Warndon

There are woods, meadows and dairy pastures, wetlands and orchards, many veteran oak trees and a sprinkling of historic buildings, as well as a few places which offer unexpected and very striking views – yet on the map most of it looks like nothing but housing estates.

If this lovely walk whets your appetite for more, you can discover masses of information – and six further walks – by searching out an excellent book which should be available in city bookshops and the tourist information centre.

Walking Around Warndon Villages by Barbara Hopper, costs £2.50 and is warmly recommended.

FACT FILE

Start: St Nicholas’ Church, St Nicholas Lane, Warndon, grid ref SO887569.

Length: Four-and-a-half miles/7km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204 and/or any suitable street map. The county council’s walking/cycling map, and its public transport map (equally valuable for walkers) are excellent, and available free of charge from tourist information centres. But please note that none of these maps shows every footpath.

Terrain: Woodland, meadows, dairy pasture and cycle/footways (called ‘pedways’). If you want to avoid deep mud, and/or the only stile, don’t return to St Nicholas Lane via Warndon Wood and the dairy fields – instead, turn left through New Plantation.

Footpaths: Excellent.

Stiles: One.

Parking: St Nicholas Lane (or Sixways park and ride, which is nearby).

Buses: 31A/31B/31C/33/34 all stop very close to St Nicholas Lane (alight at Warndon Coachway/Three Pears, or at the final stop on Hastings Drive) providing a service every few minutes; for even greater frequency start the walk at Royal Hospital, served by hundreds of buses; Sunday services are fewer but still frequent; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetabl es or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: Three Pears at Warndon Coachway; Lyppard Grange (pub), shops, takeaways and coffee shop at Lyppard Grange; Virgin Tavern and two shops on Tolladine Road.

DIRECTIONS

1 Go through a gate at the end of the lane, just beyond the church, then turn right on the Buzzard Trail, into Hillwood Meadow.

Follow a hard-surfaced path and turn left into woodland at a junction with the Badger Trail.

Turn right at the next junction, by a patch of ancient woodland. You are now following Badger Trail waymarks, but in reverse. Turn left at another junction, passing between two fences, then turn right, still walking through woodland. Go straight on at a junction with the Butterfly Trail.

Turn left at the next junction to find the remains of a disused stile.

Go past the stile into Tolladine Wood and fork left, then soon left again to Plantation Drive.

2 Cross to Mill Wood Drive, then shortly turn left on Trotshill Lane East and walk to Trotshill.

Turn right after The Cottage, on a pedway. After a short distance you might want to detour through Trotshill Field before rejoining the pedway further on. Follow it to Lyppard Grange Ponds Local Nature Reserve, forking right as you approach the reserve. Walk across grassland, pass a pond, turn right over a footbridge and go left, past another pond. Turn right, past the community centre and shops, to Ankerage Way. Turn left onto Mill Wood Drive.

3 Cross at the traffic lights to a bridleway opposite. Keep straight on at all junctions to meet Trotshill Lane West opposite Woodgreen Cottage. Turn left to Woodgreen Drive, cross over and walk up Middle Hollow Drive. Cross to the other side and follow it round to the left, onto Tolladine Road.

4 Turn left on Wharfedale Drive, right on Threshfield Drive and finally right again on Otley Close.

Walk to the end of the close, follow a footpath to The Fairway then continue to Tolladine Road. Turn left, then left again on an unsigned path just before a Texaco garage.

Enter Ronkswood Hill Meadows Local Nature Reserve and walk straight across, climbing slightly.

Pass two benches and keep straight on to the left-hand gate.

5 Follow a waymarked path across the next meadow, ignoring another path branching right. Keep straight on after passing through a hedge gap. Turn right at the top, past Newtown Reservoir, then left past the south side of the reservoir, and left again on a bridleway which passes east of the reservoir. About halfway along the reservoir go through a gap on the right, through trees into a field surrounded by woodland. Follow a well-trodden path across the field, then turn right near a bench, following a hedge. Turn right at the end of the hedge, along the edge of an orchard. Join Oaklands and turn right, then left on Leopard Rise to Newtown Road.

6 Turn left then cross to a hedged/fenced path which leads to the hospital. Turn left and walk to a zebra crossing. Cross to another path and turn left to the B4636. Cross over, turn right then take a path on the left just before the next roundabout. This keeps roughly parallel with a road (Grange Way) to eventually meet Dugdale Drive. Cross over to pick up the path again opposite and walk to Trotshill.

7 Turn left past the apple house, then turn right just before a pond. Pass Cruck Barn and keep straight on past Raven Barn. Walk through woodland and go to the right at a fork. Cross Plantation Drive to New Plantation Local Nature Reserve, turn right, cross Parsonage Way and turn left into Warndon Wood. Turn right on the Buzzard Trail, and follow it to the far side of the wood then through dairy fields to Warndon Lane. Turn left across Parsonage Way to St Nicholas Lane.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside.

This walk is based on OS Explorer 204.