Distance: 5.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Rural walk between the villages of Honeybourne to the National Trust’s Hidcote Manor famous for its arts and crafts gardens on the north western most fringes of the Cotswolds National Landscape.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

A Franco-Yankee in the Court of King Penda

Anybody who endured the David Cameron, George Osbourne and Nick Clegg years living in the UK will be immensely familiar with the idea that a certain kind of wealthy southerner loves living it up in the Cotswolds like a quasi country squire.

Of course, there is nothing new about this, they have been coming in recognisable form ever since the Cotswolds Railway line between Oxford and Hereford opened in the Victorian era, making travel up from London a matter of hours rather than a couple of days.

Hidcote Manor, nestled in the crux between Worcestershire and Warwickshire just down from Ebrington Hill, where the Cotswolds escarpment runs making it Gloucestershire is a case in point.

Now owned and managed by the National Trust, Hidcote Manor was purchased by a hereditary American capitalist, generations removed from the actual source of his wealth, named Lawrence Johnson in 1900. Like many Americans of his generation and ilk, Johnson who’d be brought up in France, fancied himself as a European gent, and set about constructing a modern version of this fantasy in the northern reaches of the Cotswolds.

In the early 20th Century the nearby village of Broadway in Worcestershire became a hub for artists, designers and craftspeople working in arts and crafts tradition. Being deemed suitably rural and bucolic for these purposes, whilst also being handily situated for travel to London, as well as nearby spas at Cheltenham and Malvern.  

At Hidcote looking out across the Vale of Evesham and the wider Severn plain, towards Bredon Hill close to where Broadway stands, Lawrence Johnson began planning and creating a garden.

It is this, arts and crafts – cum – art deco inspired garden which remains Hidcote Manor’s great draw to this day. Purportedly the garden was visited by both Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, inspiring their own country house garden.

As is the way with the fickle tastes of the rich. Having created Hidcote in the latter part of his life Lwarence Johnson preferred to reside at his house in France, so seldom visited, handing over the property to the National Trust in 1947. They continue to manage it as a public amenity (albeit one you have to pay to visit) to this day.

The Walk

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

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This walk from Honeybourne to Hidcote Manor begins at Honeybourne Railway Station.

Which means that 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.

On exiting Honeybourne Railway Station you come to a main road running through the village.

Here turn right and follow the road as it runs through the multiple eras of modern housing estates fringing Honeybourne’s historic core.

Presently after some distance along the road you come to a crossroads. On one side of the crossroads stands The Gate Inn pub.

Cross the road here and walk past The Gate Inn pub.

Just after the pub on your left there is a gate leading onto a field on the edge of Honeybourne village.

Follow the pretty well worn path across the bottom of the field towards the tower of Honeybourne’s parish church. Partway there you pass through a wooden gate and keep on walking towards the church steeple and graveyard.

Upon reaching the edge of the churchyard follow a path running off to the left up towards the church building.

On reaching the church building turn right and follow a path through the graveyard past the church towards a stile leading out onto a field.

Cross this stile entering the field. Here turn right and walk across the field in the direction of a barn behind a fence and hedgerow.

There is a footgate here which you pass through.

Once stood in the next field keep walking straight ahead, crossing the field staying close to the hedgerow line.

At the far side of the field you come to a wooden bridge which you walk across.

Once on the far side of the bridge keep walking straight ahead following a clearly delineated footpath, marked out by an electrified fence on one side, across the field.

After crossing the field you come to a wooden gate leading out onto a bridge and a place where several paths meet inside a thicket of bushes and trees.

Inside the thicket turn right and head up a bank, crossing the bed of a former railway line, long disused, which once ran from the Cotswolds Line down towards Broadway and Cheltenham.

On the far side of the embankment you are on the edge of a large farmstead.

Here turn left and walk a short way down a bank to the edge of the trees and a gate leading out onto a field.

Once in the field follow a fence on the edge of the farmstead heading to the right.

Keep heading to the right keeping close to the complexes’ perimeter, making sure to keep on the right handside of a small, deeply canalised stream running through the field. There is a bridge across.

On the far side of the field you clamber over a stile onto a driveway.

A little further on, on the right there is a metal gateway leading out onto a bridge.

Having passed through the gate and crossed the bridge you come to a well worn footpath. Here turn left and follow the footpath as it runs alongside the small river.

Presently you approach a small farm. Crossing over a stile, to your immediate left there is a metal gate leading on to a bridge across the small river.

Once across the small river you are standing in a field, turn right here and cross a stile (looking rather like a fence) into a paddock on the other side.

Walk across the paddock still heading to the right, crossing a farm track making for a thicket located close to the gate into the yard of the small farm.

Here amidst the undergrowth to the left of the farm gate there is a footgate. Head through this gate and across a bridge on the far side over a stream. The stream at this point forms the boundary between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, and therefore between the English Midlands and the South West.

On the far side of the bridge, now in Gloucestershire turn right and follow the path along the banks of the stream.

Keep on heading straight following the course of the stream until you reach the back of another farm.

Here head through a gate into a field behind the farm with several ponds in it.

Turn right here, following a track, which leads around the southern edge of the ponds.

Just after the ponds you come to a stile leading into a horse paddock.

Once in the paddock turn left and following the line of the hedgerow walk up the field towards a fence delineating it from a driveway.

You clamber over a stile part way up the field, then continue heading towards the driveway and across another stile onto the track.

Once on the track turn left and walk along the track until you reach a main road.

Upon reaching the main road turn right and follow the road as it runs uphill into woodland. The road was not overly busy when I walked the route late morning on a spring time Friday, but do take care.

At the top of the hill the road curves quite sharply to the left, before curving even more sharply right where you walk across a bridge over the Cotswold Line.

On the far side of the bridge, more or less straight in front of you there is a footgate on the right handside of the road leading out onto a track into a field.

Once in the field, walk along the track towards a rusty metal barn.

Here you get great views off to the right down to the large village of Mickleton and the foothills of the Cotswolds escarpment, including the enigmatic Meon Hill.

Upon reaching the metal barn turn left into a copse. Then follow the clearly defined path as it runs to the right down the hill through the trees.

At the bottom you cross a stile out into a field and keep heading downhill towards a metal gate.

On the far side of the gate keep on walking straight ahead downhill across the field following a path.

At the bottom of the hill there is a wooden bridge which you cross.

Having crossed the bridge, heeding the advice of an officious sign, turn left and follow the footpath alongside the stream.

Keep on following the path walking straight ahead in the direction of a new housing estate on the edge of Mickleton crossing stiles along the way.

Presently you reach a fenced section of path which runs to your left. Follow this fenced section until you reach a grassy landscaped area beside the new estate.

Here, keep on straight ahead, walking to the right following a footpath running along the perimeter of the new estate.

Soon you reach a t-shaped junction. Here turn left and head for a metalled path running between the houses. Keep on walking straight ahead following this path through the housing estate once you reach it.

Having walked along the path for some distance between the houses you reach another t-shaped junction. Here turn right and walk a short distance onto a cul-de-sac of somewhat older houses.

Once in the cul-de-sac turn right and keep walking until you reach a main road. Upon reaching the main road turn right again and walk a short distance into Mickleton. It is an interesting, quintessentially Cotswolds village. The most northerly major settlement in Gloucestershire and therefore the South West as a whole. It feels very affluent, but like it has some life to it, much enlarged in recent decades by new housing developments on the sides of the village that don’t form part of the Cotswolds National Landscape.

A little way up the road you come to a footpath on your right which you walk up.

At the top of the snicket you come out onto the main road through Mickleton.

Cross the road and walk up a narrow road leading towards some old cottage like houses, slightly to the right more or less immediately opposite where the snicket comes out.

Here, off to the left between two cottages there is another snicket.

Walk down this snicket as it runs east towards the edge of the village.

Presently it leads out onto a road beside Mickleton’s church.

Here head to the right, then follow a track as it curves around the churchyard to the left. You pass through a series of wooden gates onto a bridleway.

Then through a footgate out onto a grassy field behind the village church. In the field you have an excellent view of the distinctive and enigmatic Meon Hill. The north westerly most point of the Cotswolds National Landscape.

Once in the field, turn right and walk across the field, heading for a cluster of large old trees.

Here there is a gate which you pass through back onto the bridleway as it runs across fields which slope steadily upwards into the Cotswold hills.

Keep on heading along the track as it curves around to the right and you reach a gate.

Passing through the gate, keep on walking uphill along the muddy track around the edge of the field. Presently the path curves around to the left, following a fence line. Look out here for a gate off to your right.

On the far side of the gate you enter hilly terrain with woods on either side. The stately Kiftsgate Court looms above you on an outcrop to the left.

Here walk up a bank to your left following a fairly distinct track. You keep on walking across the grassy field heading for thick woodland.

Presently the field narrows as you approach the trees. Upon reaching the trees you pass through a rutted, muddy section bounded by two fences.

Having passed through this section you come out into a wold like valley, gently sloping upwards.

Turn left here and begin walking up this grassy slope climbing the wold.

At the top of the wold, next to the entrance to Kiftsgate Court, on the right there is a gateway leading out onto a lane.

Once on the lane you are at a junction. Here take the track on the right leading through trees which has a sign for the National Trust’s Hidcote Manor.

Keep walking along this driveway until you reach the car park of Hidcote Manor.

Upon reaching Hidcote Manor’s car park turn right. Walk a short distance down the lane towards the visitor centre and entrance to the manor house and garden.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

There is no public transport serving Hidcote Manor. Mickleton village has a limited bus service going to both Stratford-upon-Avon and Morton-in-Marsh. Both towns have good connections to the national railway network, with Stratford having trains towards the West Midlands conurbation and Banbury and Morton-in-Marsh being on the Hereford to Oxford Cotswolds Line. Alternatively it is possible to walk back to Honeybourne Railway Station or to head to Quinton (which also has buses to Stratford-upon-Avon) or south to Chipping Campden or Broadway.