Favourite Walks
Perfect time to visit best of cider country
 |
| Court Farm is an exquisite building in the Anglo Saxon village of Putley. |
The Big Apple Association (www.bigapple.org.uk) is a Herefordshire-based group dedicated to promoting English orchards, apples and cider.
Among the association's activities is the promotion of a twice-yearly celebration (at blossom-time and harvest-time) of apple-related heritage by the parishes of Marcle Ridge - Much Marcle, Little Marcle, Aylton, Putley, Munsley, Pixley and Woolhope.
This year the blossom-time celebration, which includes cider and perry-tasting and guided walks, is based at Putley Village Hall tomorrow and Monday.
While the area is probably at its loveliest at blossom-time, it's captivating at any time of year. It's on the edge of the Woolhope Dome, an unspoilt upland area between Ledbury and Hereford, and this walk includes a climb to Woolhope Cockshoot to admire the views across Herefordshire to the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons.
It also includes two villages - Putley and Aylton. Putley is delightful and Aylton is an absolute gem. It consists of a small cluster of buildings believed to be unchanged in its layout since Anglo-Saxon times.
At the centre of the cluster, a
tiny Norman church and an exquisite farmhouse face each other across a track.
The church walls are more than a metre thick and it stands on a low mound which may once have been encircled by a moat - common practice in border counties. There is a rare painted sundial on the church's south wall.
Nearby stands a barn which is currently being repaired and provided with a magnificent thatched roof. Dendrochronology has revealed that the barn is mostly constructed from oak trees felled in the winter of 1502-03, though it also contains recycled 14th-century timbers whose quality suggests they once helped support a high-status house, perhaps the predecessor of the current Court Farm.
DIRECTIONS
1 From Poolend, take the lane going to Putley Common and Woolhope. Walk to a junction and turn right. After 200m, take a permissive path on the right into Mains Wood. Walk to a T-junction and turn left. Rejoin the lane when you come to a gate and turn right, then soon right again, towards Woolhope and Fownhope.
2 Take a footpath on the right, which leads back into Mains Wood. Go straight on at a waymarked junction, and keep straight on at a wet, muddy junction in a hollow, and again at another junction a little further on. Turn left at the next junction, with woodland on your left, plantation on your right. Bear right at another junction to reach a large grassy triangle. Turn right to find a waymark which directs you to the left. The path is then easily followed to the edge of the wood and on across pastureland. After crossing a brook at stepping stones go diagonally to the far right field corner, then along the left edge of the next field to meet a lane at Durlow Common.
3 Turn left, climbing very gradually. After Upper
Hazle Farm the lane is little more than a track which becomes
steeper as it continues to climb. When it eventually bends sharp left go straight on along a field-edge path to the top of the hill. Turn right to find a path descending steeply through woodland to a lane. Turn left.
4 Turn left at Woolhope Cockshoot then take a footpath on the right. Descend diagonally left through sheep pasture to a fence corner then follow the fence down to a stile. Turn left, keeping below a wooded slope and very gradually bearing right to find another stile, then head across a field towards the left-hand side of a farm (Underhill). Go through a gate and past a barn, then through a gap in a conifer hedge and down steps to a lane. Turn left, then right at a T-junction by The Fosbury.
5 When the orchard on your left gives way to woodland join a footpath which runs through the wood, eventually meeting a track where you turn right. After 200m turn right again and when the
path leaves the wood continue through an orchard to a lane.
Turn left, then immediately right towards Putley Church. Pass to the right of the church on the Herefordshire Trail and keep straight on through an orchard.
At the far side follow the waymarks past a couple of houses then along a driveway to a lane. Turn left into Putley Green and keep straight on to a junction.
6 Turn left, then right on the Herefordshire Trail just after Lucknow Cottage. The path runs past the back of houses then along the edge of an orchard and across three sheep pastures to Aylton. Turn left, then left again when you come to a T-junction. After 150m, take a path on the right along the edge of an orchard. Cross a stile at the far side and turn right through pasture and orchards to meet a driveway. Turn right, then right again at a lane. Walk to a T-junction and turn left to Poolend.
Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 189.
8:57am Monday 5th May 2008
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
