Favourite Walks: A visit to Maud Heath and back

This walk allows for a range of different starting points and thus a range of distances. The longest version assumes a start at the Lansdowne Arms and is approximately 7 miles, there and back. The shortest option, starting from the Dumb Post at Bremhill, offers a walk only 4 miles long. The furthest point is the monument to Maud Heath beyond Bremhill and the ideal timing aims for a picnic beneath the monument. There is some road walking and some footpaths can be muddy. Dog walkers and others may wish to note that some of the walk passes through fields where you may encounter cows.

1.      From the Lansdowne Arms, turn left down Church Road until reaching the footpath on the left just before the Derry Hill school gates. The school was built in 1872 to replace an existing building deemed inadequate though that ‘inadequate’ building had been erected only 30 years earlier – perhaps the Victorians’ frugality has been exaggerated as one cannot imagine waiting such a short period for upgrading now. The footpath takes you to the Lansdowne Hall car park. Keep to the left there and continue to the A4.

2.      Cross the road to the footpath opposite (ie on the northern side of the A4). You may feel that diverting to the crossing and then retracing your steps is the safer course of action. The path skirts the edge of the new Bowood Gate housing development and the back of the Vastern Timber yard. It then leads down to the houses at Studley Corner. Turn right onto tarmac for the short distance to the T-Junction.

3.      A further right turn onto Studley Hill, walking just a few yards up the hill, brings you to a Y-junction. Take the left-hand option and then turn left onto Norley Lane. After approximately 200 metres, turn left again at the road junction signposted for Hazeland. Continue down the hill towards Hazeland, keeping close to the sides on this narrow road. It would be good to cite an alternative, safer route but the road is all there is – it is usually low in traffic. Pass over the old railway bridge, now overlooking the cycleway that was an operational railway line within the memory of some older Studley residents, and proceed to the sharp left-hand bend at the bottom of the hill.

4.      Shortly after the bend, you will see an open area on your left, usually with plenty of parking space and this could be a suitable alternative starting point- wiping over 2.5 miles off the overall distance.

5.      The road crosses the River Marden by Hazeland Sluice, usually an impressive flow of water, and the vantage point over the river is worth a few moments of your time for the richness of its wildlife. The road then swings sharp right at Hazeland Mill, now an impressive domestic property but once part of the estate of Malmesbury Abbey and a grist mill as recently as the 1960s.

6.      You then face a seriously sharp climb up the road, passing Thimble Hall on your left. Your reward is the Dumb Post Inn, where you can always stop for a fortifier if that way inclined. The inn is probably (in part) 300 years old and was once the base for an impressive friendly society for agricultural workers. The dumbness is said to arise from the fact that there was originally just a post for a sign to the hamlet with no name on it; alternative explanations tend to cause offence to local residents. Those seeking to avoid the quite severe slopes in the early part of this walk might like to start from here - it’s then just shy of 4 miles. To make life even easier, non-climbers can end the walk by persuading one of their party to walk back up the hill to the Dumb Post to get the car while waiting at Hazeland Sluice.

7.      Directly opposite the front of the inn is a bridleway sign. Take that route and squeeze through a gate following a ridge on the left of the field with fine views to Cherhill etc to your right. Go through two kissing gates with fine gardens to your left and, just after a tennis court to your right, another gate that leads to St Martins, the 12^th century church at Bremhill. The poet William Lisle Bowles was vicar there from 1804; he was genuinely famous at one time. His 14 Sonnets are said to have inspired Coleridge. He is responsible for the poem on Maud Heath’s statue.

8.      Walk through the churchyard on its left side and leave by the gate onto the road. Turn sharp left on the road until reaching Manor Farm where there is a footpath sign to the right. Take that path to a very insecure stile and follow the main path (slightly right) downhill, over a stream and then up to a wooden gate.

9.      After the gate, the path swings left with a small orchard to your right. Follow the path through a stile until reaching a wide hardcore drive, which is part of Bremhill Equestrian, leading to the road at Monument Farm.

10  Cross to the road signposted to East Tytherton, past the farm buildings on the right until you see a gate to the right that leads to Maud Heath’s monument, which is clearly visible on the ridge to your right. The gate to the monument is heavy and difficult to open and close.

11  Proceed to the monument and rest on the bench, taking in the views and the pretty much indecipherable inscriptions. One is as follows: 'Thou who dost pause on this aerial height/ Where Maud Heath's Pathway winds in shade and light/ Christian wayfarer in a world of strife/ Be still and consider the Path of Life’; it’s not a bad piece of advice. In 1474, Maud Heath, a widow from Tytherton Kellaways, left land and property for the creation and maintenance of the causeway ‘from Wick Hill to Chippenham Clift’ to allow a dry passage to market – an extraordinary act by any standard, but especially for a woman of that time.

12.   Now retrace your steps to the road, back through the awkward gate and across the road to the plaque celebrating the start of the causeway – this is Wick Hill. Go through that gate and begin the Wiltshire ramblers’ sport of spot the cow pat – the aim being to avoid them. Follow the path with the ridge edge to your right through four further gates. You might spot the Maud Heath Vineyard that runs beneath the ridge. After almost a mile, you will see Bencroft Farm on your left with the Derry Hill church spire beyond. Shortly thereafter the path enters a plantation and curves left to a gate back to the road.

13.   Turn left on passing through the gate, going slightly uphill. A sign tells you that the footpath is 400 yards away – it always seems to be a very long 400 yards. Look for a footpath sign pointing into the woods to your right and take that path. After 50 metres, ignore the misleading sign that tempts you to fork right and carry on down the hill through a gate. Part of this wood is used by an archery club and a sign requires you to leave your bow before going further down the hill. If you haven’t brought a bow, you can continue nonetheless.

14.   At the bottom of the hill, go through the gate into open fields, usually full of sheep and carry on south west to the road. The gate is to the left of the bunglaow. Turn right (or left to retrieve your car from the Dumb Post) and retrace your steps past Hazeland Mill and up the hill towards Studley. At the T-junction, go straight across up the drive (past ‘The Ranch’ on your right). A stile on your left takes you to a path which leads across the fields almost due south to the A4 at Crewe’s Cottages (local legend claims that the cottages were lost by the Crewe family to the Bowood Estate in a game of cards – sadly, it’s not really true).

15.   Turn briefly left on the A4 and then cross the road to Old Road, travelling back west towards Derry Hill. Old Road merges with Church Road and you are almost back to the start.