Guysrambles

A shorter long distance trail, or a great pub crawl?

A shorter long distance trail, or a great pub crawl?

New slimline Guy walking in 2012

I mentioned in my last blog that I was shortly off to do The Worcestershire Way with Wiltshire LDWA and happily the weather was really good on the May Bank Holiday weekend. I had walked this twice previously, but from North to South and had also taken a detour in Malvern to visit the excellent Nags Head pub in Malvern so that this time it was a bit of a shock, when after meeting up with the rest of the party, (ten of us), we left Elgar’s Statue in the middle of Malvern and proceeded to climb over 1000ft within the first two miles up onto the main Malvern Hills ridge. However once recovered it was easier going and we were soon at one of my all time favourite pubs The Talbot at Knightwick which brews it’s own beers “This, That, or T’other, not forgetting “Anything else”!’

We were booked for the night into The Lion Inn at Clifton on Teme but not before the final “Sting in the tail” when as we left the river Teme we discovered at 5.30 that our village was a further 500ft uphill. We had walked about 17 miles with over 3000 feet of ascent. The Lion was run by a very efficient Lancastrian lady who was all out for business so that she had a guest ale on at £2 a pint and the food was priced at £2,£4,£6.£8.£10 with really great portions. Why cannot more pubs be like this?

The next day was slightly easier (still 17m) but with much of the same ridge walking. No pub available for lunchtime but were in at our destination of Bewdley on the river Severn in good time and went for dinner to another good pub The  Packhorse which was previously part of The Little Pub group. The Worcestershire Way has changed a bit recently since it originally started up at Kinver which is actually in Staffordshire so that the section down to Bewdley is now The Worcestershire Village Way and the actual WW walk starts at Bewdley. All rather peculiar but it’s something to do with County Council funding or some other burocratic reason!

For our last day we were soon at the original end at Kinver with great views from the Trig point of Wolverhampton and Birmingham to the east and we had our lunch by a very friendly tea shop that is situated within the original cave dwellings that were occupied up to the 1960’s. We then joined the Staffordshire Way and having unfortunately passed but not stopped at the interesting Cat Pub at Enville (another brew pub) we finished our day nearly at Womborne with another 18miles covered. We were then collected by a coach for which Wilts branch had generously covered the cost and which was “the icing on the cake” for a really good three days walking in very good company.

“Walkers are welcome” towns and villages.

Unfortunatelyat the time we were publishing The Palladian Way there was another interesting walk being launched- The Winchcombe Way. I have to say (through gritted teeth) that it undoubtably has the edge, since the two loops of 21 miles make it almost a “must” for distance walkers and all the neighbouring branches of the LDWA have already done it with one branch even setting out to do both loops in one (long!) day. I have recently met up with JIm Mason who is a councillor for Winchcombe (and also now a CRC and LDWA member!) and who tells me that The Walkers are Welcome initiative has been great for tourism in the town with many B&Bs, pubs and cafes showing increased takings.

I decided to see if there was a web site (see link above), which is almost mandatory for any aspiring business or organization, and discovered that there were some 80 villages and towns already registered as Walkers are Welcome but more importantly The Chair person is shown as Kate Ashbrook who has been involved in the Walking World for all her life and is currently President of The Ramblers as well as being Secretary of The Open Spaces Society. A formidable lady indeed! It does therefore appear that the WAW initiative is Ramblers based. All very interesting and great for walkers since many of these villages and towns also have their own walking festivals -often only a weekend, but still worthwhile. I would think that there is still plenty of growth potential in WAW and expect to see affiliated towns and villages pass the three figure mark within six months.

My Palladian Way sales have slowed down a bit recently but we did receive a useful fillip recentley when we discovered that The East Berks Ramblers were setting out to walk the whole route over two years with coach backup to deliver and collect them for their start and finish. I hope to join them for their October stretch which is from Burford to Bibury. So whenever we get an order from Slough or Maidenhead we reckon it’s probably from an East Berks Rambler.

I am often being asked what my next project is. Well it just might be the ressurection of The Wyche Way. This was a connecting LD trail that was thought out by CRC member Fred Wood in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It was designed to connect The Cotswold Way, then in it’s infancy, from near Broadway to The Offa’s Dyke Path near Kington. Fred did the walk with a long series of circular walks but I have worked out that the 72 mile route could be easily accomplished in six days and I intend to start walking it over later this year but from Kington to Broadway so that the main HIGH lights of the walk – The Wyche crossing of The Malverns- Bredon Hill and Broadway Tower are all in front of walkers and provide a suitable ending to the walk.

I am also well on my way to finalizing all the content for the re publication of The Ross Round which will now be called The Ross Rounds since apart from the original Ross Round, there will now The Ultimate Ross Round and several other parts of the two routes as well as a new Loughpool Loop taking a rather nice and atmospheric pub The Loughpool Inn (Surprise- Surprise!). I am hoping to find an independant publisher for this since I originally self published the original.

Well that’s it for this edition. I hope to publish a few more photos of recent walks in the next week or two. Watch this space.

Guy.