With scenes like this, Purshull Green is one of the gems of the Worcestershire countryside yet few people know it's there.

Purshull Green is a delightful place, but you could easily live a lifetime in Worcestershire without ever knowing it existed.

Though it's barely half-a-mile as the crow flies, from the A448, only walkers, cyclists and horse-riders are likely to stumble on it by accident as it's accessed only by footpaths, a bridleway and a no through road' off another very minor road.

It's a long, linear common consisting mostly of dairy pasture, marshland and several pools, bordered by paddocks and orchards.

There are still working farms on the common but not all of the smallholdings which once existed have survived. Nevertheless, the original land use pattern remains evident and despite the incursions of the modern world Purshull Green is something of a rare survivor.

The largest pool, a rush-fringed body of water near Elms Farm and Pool House Farm, supports a range of water birds. You can walk right round it - don't be put off by the farm buildings on the eastern side.

Not far from Purshull Green is Rushock, where Rushock Court was the scene in 1679 of the capture of a Catholic priest called John Wall. Catholicism was regarded as treason at that time and he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Worcester. St Michael's Church, also at Rushock, was the burial place in 1980 of the Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, who had made his home at a farmhouse near the village.

FACTFILE

Start: Chaddesley Corbett; grid ref SO892737.

Length: 5 miles/8.8km.

Maps: OS Explorer 219, OS Landranger 139.

Terrain: Mainly pasture, with some arable fields; no hills.

Footpaths: Mostly excellent, apart from a substandard path between Lowbridge Farm and Rushock (see point four). Waymarking is largely absent south of the A448, but improvements appear to be under way.

Stiles: 15.

Parking: Chaddesley Corbett.

Buses: X3/333/334 serve Chaddesley Corbett from Stourport, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove and Redditch - connecting services are 294/295/300/303 to Stourport and/or Kidderminster, 144 to Bromsgrove, 350 to Redditch; www.

worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or Traveline 0871 200 2233.

Refreshments: Two pubs and a shop in Chaddesley Corbett; pub, garage shop and farm shop/tea room on the A448.

DIRECTIONS

1 Leave the village street on the Monarch's Way, opposite the Swan. Go roughly straight on at a complex junction, passing to the left of allotments, and then keep straight on at two more junctions. Turn right at a fourth junction, still on the Monarch's Way. After a short distance you may choose between the right of way, which moves to a field edge, or the track you're already walking along, which is waymarked as a permissive path. The two run parallel until the hedge on your right comes to an end.

2 Turn left, leaving the Monarch's Way. Walk around two sides of a field and then left through a gap. Go past a pool and then just keep straight on for three-quarters of a mile on a well-used path which eventually passes the southern end of Chaddesley Wood Nature Reserve to intercept a bridleway. Turn right and walk to Kidderminster Road (A448).

3 Cross the road to a footpath on the left by Outwood Farm. Keep to the right-hand edge of two fields, then go diagonally to the far corner of a third field. Cross a footbridge and stile to a fourth field and follow the right-hand edge to a stile. Turn left along a green lane then continue along the left-hand edge of a field before passing through a gate to Purshull Green. This is access land where you have no need to stick to rights of way. A lane runs the length of the green, passing a handful of farms and houses. You may choose any route you like but for the purposes of this walk you should end up walking along the lane or parallel with it.

4 Turn right when you meet another lane and right again at the next junction. Turn first left, passing through Lowbridge Farm on an un-waymarked but well-defined track. You may have to duck under a single-strand fence at one point. The track eventually ends at the third of three adjacent gates. Go through the gate and turn left along a field edge. The path is poor here, the field having been ploughed almost to the hedge. Cross an overgrown stile to the next field and walk along the edge until a stile gives access to another field on your left. Continue in the same direction. Cross two stiles (one is minus its step) to the next field. Aim for Rushock Court ahead and pass through a gap between the two left-hand farm buildings. Proceed to a lane.

5 Rejoining the Monarch's Way, turn right to St Michael's Church. The lane turns sharp left just after the church - go straight on instead, along a grassy track leading to a field. The path then goes along the right-hand edge before turning left to a gate in the far left corner. There's more than one gate and no waymarking - you want the small pedestrian gate attached to a tractor gate, so that you can then walk to the left of the hedge in the next field. Cross to a gate at the far side. The path is obvious now, despite the lack of waymarking. It goes straight on all the way to the road, with a series of new gates providing a helpful guide at first, followed by a series of stiles.

6 Cross Kidderminster Road and turn left, then join a footpath at Rowberry's which takes you back to rejoin your outward route from Chaddesley Corbett close to the pool you passed near the start of the walk.

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

9:02am Monday 29th October 2007

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