These boots are made for walking...
Parsonage Wood Walk 30 minutes 1) From The Manor House, walk to Market Cross, and start up the hill. 2) Leave the road in about fifty yards, when you are nearly opposite the Dower House, on your left. 3) At the crest you join a track coming in from your left, turn right and almost immediately turn further right again to follow a clearly defined path through the trees. 4) If the foliage is not too dense, now you will be able to see, on your right and below you, the houses of the village. 5) The path continues through the wood, and slowly descends, crossing a stile to the right of a wooden gate set between stone pillars. 6) Follow the grassy path to the foot of the hill, where it joins the path from Long Dean, coming in from the left ahead of you. Turn sharply right now, back towards Castle Combe. 7) Having crossed the bridge, turn right along the road, crossing the Bybrook once more by the bridge near to the Old Post Office. 8) Continue straight and you will return to the village and see the Market Cross.
Nettleton Mill One hour 1) Leaving the Manor House, turn left under Archway Cottage. The road bends to the left and to the right and uphill, becoming a narrow lane alongside the Manor House garden wall. A tiny bridge spans the lane above your head; pass beneath to reach a stile at the top of the gradient. 2) Follow the path as it turns and descends to enter an open sloping field. 3) Cross the Bybrook stream by an elegant stone bridge. 4) Go through the iron swinging gate, and keeping Nettleton Mill to your left, turn left at the end of the building opposite the cottage, and follow the path through Deverells plantation. 5) As you walk, the Broadmead Brook Babbles pass on your left, and you cross it by a flat stone bridge. 6) At this point, if you wish to extend your walk by half an hour, then detour along the Fosseway Loop, which is described at the end of this walk. 7) Having crossed the Broadmead, continue up the bridle path. At the crest of the hill, the view to your right and behind is towards the houses of Nettleton Shrub. 8) Turn left along the road, leaving Pinetum Cottage, and the entrance to Shrub House on your left. 9) Keep walking until you get to the road junction, turn left and continue down that road. 10) After about a hundred yards, the path bears away to the right, along the ridge of Becker’s wood. At a post with a yellow arrow, turn right and down through the wood to join the road, and so back into the village.
The Fosseway Loop
An extra 30 minutes
1) Before crossing the flat stone bridge, ahead of you is a gate leading along the north side of the now shallow Broadmead Valley.
2) The path continues for about a mile before joining the Fosseway through a similar gate.
3) Beyond the Fosseway, in the valley, lies the site of Romano-British Temple, but nothing can be seen. Turn right along the Fosseway for three quarters of a mile. To start with, the road climbs and then levels before descending and passing Nettleton Shrub on your left.
4) Turn right just past the Fosseway Cottages, following the narrow lane towards Nettleton Mill.
5) In a quarter of a mile you are back at the flat stone bridge, where you may either continue with the walk by crossing the bridge, or alternatively retrace your steps alongside the Broadmead back to Castle Combe.
The Long Dean Walk Two hours 1) From The Manor House, walk past the Market Cross heading down The Street to cross the Bybrook stream at the bridge just beyond the Old Post Office. 2) Cross the bridge and turn right, then cross a stile to the left of a metal gate. The path is clear ahead of you. 3) Through gaps in the trees to your right you will glimpse the Bybrook as it meanders through the water meadows. 4) To your right, and behind, you will see Upper Colham Mill, whilst nearer to you and down stream is Lower Colham Mill. The path soon widens into a lane, descending to Rose Cottage. 5) Continue along the narrow country road until it joins a wider country road. At the junction, turns left and continue up the hill. 6) Near the top of the hill to your right is the boundary of the old Castle Combe wartime airfield, the perimeter track of which is now used as a motor racing circuit. Follow the road north for a mile, passing farm buildings on your left. 7) Just before you hit the main road in Upper Castle Combe, turn left following the lane indicated by the signpost to your right. At the end of this lane, turn right down the path between the hedgerows. Ignore the path to your left going in to Parsonage Wood, and continue down the hill. 8) Not far to go now, the path steepens and becomes stonier until it tumbles out onto the road. Here turn left down the hill and into Castle Combe village.
To Ford and Return Walk Three hours 1) From the Market Cross head south along The Street, crossing the Bybrook stream by the bridge just beyond the Post Office. 2) Leave the village and follow the road up the hill, passing on your left the gated entrance to the Colham Mills. Continue up the hill until you reach a fork in the road.
end of it to your left. The stile into the lane is beyond the cottage, in the hedgerow to your left. It gives access to a short lane which leads to the hamlet of Ford. 8) The walk turns to the left on reaching the main road, which is the A420, running between Bristol and Chippenham.
3) Cross the road, join the track running to your left by the trees, or alternatively, follow the road left for a short distance.
9) Crossing the road and following the signpost to Colerne, soon brings you to The White Hart hostelry.
4) After some two hundred yards you gain access to the track by the road junction. A signpost in the trees points the path to Ford. Continue through the wood, leaving it by climbing the wooden bars to the right of the gate. Keep to the crest of the hill with the hedgerow to your left. Looking to your right across the wooded valley below you, you will see the distinctive Truckle Hill Barn on the sky line.
10) Rejoin the main road and follow the signpost towards Castle Combe. Walk carefully, although this may seem to be a quiet road leading up the hill, it can be surprisingly busy. Near the top of the steeper part of the hill, you will see a stile on the right with a signpost pointing to Long Dean.
5) Follow the cattle walkways along until just after a sturdily erect railway sleeper marking post. 6) Now descend the hill diagonally. At first the way seems blocked by trees below but, as you descend, a path through the hazel thicket becomes obvious. This leads on down to a stile by a stone block. 7) Cross the streamlet by the footbridge and leaving the streamlet to your left continue through the field. Diverge from the stream, through to another widely spaced hazel thicket to enter a small paddock with a cottage at the
11) The path leads directly across the field ahead of you and through a wooden gate and into a narrow lane leading down into Long Dean. 12) After crossing the Bybrook by a bridge with a brick parapet, continue to the road junction, here turning left up the lane, leaving Rose Cottage to your right. 13) At the top of the hill, cross the step stile to the right of the gate and follow the path along the eastern side of the Bybrook valley. 14) The road into Castle Combe is joined after a stile by a metal gate, and crossing the Bybrook again by the Roman Bridge.
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