Hallow

8:52am Tuesday 2nd September 2008

NOT much over two miles from the city, yet a million miles from it in terms of peace and quiet, you can explore riverside woodland and two nature reserves, one of which includes an arboretum.

It is called Green Park and was established by a local resident. The arboretum is private, so you must keep to the footpaths, but there’s still plenty to see.

The meadows in and around the arboretum are managed sustainably, with banks covered in wild flowers bordering the path, which descends from Hallow to the Severn valley.

Although it’s too late in the year for most species, there should still be thistles, knapweed and rosebay willowherb in bloom, and perhaps various members of the vetch family.

Butterflies such as gatekeeper, meadow brown, ringlet and comma may also be seen. Another path leads past a wetland area with a dense growth of bullrushes, purple loosestrife, meadowsweet and great willowherb.

Hallow old churchyard covers a much smaller area but it is still valuable as a wildlife refuge. It has been managed as a nature reserve for many years and is currently maintained by the parish council. A lot of hard work has been put into it recently by offenders as part of a scheme, which is aptly known as Community Payback.

FACTFILE:

Start: Hallow, grid ref SO828578.

Length: Five and a half miles/8.8km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Farmland and woodland, with some gentle slopes.

Footpaths: Paths in Hallow parish are mostly good, apart from overgrowth in places, and the waymarking helpfully includes the path number (useful if you need to report problems to the county council). Walkers’ options in Broadheath parish have always been limited by the appalling state of certain paths, and it’s to avoid the worst of these that this route is such a messy shape and involves retracing your steps in places. Only one seriously poor-quality path has had to be included (see point four); the county council has been informed and has promised action.

Stiles: Six.

Parking: Roadside, almost opposite Hallow church.

Public transport: Buses 294/295/300/309/ 758 to Park Lane at Hallow; or 309/310 to the Bell at Lower Broadheath; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or Worcestershire Hub 01905 765765.

Refreshments: The Bell Inn and Broadheath Stores.

DIRECTIONS

1 Join a path to the south of the church, which runs through two fields to a junction. Turn right to Church Lane and right again. Pass to the left of the old churchyard, descending to a waymarked junction. Turn left on path 558.

After passing through a gate you then continue through a meadow, below a bank of wild flowers.

2 Enter Green Park Arboretum and keep straight on until a waymark directs you to the right (still 558). Walk around two sides of a field to a stile in the far corner.

Proceed to a second stile, cross it and go diagonally right across a meadow, passing to the right of a fenced wetland. Cross a footbridge and stile to another meadow and continue to the far left corner.

Enter woodland, passing a magnificent pollarded oak then keeping straight on along path 559.

3 Turn right on path 564. Beyond an initial stretch of boardwalk the path is overgrown by nettles and Himalayan balsam, but soon improves. After a flight of steps it turns right and then eventually goes left uphill (not the diagonal route shown on OS maps). Turn right at the top then left on path 563 to go past the old churchyard again to Church Lane. Walk to the Green and turn left beside the main road.

4 Turn right after Lawherne House and follow a track down to a sewage works. Turn right at a bridleway junction, cross Laugherne Brook and walk uphill through dairy pasture, passing to the right of Lovington Farm to meet Lovington Lane. Turn right, then left after 150m on a footpath. The first 200 metres of this badly neglected path are overgrown for much of the year with nettles, brambles and hawthorn. Some of the brambles cross the path at eye level so take great care if it hasn’t yet been cleared. After crossing a brook to another landowner’s property the path is fine and is easily followed across two fields to meet an access road, which is also a bridleway, near Eastbury Manor.

5 Turn right and keep straight on along the bridleway when the access road turns left. Follow the bridleway through fields, across Lovington Lane and through another field to Martley Road. Turn right and cross to a private road where there’s a sign for ‘footpath no 25’. Proceed to a field where a waymark indicates that you go straight across to a patch of woodland. The path is currently blocked by crops but if you turn left a little way you’ll find an alternative. The path then runs to the left of the woodland and past gardens to a junction. Turn right, then right again on Bell Lane.

6 Cross Martley Road and go straight on past Broadheath Stores, joining another footpath.

Ignore a path branching left and continue past allotments then along a field edge. Turn left in the corner and walk down to a stile.

Walk along the next field edge to a fallen poplar tree, pass through a gateway into the adjacent field and go diagonally to the far right corner. Turn right along the field edge to return to the field, which contains the poplar. Follow the left-hand edge up to Lovington Lane and turn left. Retrace your steps along the bridleway at the end of the lane, returning to the junction by the sewage works.

Turn right by the brook and then follow a fenced bridleway (which is often rather overgrown) up to Hallow Road. Turn left to your starting point.

Please note this walk has been carefully checked and the directions are believed to be accurate at the time of publication.

No responsibility is accepted by either the author or publisher for errors or omissions, or for any loss, accident or injury, however caused

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