Distance: 4 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Walk between the villages of Honeybourne and Mickleton on the north western most fringes of the Cotswolds National Landscape. The walk is mostly rural and passes through two counties (Worcestershire and Gloucestershire).

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Southern Postcode, Midlands Feel

Unusually, but not entirely without precedent for Walk Midlands, Mickleton is not actually in the Midlands.

Rather it is the northernmost settlement of any size in Gloucestershire, a county that these days at least, is considered to be situated in England’s South West region.

This said, Mickleton is in practice surrounded on three sides by the southern reaches of the Midlands counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

The reason why centuries ago Mickleton was assigned to Gloucestershire rather than either of its southern neighbours is the Cotswolds escarpment. Forsure, parts of the Cotswolds geographical region fall into Warwickshire and Worcestershire, however, the bulk of the great inland cliff that defines the area is in Gloucestershire.

Mickleton sits at the base of the cliff at the easternmost point of the Vale of Evesham. The enigmatic Meon Hill stands due north marking the boundary with Warwickshire, and providing the most northerly point of the Cotswolds escarpment.

For these reasons Mickleton, a historic Cotswold stones village, albeit one enlarged in recent decades to the point where the population now stands around the 2,000 mark, has the feel of a border settlement. The landscape is reminiscent of south Worcestershire and Warwickshire, while the village itself feels like it is in the Cotswolds.

An impression which is heightened by the fact that the Heart of England Way runs through the village, and the bus services towards both Stratford-upon-Avon and north Gloucestershire towns like Morton-in-Marsh, Chipping Campden and Cheltneham, alike.

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 from Honeybourne in Worcestershire to Mickleton Gloucestershire 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.

This is where the walk ends

Getting Back

Mickleton has a large number of buses serving it. However, they are all infrequent, and as of April 2023 (when I walked the route) the village is not well served by buses after 13:30, so this is not a walk to begin late in the day. Stagecoach buses run between Stratford-upon-Avon and Morton-in-Marsh via the village, with a once a day service to Cheltenham too. There are a few sporadic community transport buses which also serve Morton-in-Marsh. Both Stratford-upon-Avon and Morton-in-Marsh have good train services. Stratford having trains to Birmingham and Banbury, while Morton-in-Marsh is on the Cotswolds Line between Hereford and Gloucester.