Worcester Woods Country Park

But there are also many other nature reserves within the city and the idea for this walk was suggested by a Worcester News reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) who lives close to Gorse Hill and Elbury Mount Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and thinks it deserves to be better known.

It’s hard to disagree. Not only is this small reserve important in its own right, it also forms a link in a chain of larger reserves nearby, including the woods mentioned above.

Together, they offer easy access to valuable green space for thousands of city residents.

Gorse Hill and Elbury Mount LNR is the highest point in the city, comprising two undeveloped hilltops which must have been familiar to Worcester’s earliest inhabitants, because flint tools made by Stone Age people have been found there.

Even today, with the immediate surroundings built up, it’s obvious that the panoramic views from the twin tops made this a vital defensive site. Much closer to our own time, Oliver Cromwell used the hills as defensive positions before the Battle of Worcester.

The hills pack a variety of habitats into a small space, including woods with veteran oaks and unusual numbers of hollies.

There are ancient hedgerows, gorse and hawthorn scrub and areas of grassland untouched by herbicides or artificial fertilisers.

Like most of Worcester’s nature reserves and other green spaces, Gorse Hill and Elbury Mount LNR is managed by the city council’s team of wildlife rangers, with help from volunteers.

Only 200 metres away, across Tolladine Road, Ronkswood Hill Meadows LNR is another great place, the largest area of wildlife rich grassland in Worcester.It seems almost miraculous that it should have survived undeveloped as the city expanded.

That it did so is partly because local people campaigned to save it, and partly because the steepness of the site would have caused difficulties for developers.

FACTFILE

Start: Worcester Woods Country Park, off Spetchley Road, near County Hall; grid ref SO878543.

Length: 4½ miles/7km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150, Worcester Walking and Cycling Map, published by Worcestershire County Council and available free of charge from Worcester Woods Countryside Centre.

Terrain: Woodland, grassland, residential streets; slightly hilly in places. Dogs must be on leads in Ronkswood Hill Meadows while cattle are grazing there.

Footpaths: Excellent.

Stiles: None.

Parking: Worcester Woods Country Park.

Buses: Services to the country park include 44 (frequent) and 550; alternatively, there are frequent services along Newtown Road and Tolladine Road (eg 31/33/34); worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: Café at Countryside Centre, two shops and a pub on Tolladine Road.

DIRECTIONS

1 Enter NunneryWood opposite the Countryside Centre (signed woodland trail) and thenturnright to walkparallel withthe bridleway whichgoes to thehospital.Proceed to a junction where the pathforks and there are two footbridges – go to the left and walkpast anewly coppiced area. Continue to a crosspath where a woodenpost bears the number eight.Turnright and then shortly forkleft past a pond.Ignore a pathbranching left and you’ll soon be walking by the edge of the wood.

2 Leave Nunnery Wood and take a path going straight across Newtown Green. Turn right when the path is crossed by another, walk to a street and go straight on to meet Newtown Road. Turn left and cross to Darwin Avenue.

Follow it to a gate giving access to grassland. Go to the left to find a gate into Ronkswood Hill Meadows LNR. Turn right, walking across the top of the meadows towards a petrol station.

3 Cross Tolladine Road and turn right past the Virgin Tavern.

Walk to the top of the hill then take a footpath. Keep straight on at a junction, walking past a locked gate and climbing slightly up Elbury Mount. Turn left when you come to a junction, up steps to the hill-top. Turn left to walk round a covered reservoir, then left again near a mast, initially walking towards the Abberley Hills until the path descends and curves round to the right. Descend left at the next flight of steps. Go down to a junction, turn left to an information panel and then climb up Gorse Hill.

4 Fork left at the top, soon descending through woodland to a T-junction. Turn right, then right again at some steps. Contour round the north side of the hill then gradually climb back to the top. Turn left to return to the information panel, then retrace your steps to the top of Elbury Mount. Turn left to return to Tolladine Road and Ronkswood Hill Meadows. Turn right through the meadows, aiming initially for a large cream-painted house (Ronkswood Hill Farm) before bearing left up to a bench. Beyond it, a gate gives access to Newtown Road. Turn right.

5 Cross to Trent Road, walk to the end of it and go straight on along a footpath. Keep straight on when the path forks, entering Perry Wood LNR. This part of the reserve comprises grassland and scrub. Shortly fork right into open grassland with a scattering of trees and head across it to a prominent information panel at the far side.

Turn left, then right, where a fingerpost indicates Perry Wood Trail. Follow the trail through the wood, going straight on at unmarked junctions.

6 Eventually, you can go no further forward on the trail as it turns sharp left to loop through the wood. Keep straight on instead, to meet a fence corner at an exit point. Don’t leave the wood here but continue beside the fence. Go left at the next fence corner to emerge on Redfern Avenue. Turn left, walk to Prestwich Avenue and cross to a footpath. Follow it to a Tjunction and turn right beside a fence. Turn left at the next fence corner and follow the path to NunneryWood. Choose any route back to the Countryside Centre.For instance, you could take the obvious route close to the edge of the wood, or you could turn left, then shortly right and roughly straight on at subsequent junctions.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 204.