With most of the walkers unavailable for this walk, Colin suggested we do a recce for his next walk. So the 4 of us set off on one of Colin's "away days" and found ourselves getting well on towards Worcester.
We parked opposite the school at Brockhampton and set off - promptly going along the wrong track, but quickly sorting ourselves out. It should be said from the outset that Colin had interpreted a rather vague and fanciful description of this walk from a book which had also provided a singularly useless map, and so the route was very much open to interpretation.
Our first decision came at Nuttage Farm where, it would seem, we took the wrong option. It was quite muddy skirting round the farm thanks to rain the previous night and we soon found the going quite heavy. We emerged onto Bringsty Common - 220 acres of attractive open space and a Special Wildlife Site - a haven for birds and butterflies including the rare High Brown Fritillary and topped by the Jubilee trees. At the time we stopped for coffee we were unaware of this viewpoint and so we stopped lower down the track after which we visited the Live and Let Live pub, before retracing our steps and climbed to the trig point on the common.
The Live & Let Live Pub
Panorama from Bringsty Common
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Descriptive plate of the panorama
We then dropped down towards the main A44 road and crossed it heading towards Upper and Lower Brockhall and eventually coming to another decision point at the Old Mill. This time we guessed right and soon found ourselves negotiating Mill Dingle followed by a long walk through Hyde Dingle - a rather leg-sapping experience thanks to the thick mud. We decided this time to miss Lower Brockhampton and soon found ourselves some felled trees on which to perch and have lunch. We continued through Look-out Wood and emerged from the woodland and correctly guessed the path to climb up towards the chapel at Brockhampton Park.
Our next aiming point was Warren Farm and as it had started to drizzle we put on our waterproofs. The path took us eventually to the National Trust Shepherd's Cottage after which we emerged onto Bromyerd Downs. With the benefit of hindsight we should have stayed up high and turned towards our start point on the open access area, but we followed Colin's interpretation of the text and turned left onto the minor road and back to the school at Brockhampton. 8.3 miles of testing terrain, but on a good day this will be well worth doing again in reverse with a minor modification to the start. Thanks to Colin and Anne for their company.
Unless otherwise stated photographs are © Graham Jackson
