways, a tiny narrow bar and a rear dining room. Here you can see the famous "witch marks" at the fireplace, should you be lucky enough to get a seat.

I was lucky on snow day, 2024

I do manage to get a table inside - in front of the 300-year old pewter dining set display. Uley Brewery Pig's Ear is on, as always.

In front of the family heirlooms

The Thatched Tavern, Honeybourne

I'm not sure how much of the C13th infrastructure remains. Again, it's half timbered and unlike the 1960s guide book, the A-framing can be seen from the other end, not where a more modern extension has been added.

That's the architectural angle! Two tree trunks pegged together for support

Unlike the Fleece, once inside, you could be anywhere. A modern bar... modern furniture... I wandered around, looking to see anything to photograph. To the delight of pensioner diners and knock-off early workers, there was nothing.

The cask range a little pedestrian. An HPA and another pale ale with a not-to-be-trusted handwritten pump clip.

It does have things going for it - a wonderful beer garden, regular and early opening hours (11am daily) and in these troubled days of cost of living crisis - reasonably priced and deliciously chilled keg lagers.

Walk Details

Distance - 8.5 miles 

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration - Jarrold The Malverns to the Warwickshire, Walk 19

07/08/26 - Digby's Tap, Sherborne

The Host Knows

Our latest dog-sit brings us to Cucklington. It's quite possible over the three-day weekend that we may be able to do a walk in three different counties.

We start in Dorset. During the introductions and our host listens to my planned walks at Castle Cary and Bruton. I can tell he is unimpressed and ask him where we should go. Shaftesbury is mentioned, but we have recreated bread advents. Then he says "Sherborne". We've never been. Plans are changed.

We can tell on the drive in to the Long Stay Car Park that this is our sort of place. History seems to be dripping off the streets. As you could expect from a town with two castles, the architecture is both ancient and impressive. An Adventure Lab Cache shows us some of the history;

Sherborne is a town with a remarkably long history, its origins stretching back to Roman times and the foundation of a Saxon cathedral in AD 705, which later became Sherborne Abbey. Its two castles tell a later story: the medieval Old Castle was built in the 12th century, while Sir Walter Raleigh acquired it in 1592 before abandoning it for the grander New Castle, completed in 1594. Centuries later, another famous name arrived in the form of Alan Turing, who attended Sherborne School from 1926 to 1931, long before his pioneering work in computing and codebreaking made him one of the 20th century's most important scientists.

Our walk is hastily compiled from Komoot and as usual, is wonderful. Green lanes out into the countryside to Oborne. The brown signs point us to an historic church just off the footpath. St Cuthberts arguably the smallest church in the land. But like "Oldest Pub", the rules are contested. In this instance, the remains can be classed as chancel to previously larger building.

Green Lanes

Single Roomer

Into Sherborne Park - a deer park, where all the deer have been taken in for the summer. This leads back to town, via the new castle. Sights are seen. Photos are taken.

Sherborne Country Park

Sherborne (new) Castle

Sherborne Abbey

There is one Good Beer Guide recommendation in town. Digby's Tap. I have to say, I was expecting a micropub, or a taproom on the side of a brewery. I couldn't be more wrong. The oldest parts of the building date from the C16th. Digby's Hotel was next door and this private residence was purchased in 1870. It outlives the hotel.

Thirsty Post Walkers

Three small rooms inside, under a low ceiling. It appears to be just as renowned for its food as its beer - which leads to a rather unpleasant pubby experience. An 11am opener, we were there before midday. Every single table has a reserved sign on it - ranging in times from midday to 13:30. This means the drinker has the choice of squatting or hogging the bar. Some do both. Some move tables as one becomes available with a later booking time. Increasing numbers of punters come in, going through the same rigmarole.

It means the small interior is in a state of perpetual motion. Our dog gets tripped over.

We can't wait to get out of there, to be honest.

My campaign for comfy seats in pubs gets a subchapter. 

Ban table reservations.

Walk Details

Distance - 7 miles

Walk Inspiration - Komoot

Geocaches - 5