The view south west towards Abberley clock tower from the top of Abberley Hill is a spectacular one.

ABBERLEY Hill is not very high (283m at the summit) but it's a prominent landscape feature and a great viewpoint too.

Though it's mostly covered in woodland, there is an open grassy area near the summit where flowers bloom throughout the summer and good views to the south and west are revealed.

Further north, near Shavers End, there is a viewpoint over the old quarry and parts of the Severn plain beyond. Hereford and Worcester Earth Heritage Trust has erected an information panel here explaining the complex geology of the area.

A diagrammatic cross-section names the local triassic and permian rocks (old red sandstone, upper and lower Ludlow shales, Aymestrey and Wenlock limestones) and demonstrates how the landscape was formed by violent earth movements and erosion.

The rock that used to be quarried at Shavers End is Aymestrey limestone, formed 420 million years ago in shallow tropical seas teeming with life-forms such as brachiopods, trilobites and crinoids, many of which are preserved in the rock as fossils.

To the east of Abberley Hill is the parish of Astley, where the south wall of St Peter's Church has a corbel table (a sort of frieze) of carved human and animal heads, some grotesque and some comic. Sadly, most of them are badly eroded, though a couple have been replaced by new carvings.

The church is threatened with closure because of the need for substantial restoration work and a fund-raising effort is under way.

It's worth going inside to see the colourful painted effigies of members of the Blount family, made by Robert Guilden of Hereford in 1577. Any donations to the restoration fund will be gratefully received.

DIRECTIONS

1Take the path to the left of the Hundred House. Enter an arable field and take the right-hand branch when the path forks. Continue uphill through pasture and then enter woodland, climbing quite steeply up Abberley Hill to a junction where you turn right. The path then briefly descends but soon starts to climb again, much more gently now, to meet the Worcestershire Way. Turn right, staying on the Worcestershire Way until it makes a right turn at a junction marked by two yew trees, one of which has wide-spreading branches hanging low over the path. Leave the Worcestershire Way and go straight on along another path, which is not waymarked. Keep straight on at two more junctions, beyond which the path is bordered on the right by a fence. The path stays just below the ridge-top and just above a steep slope, until eventually it descends steeply left to a lane.

See St John's Wort in full bloom.

2Turn right, following the lane to a road (A451). Cross and turn left to a footpath starting at a gate. Go diagonally left across a field, initially towards two wooded hills, then towards the right-hand hill only. Walk uphill by its edge to find a stile giving access to woodland. Climb steeply uphill to find an overgrown stile to a field. Follow the left-hand edge and continue along the edge of a second field then along a green lane to a waymarked junction. Turn right.

3Join a lane and turn right, soon passing Astley church. Follow the lane to the A451 and cross to a path opposite. Go diagonally left across a field, then through a hedge gap to a driveway and turn right. You soon come to a gate marked private no access' - presumably, the overgrown 'path' to the left of it is the right of way, though it's hard to be certain. You could struggle along here through nettles and brambles to a gate into a field, or you could do what most walkers do instead: a few paces after you join the driveway take an unsigned path on the left which leads into a field. Turn right along the edge to join the right of way. The path soon improves and there's even some faded waymarking. If you look across the field you will see a gate into the woods on Abberley Hill - that is what you should be aiming for and a path goes directly to it. However, most walkers take an easier option, a bridleway along the right-hand edge of the field to the corner and then left on the well-trodden Worcestershire Way, which also leads to the gate.

4 Follow the Worcestershire Way uphill through the woods. After a short steep section it's an easy climb. Turn left at the top, retracing your earlier steps from the junction marked by yew trees. Stay on the Worcestershire Way at all subsequent junctions on the hill-top, crossing the summit shortly before you meet a lane (Wynniatts Way). Turn left downhill, then leave the Worcestershire Way after 120m, joining the Hill Farm path on the left. Walk along a track then keep straight on when it turns right. Turn right when you meet a steep driveway. Descend almost to the road then turn left, walking through woodland then across a field, to the left of a house. Take a trodden path going diagonally across the next field to the Hundred House.

9:37am Monday 13th August 2007

Print

Email this