LIFETIME of WALKS by DEREK HARWOOD

Following breakfast at Tesco in Warwick we took a detour to the start of the walk via the Fosse Way, to miss the Cheltenham Festival horse racing traffic. It started raining as we entered the pub car park at Seven Springs (Hungry Horse.) It stopped raining as we entered the pub for lunch at the end of the walk. Good views were hindered by the very misty weather. There were new roundabouts at Seven Springs major road junction. Care was required from the car park to the Cotswold Way path. It was a steady climb up Leckampton Hill to the OS column. Laz tried to take a picture of me on the column but the camera was very temperamental. We stopped for a break at Devil’s Chimney, leaning against a newly installed metal fence. Although the fence was nice there was no level ground to stand on. We found a metal trailer on Hitchin Road near Salterley Grange. From the old quarries at Leckhampton Hill it was a steady walk to Hartley Bottom. The power lines were very noisy with heavy current and damp conditions. We stopped by a reel of white strips to deter birds when rolled out. There was an unknown bird by a metal tub as we left Bottom, possibly similar to a partridge. Laz sat on a high seat of unknown purpose at the edge of the wood after Hartley Bottom. Dennis wanted me to stand on the plastic seat and pose as ‘muscle man’ but the wooden steps looked very fragile to me. We entered Coberley by an ancient cross and left by newly constructed steps and a kissing gate. We left Hartley Bottom with the golf course on the left, when it was still raining on Gloucestershire Way. We passed through more kissing gates to diagonally cross a field of horses, very nervously crossing the stile to Green Lane. There was a polite notice asking walkers to divert around a house to the lane, which we did. We crossed the A435 at the end of the lane into a huge field to a wood. There was a broad track through the wood of many different trees planted in sections. Firstly, dense conifers, then open leafless beeches. From the wood we entered a lane with a short walk into Upper Coberley where there were many Cotswold houses with modifications or extensions. After Upper Coberley we passed a builder’s lorry slowly reversing down the lane. It was a steady walk down the quiet lane to A435. Care was needed on the main road back to the new roundabout and car park by the Hungry Horse pub.

Location Map: - www.streetmap.co.uk
Seven Springs, Devil’s Chimney, Coberley

Hazards: None.

Number 92