Date: January 1994
Participants: Graham Beevor, Malcolm Duff, Howard Hillier-Daines, Drew Rush, Malcolm Rush and Brian Shaw.
At the planning meeting for this year’s hike, it was OS Sheet 150 that was pulled out in the ‘lucky dip’. So it was off to Worcestershire with some minor changes to the personnel - Drew and Brian returned to the fold and John Schmitt was absent.
Our main goal for the weekend was to climb Bredon Hill. Apart from the excellent view it is notable for four things; the remains of earthworks from an iron age hill fort known as Kemerton Camp, St. Catherine’s Well, Parson’s Tower and The Banbury Stone.
The starting point for the hike was Elmley Castle, located a short distance south-west of Evesham. The hospitable Public House that we found to drink in and use the garden to camp in was The Queen Elizabeth, the name of which commemorates the visit by Queen Elizabeth I to the village in August 1575.
Saturday was a lovely day, which we were all pleased about, as it meant we should be able to enjoy the view from the top of the hill.
We quickly got on with breakfast and clearing up, and before long had started the steady climb up the footpaths leading towards the tower. There was however, a slight diversion on route to ensure that we included the remains of the fort.
The tower is known as Parsons' Folly, being built in the 18th century for Mr Parsons of Kemerton. The 981ft natural height of the hill appears to have contributed to the building of the tower, whose top therefore reaches 1000ft, in the same way as the tower on Leith Hill takes it from 968ft to the magic four figures.
As expected the view was excellent. A number of photographs were taken, including a group one of us in front of a wall made from the beautiful Cotswold Stone.
We did not divert in order to find St. Catherine’s Well, but we did see the Banbury Stone. This is a natural rock close to the tower and known to the locals as Elephant Rock.
Having completed the sightseeing section of the hike and achieving our goal, it was time to continue with the rest of the hike. We headed south, down the hill to Overbury, where we had lunch.
From there we continued steadily down the hill in a south easterly direction, through Beckford, across the A46 and into Gloucestershire. We were aiming for Alderton where we had decided to spend the night.
For a change there was no pub garden that we could use but we did get permission to use a bit of farmland on which to pitch our three tents. We had our meal, spent a relaxing evening in the local pub and then got a good night’s sleep.
Sunday was another nice day – it was dry and not really cold – in fact pretty good for hiking.
Our route for the day was clear – almost north all the way back to Elmley Castle. There were a couple of footpaths leading out of the village, one skirting the hills to the east and the other climbing the hills through the woods. Both would have been OK but we decided not to bother with the climb so early in the morning.
The paths met again at Didcot Farm, from where we headed north, back into Worcestershire, back across the A46 and then into Ashton Under Hill.
We had our lunch and spent some time in The Star Inn.
Replete we continued on the main road through the village and took the footpath leading to Kersoe. This skirted both the hill to the west and Aston Wood.
The path came out on the small road leading down to the farmhouse and, instead of crossing over and continuing on the path to the road leading into Elmley Castle, we turned left and took the path behind the farm buildings. This actually ran parallel to the road and came out behind the church on the edge of the village. It was then only a short walk through the streets back to the cars.
It had been a good weekend away with the highlight being our climb up Bredon Hill on the Saturday morning.