CIRCULAR WALK 2.

A walk from Stoulton Woodland Car Park. Distance 3.4m or 5.5 km.

Download these details in Pdf form below.

Follow the walker’s instructions.  Each instruction will take you to a numbered point on this map.

WALKER’S INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Leave the Stoulton Woodland car park through the metal gate on your left. Follow the path past a picnic bench in a clearing, carry on curving leftwards to leave the clearing at the left-hand corner.  Follow the path and at the T junction turn right onto the next path you meet. (Point 2)
  2. When you get to a junction just after another footpath meets on your right, turn left  (Point 3)
  3. Cross two footbridges over the streams and pass through the gate at the end of the bridge. (Point 4)
  4. Continue straight across the next field, which has been planted with trees, and through the gate on the other side.   (Point 5)
  5. Take the right hand path diagonally upwards across the field towards Stoulton village (heading towards a group of poplar trees to the right. (Point 6)
  6. At the end of the path look for, and go through, the gap in the hedge to your left (near the corner) this will take you through to a wide path, locally known as Parker’s Lane. Go left along it,  after a few yards you will see a metal gate on the right, (Point 7)
  7. Take the path on through the metal gate up towards Stoulton churchyard. Enter the churchyard. Go through another metal gate. (Point 8)
  8. Cross the churchyard and pass through the double gate into Church Lane. Take time to visit the Church of St Edmund where you will find information about the history of the church and the village. Walk along Church Lane until it meets the B4184. (Point 9)
  9. Retrace your steps back along Church Lane note the names of the houses. Pass the church again (now on your right) and continue along the rough road leading to a wooden kissing gate (Point 10) 
  10. Follow the footpath which leads straight across the field to the other side. From this path, you will be able to have a good view of Bredon Hill to your right. Walk to the far side of the field, where the footpath meets a T junction and an interrupted line of trees. Turn left, and walk up towards a waymarked post (which may be invisible at first if the crop has grown up high). At the post you will have views of the wind turbine and Mucknell Abbey, (Point 11) 
  11. Turn to your right and walk down the hill towards the railway bridge. This railway is the mainline from London to Hereford. Pass under the bridge, through the metal kissing gate, and across the next narrow field to another metal kissing gate. (Point 12)
  12. A wooden footbridge (previously a traditional stone, hump-backed, pack-horse bridge) will now take you across the stream. (If you look under the wooden bridge, you should be able to see the old stone supports for the previous bridge). Carry straight on, following the indistinct grassy track up the side of the field, keeping the hedge on your right, heading towards a line of poplars at the top, (which you will only be able to see when you have gone round the first right-handed bend). From this path, if you look to your left, you can see Mucknell Abbey, and, behind it a wind turbine, which belongs to the owner of the land beyond the Abbey. When you reach the top of the field, you should be able to have a lovely view across the countryside towards the Malvern Hills and Stoulton Church. (Point 13)
  13. Follow the footpath sign pointing straight ahead (ignore the paths to the right and left) between rows of apple trees, to the opposite side of the apple orchard, where you will meet a gravelly (and sometimes muddy) track. (Point 14)
  14. Turn right onto this track (ignore the left pointing Millennium Way arrow on the waymark post). In front of you is Egdon House. Follow the track around the edge of the orchard, round a right-hand bend and continue to follow the path as it turns left when it meets the field, known locally as ‘Stoney Furlong’. Here the track becomes grass-covered. Follow this path, alongside the field, keeping the hedge on your left and the field to your right. If you are walking in springtime, you should be able to hear skylarks singing above this field. This path also gives you excellent views of the countryside around.  (Point 15)
  15. Continue along this path, heading towards Bredon, and at the edge of the hedge on your left, past a large ash tree, head slightly right, on a narrower path, across an open field, towards the brick railway bridge, (good views to the right of Stoulton Church and the Malvern Hills in the background), the path takes you back over the railway at the far side of the field. (Point 16)
  16. Go through the gate on the other side of the bridge, and immediately turn left. After the first field, the path is clearly marked between fences, with the fields on one side and the railway on the other. If you look carefully at this fence, you will see historical parts of the GWR: fence posts are made from old rails and there is also a boundary post. Pass two fields and at the third, turn diagonally to your right. (Point 17) 
  17. Head for the corner of the field. There are some houses ahead of you, and a small sewage works. Keep the sewage works to your right. There is a hawthorn tree in the corner of the field right by the stile. (Point 18)
  18. Go over the stile, and along the path, heading away from the railway. When you meet the road, look across the road to where a track leads to a flat, open area next to the railway line. That is the site of the old Stoulton Station. Pass by Station Close on your right. During the war this was the site of a displaced persons’ camp, housing Italian Prisoners of War. The huts were demolished and the current houses built after the war. After passing Station Close,  walk up to the next road, Windmill Lane, which has a pillar box on the corner. (Point 19)
  19. Turn right into Windmill Lane and keep going. After about 200 yards, the tarmac changes to gravel. Keep going, past a large farmhouse on your right-hand side.  As the track turns to the right, you will see a barn ahead of you and a low curved brick wall signed ‘Windmill Hill Farm’ (Point 20)
  20. Take the path heading towards the Malvern Hills that leads between a Dutch barn on your left and some corrugated iron stables on your right. (Point 21)
  21. Keep going past the pond. Don’t follow the path as it turns right, but keep going straight ahead all the way to the end of the next field, where you will see a metal gate into the woodland. (Point 22)
  22. Go through the gate into Stoulton Woodland. Don’t take the bridleway immediately to your left, but go straight on and take the footpath to your left a few yards further on. Follow this path round several bends until you come out into a clearing which looks over the woodland and up towards Stoulton village. Two benches here invite a rest to take in the view! ( Point 23) 
  23. Keep to the left-hand edge of this clearing. Ignore the first very faint footpath on your left at the first bend, but take the next, more obvious, footpath which branches diagonally off to your left a little further down the hill, on the next corner.   Follow the path and after a few yards another path comes in from your left; continue to the right until you reach a wide avenue ahead. (Point 24)
  24. Turn left at this T junction; the path will take you back to the car park.

Download your own Map and Walker's Instructions 

Download
Map for Walk 2
3.4m circular walk from the car park in Stoulton Woodlands.
Map for 3.4m circular walk.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 1.9 MB
Download
Walker's Instructions.
Circular Walk 2.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 59.0 KB

 IMPORTANT NOTE.  If you have a photograph you would like to contribute to this web site we do need your written permission to use it. Download the Permission Form from the CONTACT US page. Complete and return it with your picture to sandymarchant6@icloud.com