COOMBE Hill Canal was built in 1796 to link the Dean coalfields with Cheltenham via the River Severn, but competition from the railways led to its closure in 1876.

Over a century later, it was bought by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, which immediately set about extensive management work, including selective dredging which has created a series of open lagoons separated by dense reed beds.

Since the initial purchase in 1985, the Trust has been able to add to the reserve by buying an adjacent area of meadowland known, aptly enough, as The Meadows.

This was once part of a substantial wet grassland, known as Incham Common until it was drained and enclosed in 1815.

So many of Gloucestershire's other remaining wetlands were drained and destroyed in the 20th Century that Coombe Hill Nature Reserve has now assumed great importance.

As restoration proceeds, it is increasingly becoming an outstanding refuge for endangered wetland wildlife, including some species which are nationally rare.

The canal is only part of a complex watery network which also includes the rivers Severn and Chelt, various pools, scrapes and marshes and dozens of brooks and drainage channels bordered by lovely old willow trees.

The meadows flood in winter, attracting large numbers of teal, mallard, wigeon and Bewick's swan, with the occasional pintail, pochard, gadwall and goldeneye.

Flocks of fieldfare and redwing also congregate in winter to feast on hawthorn berries.

However, there are plenty of birds in summer too.

The first ones you are likely to see are the mute swans and moorhens nesting by The Wharf, but there are many more to look out for in the course of the walk, including blackcap, whitethroat and willow warbler, which nest in areas of scrub, while curlew and lapwing can be seen in the wetter meadows.

Mammals are more elusive but on my last visit I saw roe deer, not on the nature reserve itself but in the adjacent fields.

DIRECTIONS

The Wharf is the name of a short road which leads from the main road to the nature reserve. Buses stop on the main road close by, while the car park is at the other end of The Wharf, next to the canal.

There are bridleways either side of the canal but begin by taking a footpath which runs past the end of the canal and then enters a meadow. Three paths are waymarked here: take the one going left across the meadow to a gate about 100m from the far left corner.

Follow the right-hand edge of the next meadow for 200m then go through a gate on the right and diagonally left to a footbridge in the hedge on your left. Cross the next meadow to the far right corner, go left and then right, across a ditch to another field, and continue in much the same direction.

Cross an iron footbridge, continue over another field to a hedge gap and across another to the far left corner. Then continue in the same direction over the next field, go through a copse to another field and across to a hedge gap at the far side. Cross the final field then go through a garden to a road.

Cross to a footpath opposite, walk across a field and then go to the far right corner of the next, where a stile gives on to a track.

Turn left, and then right at Orchard End to reach a road at Apperley. Turn left, then go briefly left again at a junction before taking Gabb Lane, to the left of Box Tree Farm.

After 600m the lane bends sharp left, which is your cue to take a footpath on the right which crosses a field to the riverbank - though the river itself is inaccessible and invisible at this point. Turn left, joining the Severn Way and following it downstream.

The river soon comes into view and you will pass the Coalhouse Inn, which stands on a former coal wharf. After the pub, the next major landmark is Haw Bridge, where you have to cross a road (B4213).

Still on the Severn Way, descend from the road to pass Bridge House, after which the path bears left to a stile. It then keeps a field's width from the river for a while before rejoining it.

Eventually, you will cross the end of Coombe Hill Canal, where it meets the River Severn at a disused lock. A little further on you will meet a lane at Fletcher's Leap, where the River Chelt joins the Severn. Turn left along the lane to the canal and re-enter the nature reserve. A bridleway, Warren Way, runs beside the canal all the way back to The Wharf.

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.

FACTFILE

Start: The Wharf, by the Swan Inn at Coombe Hill, a few miles south of Tewkesbury, grid ref SO886272.

Distance: Seven miles/11km.

Maps: OS Explorer 179, Landrangers 150 and 162.

Terrain: Mostly low-lying meadows, with some arable, subject to flooding.

Footpaths: Excellent, except in one place where crops are encroaching on an inadequate path.

Stiles: 20.

Parking: The Wharf.

Public transport: Train to Ashchurch (the station for Tewkesbury) or Cheltenham, then Stagecoach bus 41, every 20 minutes Monday-Saturday, to Coombe Hill (operated by Swanbrook on Sundays, every 90 minutes); on Sundays there is also the option of a bus (372) from Worcester to Tewkesbury to connect with the 41; on Thursdays and Saturdays there are buses (380/381) direct from Great Malvern and Malvern Link to Coombe Hill; details from Gloucestershire Travel Line 01452 425543 (available 24 hours), National Rail Enquiries 08457 484950 or www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

Refreshments: Swan Inn at Coombe Hill, Coalhouse Inn at Apperley, New Inn and Haw Bridge Inn at Haw Bridge, Red Lion at Wainlode.