Distance: 9.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk primarily along the trackbed of an old railway line from Honeybourne in south east Worcestershire near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Birmingham’s Once (and future?) Fast South Westerly Rail Route

William Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon was reached by the national railway network relatively late. Its first station opened only in 1859 when a line running through sparsely populated countryside to the south reached it from the Cotswolds Line at Honeybourne.

This link was constructed by the baroquely named Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. A company which succeeded in constructing a meandering mainline connecting a spectacularly well flung array of places across the south western Midlands prior to selling out to the Great Western Railway in 1863.

Much of the core of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway’s handiwork remains in use to this day as integral parts of the UK’s railway network. The Jewellery Line from Snow Hill in Birmingham down to Worcester is largely the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton’s route, as is the famously beautiful line through the northern Cotswolds from Worcester to Oxford and on through Reading to London.

The line north from the Cotswolds Line at Honeybourne up to Stratford-upon-Avon, which was the first to reach the town in 1859, however, is not one of them.

Today Stratford (thanks in no small part to the scale of the Shakespeare tourism industry, the RSC as a cultural institution, and Stratford and its outlying village’s attractiveness to some of the West Midlands most affluent residents) has two railway lines running north into the West Midlands. But there is no service running south from the town. The old route to Honeybourne has instead become a cycle, walking and horse riding greenway.

The line south to Honeybourne survived a surprisingly long time. It avoided the initial Beeching Axe cuts to British Rail services in the mid to late 1960s, as well as earlier rounds of more ad-hoc cuts going back to the 1920s which had seen rural railway services pared back. Regular stepping passenger services along the route were ended in 1968 and 1969, but the line remained in use for freight traffic as well as some long distance passenger services including the “Cornishman” Express from Birmingham to the South West.

Indeed the route had a history of fast train services. In the 1930s the Great Western Railway had introduced an early diesel railcar service offering quick journeys between Birmingham Snow Hill and Cardiff Central. First run in 1934 these trains – the great great grandparents of the diesel multiple units that form the backbone of much of the British railway network to this day – could make the journey in two hours twenty minutes. This remains highly respectable nine decades later, when the same journey, albeit no longer via Stratford-upon-Avon, still takes over two hours.

What finally killed off the line was a derailment in 1976. This led British Rail to decide to close the route for good, after nearly 120 years of service. These days a small section of the old Honeybourne to Stratford-upon-Avon Railway Line remains, however, it is goods only ending in sidings and depots on an industrial estate. The remaining six or so miles of the former route are for leisure use.

There is a lively campaign to reopen the old line south from Stratford. Whilst the area that the line itself serves is sparsely populated, it would allow for faster direct trains from Stratford into the Cotswolds, as well as towards Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol and South Wales in one direction, and Oxford, Reading and London in the other. It would also provide a new route for services too and from the West Midlands conurbation as well as greater freight capacity. Unlike other former railway lines the former route is largely intact, even the section through Stratford town. It is not even beyond imagining that some kind of cycle track could be retained alongside the reinstated line.

In 2020 after years of positive noises the government granted £50,000 for a feasibility study into reopening. Despite this tentative step forwards in 2022 it was announced that the government would not be progressing with reopening the line. For now the Honeybourne – Stratford-upon-Avon line will be left to the cyclists, equestrians and walkers.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk tracing the route of the old Honeybourne to Stratford-upon-Avon railway line closed in 1976 begins from Honeybourne Railway Station.

The first section of the walk is across fields, then beside several roads up to the village of Long Marston, where the greenway along the former railway line begins. This is because the first section of the line from Honeybourne is still in use for goods traffic.

That said, the first challenge on the walk is exiting Honeybourne Station via a convoluted footbridge.

Honeybourne is an affluent village just outside the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which lies to its east and west. It is where the flat Vale of Evesham ends and the prominent hills of the Cotswolds begin. Its place on the railway line to Oxford, Reading and London, as well as connections to Bristol and the South West via the nearby Worcestershire Parkway has made it a popular location for commuters, leading to several new estates having sprung up around the village’s core in recent years.

Upon finding the exit to the station – opposite a new estate – cross over and turn left walking up a slope to a bridge which crosses over the railway line.

On the other side of the bridge follow the road a short distance down the corresponding slope on the far side.

You approach a crossroads. Just before you do there is a farm drive, next to a farmhouse with a fenced in garden to your right. There is a footpath sign just about visible inside the bushes if you look carefully.

Turn right and head a short way down this track.

There is a field on your left. Having walked a short distance along the track turn left and walk across the field heading for the top left corner.

Here there is a stile which you cross.

Once over the stile walk across the field in front of you, crossing a further stile on the other side. Walk up the hill ahead of you following the line of a thick hedgerow with trees in it, on your left hand side.

At the top of the hill there is a good view across the Vale of Evesham towards Bredon Hill and other parts of the Cotswolds to the south and east. The hedgerow to your left gives way on a fence.

Presently you come to another stile set in the fence. It is an unusual design with numerous slats in it for you to climb.

On the far side walk a short distance heading to your right through an avenue of young trees in the direction of a pylon.

Upon reaching the pylon take a path heading to the left.

Soon you reach a hedgerow, keep walking straight ahead.

Continue walking straight ahead through the avenue of saplings heading steadily downhill.

After several minutes walking you come to a metal gate leading out near the driveway for Bew Hill Farm.

Walk straight ahead past some trees and across the farm’s driveway.

Here you come to a strip of grass running along a low hedge adjacent to a field.

Follow this strip of grass a short way until you reach a bank of trees separating two fields.

Here there is a wooden footbridge and a stile.

On the other side walk straight across, making for a stile which becomes visible on the far side.

Cross this stile as well and walk up the gentle slope in front of you, climbing a further stile on the way.

Soon you reach a metal gate which you also walk through, with a further metal gate on the other side of the field which you walk straight across.

Having passed through the gates you walk up a short bank onto the side of a road.

Turn right here and begin walking along the side of the road.

The road leads into the village of Pebworth.

You soon reach the village’s historic core including its church in yellow, Cotswold stone.

At a junction in the village centre just after the church, take the quieter left hand fork.

Follow this road through the village for some distance.

At a junction by the village’s first school (Wychavon District where Pebworth is situated is one of the few places in the UK which retains an American style elementary, middle and high school system) keep heading straight ahead.

Soon you reach the open countryside outside the village.

Keep walking along the road – which is moderately busy at all times of day – but with generally careful seeming drivers, and few corners, for quite some distance.

Presently it kinks around to the right, before running straight again.

Eventually you reach a small 19th Century vintage house called Martin’s Corner which stands at a junction with a busier road.

Here you turn right and walk down the road which you have just joined.

This road marks the boundary between Worcestershire and Warwickshire, with the left hand side being in Warwickshire and the right hand side in Worcestershire.

Continue along this road for some distance.

Presently you enter the village of Long Marston near where you join the route of the former railway line.

You pass the village’s distinctive wooden towered church, also in yellow Cotswold stone. Immediately prior to reaching the main road through the village.

Once at the main road through the village turn left.

Walk for a short distance through the village.

On your right you come to a road called Wyre Lane.

Turn right and walk down here.

Walk straight along Wyre Lane for some distance.

After several minutes walking with the road steadily narrowing you reach the line of the former railway.

Once on the track bed turn left and begin heading north in the direction of Stratford-upon-Avon.

The route is fairly monotonous, with little apart from its general aspect as a slightly raised, very flat railway trackbed, now fringed with thick trees and bushes screening it from the surrounding fields, to suggest its former purpose.

Approaching the more heavily populated area immediately south of Stratford-upon-Avon, you come across a cafe in a former railway passenger carriage, the first of two such installations you pass.

From this point the route becomes a little bit busier. There is also a greater sense of walking along a former railway.

Just after the cafe you head through a gate and cross a road and enter a section fringed with trees which contains a former station platform.

Continuing on, the tree cover thins out and the landscape opens up, revealing pleasant, gently hilly countryside. In the distance the spire of the church in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare is buried is visible above trees on the horizon.

This section runs parallel with the River Avon, which is not quite visible yet a hundred metres or so, to your left.

Presently you cross a small, rusty, short former railway bridge across one of the Avon’s tributaries.

Before coming to an impressive, now also quite rusty, suspension bridge which carries the former trackbed across the somewhat mysterious looking Avon below. There were two men – seemingly setting up for a film shoot – just across the bridge on the day I walked the route.

Once across the Avon the edge of Stratford is clear in front of you.

Walking along a relatively steep embankment compared to the southerly stretches of the route you approach the edge of the town beside its small racecourse.

On the edge of Stratford you pass another cafe-bar in a former railway carriage, next to a cycle hire place in a former Royal Mail coach.

Then you head to the right at a junction skirting down a path overhung with trees to avoid a car park.

Taking a path up to the left you come out on the far side of the car park.

On the other side there is a path running a short way through trees to a crossing point beside a roundabout.

Cross over the road here and head to the right walking along the side of the A4390 as it runs across the town.

After a short distance cross over to the left hand side of the road get out of the cycle lane.

Then keep on walking towards the town centre.

Soon you reach another roundabout. Here you can either continue walking towards the town centre along the road, or follow the line of the disused railway off to the left a short distance to reach Stratford-upon-Avon Railway Station.

If you opt to walk into the town centre continue a short distance further along the A4390.

Soon you come to a junction where a small park separates two roads.

Take the road on the right hand side.

Keep walking down this road into the heart of the town.

From here you turn off to the right to access the riverside, Shakespeare’s gravesite, the RSC and the location of New Place, the house that Shakespeare is believed to have retired to in 1612/13.

Continuing straight on you reach Stratford-upon-Avon marketplace just above the main shopping area.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Stratford-upon-Avon Railway Station has frequent trains into central Birmingham via Shirley and Hall Green, and less frequent ones to central Birmingham via Lapworth, Dorridge and Solihull. Many of these continue beyond Birmingham to Stourbridge Junction, Kidderminster or Worcester. There are also several services a day to London Marylebone. These call at Leamington Spa. Stratford-upon-Avon also has fairly good bus services running to major towns in Warwickshire, Redditch and Coventry.