Those of you watching Simon Schama's BBC2 series, a History of Britain, may have been interested last week to see the Worcestershire village of Dodford featured.

Tucked quietly away in delightful countryside near Bromsgrove, Dodford, is not at all well-known, but it played a part in the burgeoning social reform movement which characterised the middle decades of the 19th Century.

One of the most important groups to advocate reform was the Chartists, whose aims, including universal male suffrage, were set out in the People's Charter of 1838.

To qualify for the vote, a working man had to own land, so the Chartists established a handful of planned agricultural settlements for former industrial workers, each family acquiring a cottage and a smallholding.

One of these settlements was at Dodford, but the scheme was a failure as the smallholders had no agricultural experience.

Only three or four of the Chartist cottages survive unspoilt - the National Trust has recently bought one, and you will pass another one on this walk, close to the Woodland Road/Church Road junction.

This area also has a notable literary connection - the poet A E Housman, most famous for A Shropshire Lad, was born at Fockbury in 1859.

The family soon moved to Bromsgrove but returned to Fockbury a few years later. They lived at the Clock House, which you will pass towards the end of the walk.

Directions

Walk through the pub car park to join a footpath which runs by field edges to Fockbury Road, Dodford. Cross to a footpath opposite, heading for the far right corner of a field. Continue along the right-hand edge of the next, as far as a stile. Don't cross it, turn left, going obliquely across the field to the far side.

Descend into a valley, cross a brook and turn left through buttercup-filled meadows. The path meets a concrete driveway, where you turn left to meet a road. Cross to a path opposite, which leads to a lane. Carry straight on and when the lane bends right, again keep straight on, crossing a stile and walking down a field towards High Wood.

Cross a footbridge and go into the wood. Proceed to a junction and fork left, then keep straight on at the next waymarked junction. A few paces further on fork right (no waymarker), then straight on to the edge of the wood.

Turn left, then right, joining a bridle track which passes Highwood Cottage. Follow the track to a road, turn right and immediately right again, crossing a meadow to Nutnells Wood.

Walk through the wood then continue along the edge of a meadow until you come to a stile. Cross this then turn left over another and walk through woodland before crossing a meadow to a road. Turn left past Dordale Green Farm then join a footpath on the right.

The path crosses a field, then continues to the far right corner of the next field. Go through a gap and proceed to a lane. Turn right, then left at a junction. At Croppings Green join a path on the right. Go through a yard and then straight on along the edge of a field. In the next field turn right and walk to Warbage Lane.

Turn left, then first right on Woodland Road into Dodford, and quite soon left on Church Road. Keep straight on at a crossroads and straight on at the next junction, joining a footpath. Turn left when you come to a track, which returns to Warbage Lane.

Take an overgrown footpath opposite, then turn left on a grassy path to a field. Turn right and descend to a stile halfway along the fence at the bottom. Turn left, descending. After crossing a brook bear left up a slope to a field at the top.

Proceed to a stile, cross it and turn right by a field edge until another stile gives access to a holloway. Descend this, then continue past houses until a stile on the left gives entry to a wood. A path leads through the wood to emerge in a pasture.

Walk forward to a sycamore tree then go to the left, parallel with the field boundary. Continue along the edge of the next field and past a stable to Valley Road. Turn right, soon right again at the junction with Bumble Hole Lane, and then right on Cockshutt Lane.

Ignore any turnings until you are approaching a signpost at the top of a hill, then turn left on a sandy track into a field. When it bends left into another field turn right along the edge, descending to the bottom corner. Cross a stile then turn right along the edge of the adjacent field, a hedge on your left.

Cross a stile and go forward along the edge of the next field, passing to the right of a barn. At a hedge corner continue across the field. In the next field turn right, then left at a waymarker post.

The well-defined path is easy to follow now, mainly across barley fields, until you reach a pair of stiles and a footbridge. Beyond these, continue towards the road, aiming to meet it just left of Battlefield Farm, opposite some glasshouses. Turn right to Park Gate.

FACTFILE

Start: Park Gate Inn, on A448 west of Bromsgrove; GR936716.

Length: 7 miles/11 km.

Maps: OS Explorer 219, OS Landranger 139.

Terrain: gently undulating pasture and woodland, with some nettles.

Stiles: 40

Parking: on "no through road" near Park Gate Inn.

Buses: frequent daily buses (134/X33) between Bromsgrove and Kidderminster via Park Gate Inn, with good connections from Worcester; Traveline 0870 608 2608.

Refreshments: Park Gate Inn, Dodford Inn.

DISCLAIMER

This walk has been carefully checked and the directions are believed to be correct at the time of publication. No responsibility is accepted by either the author or publisher for errors or omissions, or for any loss or injury, however caused.