First snowdrops of the year

10th January DH, PCL, DL, JB, CH, Ralph & Albus

After storm Goretti passed us by without too many problems, the skies were clear with the sun just cresting the trees as we met at the Charlton Musgrove church of St Stephen, having picked up Ralph from his home just up the road.

As we waited by the church for Phil to arrive, we managed to spot a couple of patches of the first snowdrops of the year just emerging at the base of a large hedge. It’s a good sign that spring is on the way. We set of a fraction after 0830 on a walk we last completed back in January 2024 and turned right up the track towards Stavordale Priory, hope of empresario Sir Cameron MacIntosh. Along the edge of the tracks, both the flowing and standing water had all frozen overnight and Ralph was having great fun cracking all the ice he could find, being careful not to slip on any of it. As we approached the priory, a flock of mainly black sheep were laid on the frosty ground under an orchard of apple trees as the suns rays were deflected through the bare branches making a very scenic photograph.

As in previous walks, there was no sign of any activity in Sir Cameron’s pad, although it does look very well maintained. Clearly someone from the maintenance team had been out on the driveway recently as whilst Ralph was hunting for more ice to smash, he came across a screwdriver lying in the grass. He was absolutely delighted with his find and after some persuasion allowed JB to put it into his rucksack to take home. Well you’re never too young to start a toolbox collection!

As we paused at the rectangular turning circle, which JB was convinced was a total misrepresentation, we allowed a large4 x 4 to come down the track from the farm ahead of us. By now the sun was rising in the sky and we could feel the warmth, so much so that Ralph was the first to remove his woolly hat. At the top of the Stavordale Estate drive, just under the very impressive looking New Park Farm house, which JB can actually remember being built, we paused at the field on the right to admire the trio of Alpacacs. Only one of them showed any interest in Dr Doolittle this week, and typically it was the dirtier one of the three, who certainly needed his fringe cutting! So with no chance of a closer encounter we passed through the farmyard and started the climb into the woods of the Stourhead estate.

As to be expected once inside the woods, the temperature dropped again and the pathway became muddier. It looks like there had been some recent works on the water running down the hillside as large gully’s had been cleaned out and drainage ditches dug alongside the path, although there were still some wet areas that needed carefully navigating through. The path continued to climb and by the time we stopped in a large clearing we had passed the 750 feet mark, having started at around 350 feet altitude.

Ralph knew what this stop meant and quickly had his bag off of his back to grab a packet of chocolate buttons. Deryck, after last weeks slight discretion, soon revealed a newly filled bag of lollies much to the delight of all the old men. We thanked him again and were very pleased to see that he had learnt from his previous mistakes. Albus was also delighted that he didn’t miss out this week when Deryck revealed a bag of doggie biscuits.

Ralph has completed many walks with his family and dogs in these woods and was delighted that he actually recognised the junction we were standing at. Having gained all that altitude, the rest of the walk would be all downhill and so we set off with a spring in our steps down a grassier track than on the way up. We followed it down to a gateway where the frost was still visible on tne grass but the blue skies overhead looked more like a summers morning. Keeping go inside the wood the next small path we needed was almost missed, but thankfully we spotted it just in time and continued on to our first stile of the day. Once over it we were greated with an absolutely stunning view of the frost covered landscape to the west and north. Straight ahead was the high ground at Hadspen House and The Newt, then further to the right Glastonbury Tor was just about visible, before moving right past Creech Hill and right around to Cranmore Tower.

Whilst we took in the view, a good five minute discussion about the good old times and its chatecters was going on, whilst Ralph used the time to star in, along with Albus, a ‘two in one’ photo of the view. For some unknown reason, my tracker at this point decided to do a loop around the field and although Ralph did wander across to the water trough to look for more ice, (he came back to join us to report that there was a dead pigeon stuck in the ice), I certainly didn’t walk in a loop.

Seeing yet another stile standing on its ownin the field we decided to go for a more dramatic group photo this week. For those really interested in useless information, this type of stile is known as a ‘Pointless’ stile and there is a large social media following for people finding useless middle of fields stiles or other such crossings. Here is the Facebook group, which I might need to starting contributing to! Please don’t take ‘a fence’ if I include you on the posts!, For those more interested in the history of British stiles, here is some genuine information from Countryfile Magazine.

Types of Pointless Stiles:

Gate to Nowhere: A stile next to gateposts that have lost their gate, with no connecting fence.

Fence Missing: A stile where the wall or fence it was meant to cross has disappeared.

Surrounded: A stile next to a new fence or wall that makes it redundant.

Odd Designs: Even well-built stiles can become "pointless" if people choose to walk around them,

Not to be outdone Albus wanted his own photo so with him sat so nicely and his silver back well lit by the low winter sun, how could we resist?

We continued heading down the hill towards Higher Stavordale Farm, the site of the former Kimbers Farm shop and then back onto the road at Barrow. Along the edge were yet more ice covered puddles for Ralph to take out, as we made our way back to the cars. Allowing for the rogue bit of tracking, we had completed about four miles in just under two hours.

Cyclemeter