Ockeridge Wood is a magical place for a gentle winter walk in the early evening sunshine.

HOLT is an Old English word which is usually taken to refer to woodland, but very little woodland remains at Holt Heath today.

However, there are some very fine beech trees on the edge of the village, on the steep cliffs above the river Severn, and there are three substantial woods close by: Shrawley Wood, Monk Wood and Ockeridge Wood. This walk visits Ockeridge Wood, whose name derives from the oak trees which must once have dominated it.

Ockeridge is an ancient wood but it has been so subject to human management that its age isn't always readily apparent. For many years it was owned by Harris, the paintbrush manufacturer. The company felled many of the old trees and introduced alien species such as poplars and conifers to produce timber considered suitable for brush handles.

Nonetheless, native species have regenerated and it's a very pleasant place to wander through on foot. It still supports some interesting wildlife, including relatively scarce birds such as woodcock.

The mostly mild, damp weather has encouraged fungi to keep appearing throughout the winter and there are some impressive specimens to be seen in Ockeridge Wood, including chanterelles.

Elsewhere along the route, road-side hedgerows still retain autumnal features such as the cheerful red berries of black bryony and the fluffy seedheads of wild clematis (also known as old man's beard or traveller's joy). The berries of black bryony are shunned by wildlife and remain uneaten throughout the winter because they contain a powerful poison, saponin. Rosehips and hawthorn berries, however, are highly nutritious, but even some of these still remain in the hedgerows this year. In the past, most of the haws would have been gone by January, some devoured by wood mice and bank voles, others by birds such as our native blackbirds and the huge flocks of fieldfares and redwings which used to migrate to the UK from Scandinavia each autumn to spend their winters in relative warmth. In recent years, climate change has ensured that we have had far fewer of these northern European visitors, as milder winters at home mean they no longer have the same urgent need to migrate.

FACTFILE

Start: Holt Heath, grid ref SO815630.

Great view: The Severn Valley seen from the top of the cliff at Holt Heath

Length: Five miles/8km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Farmland and woodland. Some gentle slopes but no real hills.

Footpaths: Mostly excellent.

Stiles: 11.

Parking: Layby on A443 at Holt Heath.

Buses: Yarrantons/DRM 758 and First 293/294/300; Traveline 0870 608 2608 or www.worcestershire.gov.uk/ bustimetables Refreshments: The Red Lion.

DIRECTIONS:

1 Walk north beside the road (A443), forking left towards Tenbury at a junction near the Red Lion. Take the first footpath on the left, about 150m after the junction, and follow the well-trodden route across fields towards the woodland which surrounds Bentley Farm. Continue past the wood and the farm, with a hedge on your left until you have crossed a brook, after which the hedge is on your right.

2 Cross a footbridge and keep close to the left-hand edge of the next field for a short distance, then go through a hedge gap into another field. Cross a plank footbridge next to a pool and walk across the field to a stile and signpost which you should be able to see at the far side. If you can't see them yet, just remember to keep fairly close to the left-hand field edge at first but soon start to move away from it until it's about 50m to your left. Don't turn right towards Rowe Farm and don't turn right towards a nearby stile after you cross a second plank footbridge.

3 Join a quiet lane and turn right. Turn right again on a bridleway when you reach a group of bungalows at Ockeridge. Walk straight through Ockeridge Wood to a road and turn right. Take great care and use the grass verge where possible. The road is not particularly busy but much of the traffic that does use it travels far too fast.

4 Take a footpath on the left at Rowley Farm, about 200m after passing the driveway to Rowe Farm. Walk across three fields to the A443. Cross over to a footway and turn left. After about 120m, turn right on a bridleway which leads to Holt Mill.

Cross Shrawley Brook, walk past the end of a beech hedge and turn right. Climb slightly to a junction and keep straight on, still climbing, on the bridleway, which soon swings left.

5 Turn right on a field-edge footpath. Go through a gate at the far side of the field and continue in roughly the same direction in the next field, down to a gate and stile near the edge of a young wood. Proceed past the wood to the far left field corner where there's a waymarked post by a hedge gap. Turn right and keep alert for a waymark at another hedge gap (soon after a pylon) which directs you diagonally across the corner of the adjacent field to a stile.

Bear left across another field, passing between two large oak trees then descending a bank to a stile to the road (B4196). Cross over and turn right.

6 Ignore a bridleway on the left but take a footpath a few paces further on. Follow the waymarks through a garden, up a slope past some tall beech trees and then in to a field. Keep straight on along a cliff-top path, high above the river Severn. Continue past Holt Heath Millennium Green to join a street, Severn Heights. Follow it to the road (A4133) and cross to a footpath opposite which leads directly to your starting point on the A443.

10:13am Monday 8th January 2007

A house sparrow eyes the remaining rosehips still hanging from the bush.

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