Bredon Hill

Though the tower which marks the actual summit isn't included in this walk, it's a very easy detour from point five.

Parts of Bredon Hill are included in a national nature reserve and it's easy to understand why when you see some of the magnificent veteran trees which grow on its northern slopes.

These are mainly ash pollards, but there are some oaks too, and a massive beech pollard in the wood on top of the hill. There are plenty of hawthorns too, covered with blossom at this time of year, while cowslips flourish in the close-cropped pasture beneath the trees.

FACTFILEStart: Jubilee Bridge over River Avon, between Fladbury and Cropthorne, grid ref SP000455.

Length: 9 miles/15km.

Maps: OS Explorers 190 and 205, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Pasture and arable; mostly flat, apart from the short and easy ascent and descent of Bredon Hill.

Footpaths: Mostly excellent, but nettles and brambles are encroaching in places, and waymarking is rather patchy.

Stiles: 12.

Parking: Jubilee Bridge Picnic Place.

Buses: First 550/551 Worcester-Evesham services, Monday-Saturday, to Jubilee Bridge or Cropthorne; Astons 166 Worcester-Stratford service, Sundays/bank holidays, to the New Inn, Brook Lane or Smokey Lane; Traveline 0870 608 2608 or www.worcestershire.gov.uk/bus timetables Refreshments: The New Inn on the B4084 near Cropthorne. There are also two pubs at Fladbury, very close to the route. The Queen Elizabeth at Elmley Castle appears to be temporarily closed for refurbishment.

DIRECTIONS1 Walk along Neigh Lane to Cropthorne. Turn right at the green on Main Street and walk through the village. Turn left along Middle Lane, then turn right when you see a footpath. Walk down a field, cross a footbridge and turn left by a brook to reach a junction by a flight of steps. Turn right, crossing a field to a line of fruit trees. Turn left, passing the end of a glasshouse and proceeding to the main road (B4084).2 Turn right for a few metres then cross over to take a well-defined track. After passing a brick building cross a long narrow field to a stile at the far side. Turn right in the next field and walk to a junction with a bridleway. Turn left on the bridleway and follow it to a bridge. Don't cross it: instead, join a footpath on the right. 3 The path follows a field-edge brook, goes past a pool (hidden behind an embankment) then crosses another field in which you should gradually bear right, away from the brook, towards a gate near where a hedge meets a fence. Proceed through more fields, ignoring all branching paths and heading towards Elmley Castle and Bredon Hill. Reaching a road at Elmley Castle, turn right and then left.4 Turn right after the Queen Elizabeth pub. After passing Blizzard Cottage take a path on the left which goes diagonally across a field to meet Hill Lane opposite a thatched cottage. Turn left. At the end of the lane, by Hill House Farm, go straight on along a bridleway. After a short section of wooded green lane you continue along a stony track up the open hillside. Bear left when you reach a junction, as indicated by a blue arrow. Continue to follow the bridleway uphill and eventually you will come to a waymarked junction by a wood. 5 Go straight on and then turn left at another junction, a few metres further on, just below the rim of the escarpment. Follow the woodland edge uphill, soon going through a gate on the left. Stay by the woodland edge, ignoring a cross-path and passing a telecommunications mast. Eventually, bear left to descend on another bridleway through the wood. Keep going down at a waymarked junction (on the Wychavon Way) soon leaving the wood for grassland. 6 Keep straight down, guided by a succession of waymarked posts. As you approach a footbridge the hill to your left (Castle Hill) is the site of Elmley's former castle. After crossing a second footbridge turn left, still following the bridleway down and ignoring branching footpaths. Soon after a deeply rutted section, begin to bear right, away from the brook on your left, so that you're walking by the right-hand edge of a field. Meeting a lane, turn right on the wide verge. 7 Join a footpath on the left (still the Wychavon Way). Walk along the right-hand edge of a field then straight on at an unmarked junction, along the edge of a wood. After crossing a footbridge, turn left along the edge of a field. Turn right at a junction, passing a farm building and following a track to a driveway. Turn right, immediately right again at a road, then soon left towards Netherton. Keep straight on along the Wychavon Way when the road becomes a bridleway. When you come to a junction with faded waymarks, turn left into a long narrow field but after about 100m leave the Wychavon Way for a path on the right. Cross two fields to Smokey Lane and turn left to the B4084.8 Cross the road and turn left to a layby. Cross a stile and follow a fenced path between gardens and then by a brook until you rejoin your outward route at the steps mentioned in point one. Walk up to Middle Lane and turn left, then soon right on a path which runs along the edge of a field to Blacksmiths Lane. Turn left, then right on Main Street to the green and left on Neigh Lane back to Jubilee Bridge.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.