Saturday 16th November, DL & CH and DH & AC
It’s been two weeks now since a severe pain in my back put me in to the delightful surrounds of Yeovil District Hopsital again, and so not wishing to slow down the group again this week, I opted to hand the organising reins over again. Dereyk very kindly stepped up to the mark again and organised for a walk starting at the Godminster cheese car park in Bruton to be followed by breakfast at Kimbers. Unfortunately due to other commitments the take up was sparse with just two others from Wincanton John and Chris, taking up the offer. Adrian had offered to take a short walk with myself so at the last minute we decided on the firm tracks and paths around North Cadbury for our exercise. Unfortunately on the morning John had to drop out of the original which left Chris, fresh back from another European holiday, as todays driver across to Bruton for a 0900 start. Dereyk had also very kindly asked if I would like to join them for breakfast so I calculated that we could take a bit of a later start at 0930, and complete our short walk so that we could all meet up at Kimbers for 11.00.
Dereyk report of their walk to the west of Bruton follows immediately and a short report from the North Cadbury rogue pair follows after that.
Having two expeditions out this week is a first for our happy band of walkers. Due to reasons already described. our journeys coordinated nicely for a welcome breakfast at Kimber’ s,
Our walk around the west of Bruton was originally John’s plan with minor imput from myself . Unluckily, John landed up with a stomach bug on the day. so had pull out. Chris therefore kindly picked me up and then onward to the car park next to the Godminster Cheese Shop in Bruton,
Once coated and booted the two of us set off through Bruton along the very pleasant river walk past Phil’s place and Kings School. At West End we took the pathway which passes through Mill on the Brue Activity centre with no sigh of activity whatsoever! Signage was good. as expected. so we moved on at a good pace. However, a detour had to be made following a notice spotted by Chis. We could only guess the cause of the change, but possibly a solifluction problem (taking opportunity to be technical )i.e. a mudslide. We continued through more open fields. following the contours of the southern slopes of Trendle Hill. moving slightly west up the slope (due to the detour) past Gants Mill and picking up Wyke Lane. Our pace increased naturally due the tarmac terrain which included passing under a former S&D railway bridge. On approach it looked rather strange in the landscape ,almost as if it had been dumped there!
On reaching Wyke Champflower hamlet a rather pretty church appeared. We even spoke to a farmer who was the first person we had seen on our journey. It wasn’t long before we turned East back to Bruton following the Leyland Trail. Information bit: The Leyland Trail is a 28-mile footpath in our lovely county. It runs from King Alfred’s Tower southwest to Ham Hill Country park and is named after the Elizabethan era antiquary John Leyland. It’s a trail we have come across many times.
Our return journey began with us moving over very wet grass and then a steepish climb to the top of Trendle Hill. passing a couple of walkers carrying a map and exchanging pleasantries plus a runner who couldn’t be bothered to speak . This called for a quick lolly stop and Chris telling me a bit about Wyke Cheese Dairy - which was taking up a bit of the northern landscape view. Once on top of Trendle Hill , enjoying some great views. we quickly made our way downhill back into Bruton returning to the car via the river walk again.
A very pleasant walk followed by a good natter and breakfast on meeting up with our fellow walkers.
Adrian and myself, (group two) met outside of the village stores at 0930 and although we would be walking on mainly tracks we both donned our boots, coats and hats for our short clockwise loop around some of the many lanes and paths that seem to cover a vast majority of the village. As we headed towards the village centre, we’ll the Catash Pub anyway, Adrian realised he had not picked up his trusty walking stick, but with his usual determination and stubbornness decided he would manage OK without it this week. Our route took us across the main road by the pub and down the narrow Ridegway Lane. Around a couple of bends Adrian soon recognised a farm we had past a few Wednesdays earlier when Brian and Richard joined us for what turned out to be a wet and flooded mid week walk between the showers. We carried on down the lane and where the metalled road ran out, we headed onto a well walked bridleway between hedges. There were footpath signs at almost every junction presenting plenty of route choices, not just the normal fingure post and small way markers on gateways, but also square fluorescent signs with the local footpath number on. We took a right turn and although slightly slippy in places were soon back at another sight from the previous walk. Last time, before we had even set out we had sheltered by the church gate as a heavy storm passed through and then temporarily abandoned our walk when we headed off to find a warm drink at Mables cafe. After the storm passed we set off but we’re defeated as we came to what would normally be a low level bridge crossing a small stream. Unfortunately due to the heavy rains turning the stream into a river it was totally under water and we had to make a detour that day. Today from the far side we had the chance to see the bridge with just the small, trickle of the stream running beneath it, confirming our previous decision to divert was the right one.
On crossing the main village road again we passed through a gate and on to what looked like a private residential drive, running alongside the small stream again. It lead us up to the very grand looking Brookhampton House, originally dating from 1776, but reshaped in the 19th century. It is a T shaped property of roughly cut and squared Cary stone with Doulting stone dressings and a Welsh slate roof between stepped coped gables. Opposite the house a small stone arched bridge crossed the stream and provided a great location for a couple of arty photos
I’m sure once Adrian gets the knowledge and confidence from his recent membership of the Wincanton Camera club, he’ll be back with his trusty SLR, tripod and paraphernalia required to get some amazing pictures, presuming he remembers where it is!
We continued alongside the steam and this short section of the Monarchs way before eventually coming out onto Sandbrook Lane.
Heading back towards the village our route took us up a flight of stone steps and into a field which had been sectioned off into small horse paddocks with strong tape. At the far end we came alongside the primary school sports fields and then it was just a short stroll around the rear of a small housing estate to return back to our cars by the village stores. A walk of around a mile (5,000 steps) completed in about an hour.
It was then just a steady drive up the A303 to Wincanton and out to Kimbers Farm cafe for a well deserved breakfast. Dereyk and Chris had arrived just a few minutes before us and had thankfully got a table reserved for us all, as it was exceptionally busy this morning. It was good to catch up and compare notes and routes from our walks as we placed our orders. Small English times three and Shakshouka eggs for Chris. Despite it being busy we didn’t have too long to wait before we were all getting stuck into our tasty breakfasts. Hopefully we might be able to return to larger numbers on the remaining walks of the year as we race rapidly towards another walk and lunch with our ladies and the start of this years festive season.
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