The Cotswold Way. Kev Reynolds

extending across the Vale of Evesham – the first of many fine panoramas to be enjoyed along the Cotswold Way. Some seats have been placed here, to make the most of the view, and one of these is found by a topograph marking Dover’s Hill. From here it is said that on a clear day you can see 60 miles (96km) across the Worcestershire Plain towards Wales. Nearby, in the corner of the meadow by a gate leading into a car park, there’s a memorial stone dedicated to Captain Robert Dover.

      Owned by the National Trust, at 755ft (230m) Dover’s Hill is one of many fine vantage points along the Cotswold escarpment. It was named after Captain Robert Dover (1582–1652), a wealthy and somewhat eccentric lawyer who organised his first ‘Olympick Games’ there in 1612. The games included leapfrog, wrestling, skittles and ‘shin-kicking’, and apart from an interruption during the Civil War, the games continued annually until 1852. Dover’s Olympics were revived in 1951, and now take place each spring bank holiday.

      Pass through the gate and cross the National Trust car park to a path which runs parallel with a country lane where you bear left, then wander downhill, passing through several gates, to a small crossroads. (Weston Park Farm B&B is a short distance to the west. Tel: [phone] [email protected]) Now head to the right, once again following Kingcomb Lane towards Willersey and Broadway. (The left-hand grass verge is the safest place to walk here.) Along this stretch, half-hidden on the right on the edge of Weston Park Wood, is the Kiftsgate Stone, which marks the site of a Saxon meeting place. After about 400 metres leave the lane by way of a stone stile on the left next to a field gate. A few paces later bear right through a gap in a stone wall on the edge of a spinney. This brings you to the Mile Drive.

      The Mile Drive is a broad, grassy avenue with views now to the left (south-east) into Tilbury Hollow. Halfway along it you cross a farm drive and continue ahead. At the far end go through a gap in a drystone wall on the right, then half-left across a field corner to a second wall. Continue in the same direction until you come to Buckle Street. Across the road the footpath maintains direction to reach a picnic area with a topograph just above the A44 on Fish Hill. At this point you leave Gloucestershire and briefly enter the county of Hereford and Worcester.

      Turn left and descend through the picnic site to a car park. Keep ahead to a toilet block where you bear right, go through a gap in a stone wall and cross the A44 with care. Turn right along a tarmac road to pass a quarry, continue beyond a house on a track, and when this ends a footpath takes you into woodland. Emerge to meadowland gruffed with curious humps and hollows, which may be explained by the fact that the site was used as an Anglo-Saxon burial ground – in 1954 a number of human bones were exposed by a mechanical digger. Soon after bear half-left through a shallow cleave, or dry valley, with Broadway Tower seen rising ahead (grid ref: 114 362). Shortly before reaching the tower, you will gain a first view down to Broadway. Go through a gate and immediately turn right.

      The top of Broadway Tower is said to be the highest point in the Cotswolds, at 1089ft (332m), although Cleeve Common claims the highest ground. Occupying a grassy knoll, it commands a tremendous panoramic view over the Vale of Evesham, with chequered fields below and the scarp edge folding away in a series of spurs and coombes as far as the eye can see.

      Designed by James Wyatt in 1798 for the sixth Earl of Coventry, the tower is a Norman-style keep with three rounded turrets. Around it lies part of the Broadway Tower Country Park; the Tower Barn is about 150 years old, while Rookery Barn houses an information centre and restaurant.

      At first enclosed by fences, the way then descends along the right-hand edge of a grassy slope, and through meadows linked by kissing gates, so to reach Broadway. As you come to the village bear left and walk along the main street heading west. In the heart of the village the street is flanked by red-flowering chestnut trees, and lined with shops, tearooms, hotels and houses of mellow stone. On coming to the village green, turn left into Church Street and wander past the Crown and Trumpet and the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels.

      BROADWAY

      A quintessential Cotswold village, with a wide street lined with handsome shops, houses and hotels – hence ‘broad way’. It is said to have been ‘discovered’ by William Morris, in whose wake came a number of Victorian artists to extend its fame. The village has a long history, but during the era of the stagecoach it grew in importance, providing accommodation and a change of horses in readiness for the steep haul up Fish Hill. Nowadays horses have been replaced by horsepower, and Broadway is at times a snarl of traffic amid a clutter of commerce.

      Without traffic the village is a gem: wisteria-clad cottages, 17th-century almshouses, an avenue of red-flowering chestnut trees, a village green and two churches. The oldest of these is St Eadburgh’s, which dates from the 12th century, and the other is the Victorian church of St Michael and All Angels, passed on the way out.

      Broadway has a wide range of shops, pubs, tea rooms and accommodation. Tourist information: Cotswold Court, The Green, Broadway 01386 852937.

      Soon after passing the church turn right onto a track, then go beyond a few houses into the meadowland ahead. The path takes you over a footbridge and across another meadow to West End Lane, across which you have a choice of paths. The right-hand option leads to Buckland, but directly ahead the Cotswold Way goes through a gate and up an enclosed path into a sloping meadow. At the head of the slope enter Broadway Coppice, a woodland mixture of hazel, oak, birch and ash. The path winds on before emerging at a hilltop field. Now bear left along the field edge, and at the end go round the back of a stable-cum-barn, then right to join a track heading left. At this point you re-enter Gloucestershire.

      The farm track takes you almost due south towards more wooded hills, before entering an untidy farmyard area. Bear right to follow a rough track going along the right-hand edge of a field, rising steadily and with tree-screened views soon showing into the valley off to your right, with Buckland nestling at the foot of the slope.

      Continue on the track, passing through a field gate with a crown of trees half-left ahead, and walk below a lovely line of beeches to gain the crest of a ridge. Views open once more. To the left stands a handsome farm and a few barns. The ridge narrows considerably, green and rabbit-shorn, with grey drystone walls criss-crossing, the slopes bearing a mixture of scrub and grassland habitats.

      In their season cowslips and early purple orchids paint the hillside with a flush of colour. Bullfinch and yellow hammer flit to and fro while jackdaws circle lazily over the topmost woods.

      The track takes you past a region of hollows on the left; these are one-time quarries. About 200 metres later, immediately after a junction of tracks, bear right over a cattle grid and walk along a cart track which curves through a long meadowland, keeping near the scarp edge with the mixed woods of Long Hill Plantation on your right.

      Coming to Shenberrow Hill (grid ref: 080 335) pass to the right of a farm, go through a field gate and descend to the right through a tight cleave (or dry valley) among trees.

      Shenberrow Hill above Stanton is the site of an Iron Age hill fort of about 2½ acres (1 hectare). When it was excavated in 1935, various artefacts were revealed, among them pieces of pottery, a bronze bracelet and two bone needles.

      Be warned that this ‘dry valley’ can be rather muddy in inclement weather. At the bottom of the cleave veer left, cross a stile, then descend along the right-hand side of meadowland. Before long bear right over a stile into an adjacent meadow and continue downhill towards a pond seen in a hollow. This is Stanton Reservoir, a pleasant corner giving a dazzle of light amidst the trees. Keep above the pond to the right, go through a gate and bear left to pass below its northern end. A track now leads down to Stanton (accommodation, refreshments), a glorious little village with almost-perfect cottages lining an almost-perfect street (grid ref: 070 342).

      Stanton is recognised as ‘the perfect Cotswold village’ (photo: Lesley Williams)

      STANTON

      It has been called the perfect Cotswold village, and not without good