Frocester and Woodchester - Tourists, Trees and Traffic

Although Frocester and Woodchester were our 38th and 39th 'Chesters', this was a walk with quite a few firsts for us - first time in Gloucestershire, first time in Cotswolds (for me, although BAM - Best Aussie Mate - had been in the Cotswolds before), first time camping on one of our Chester trips.

I've been quite busy with work recently, flying backwards and forwards between Europe, the Middle East and India, so it was with no small degree of culture shock that I found myself standing in a soft drizzle on Tinkley Lane, just outside Nympsfield, watching our taxi disappear in the distance on its return journey to Stroud, many miles away from the Corniche in Doha or the dusty streets of Gurgaon!

Lodgings and Victuals

I really loved camping on this trip, despite the heavy downpours of rain. Thistledown Farm campsite is a truly wonderful place, as far away from the stresses of modern life as you can hope to get these days.  It's a two-night minimum stay in the summer period, but I wouldn't want to have spent less than two nights there - in fact, I could have stayed a whole lot longer and enjoyed the serenity of the surrounding countryside, miles from the nearest towns or cities.

Campsite at Thistledown Farm

I'd had a serious case of 'Delhi belly' towards the end of my work trip to India, so my 'victuals' this time around consisted of a very plain ham and cheese roll from Upper Crust.  BAM had kindly brought a bottle of red wine, which we shared, sitting outside our tents, gossiping about recent events and questioning the meaning of life!

Thistledown Farm campsite to Frocester (2.8 miles/4.5 kilometres)

Our walk started off innocently enough - we had breakfast in the porch of my tent, sheltering from a heavy downpour of rain, then we got kitted up with our rain gear, as we carefully zipped up our tent flaps and set off along Tinkley Lane towards the nearby village of Nympsfield.

From Nympsfield, we followed a public footpath along the edge of a field, crossing the B4066 at Crawley Hill and picked up the national way-marked trail, the Cotswold Way.

View from the Cotswold Way

I'm quite interested in walking the Cotswold Way sometime, as it's a very convenient 102-mile path from Bath to Chipping Campden - so a handy week's walking holiday.  This was my first time on the trail and I wasn't disappointed by the spectacular views from the top of Frocester Hill towards the Severn Estuary and the Black Hills, across the border in Wales.

Nympsfield Long Barrow

Cotswold Way marker

We didn't stay on the Cotswold Way for very long, however, as the proximity of Frocester, on the other side of the Cotswold ridge, meant we could do a double-whammy and get two Chesters for the price of one!  This did involve a rather difficult downhill scramble through Buckholt Wood, as we lost the public footpath leading to the Frocester Hill road and found ourselves clinging to trees and other vegetation, getting stung repeatedly by nettles, as we manoeuvred our way down the steep incline and finally emerged at Hill Farm Cottage, which gave us access to the Frocester Hill road.

View towards Frocester

Frocester Hill

The road itself was one of the worst I've ever walked on - really busy with traffic, lots of subtle bends and poor visibility, the cars seemed to be hurtling along at a ferocious speed, as we took our lives in our hands and busily pushed on towards Frocester village.  The village itself was unremarkable and the road out of the village, towards Leonard Stanley, was just as dangerous, so we were quite doubtful of the value of making a detour to Frocester, although we both acknowledged the need to accept the various paths and roads that our quest for Chesters has lead us along!

Welcome to Frocester!

Frocester CBD

Frocester to Sandford's Knoll (1.9 miles/3 kilometres)

The traumatic experience of walking the roads around Frocester was made up for by the prettiness of Leonard Stanley and a lovely church, St Swithun's, which sits on the site of an ancient priory.  The path out of Leonard Stanley is called Gipsy Lane, another really beautiful reward for the road miles we'd put in, and this took us back up onto the Cotswold path.

St Swithun's at Leonard Stanley

Gipsy Lane

Climbing back up onto the Cotswold escarpment, the world once again felt very far away and we could get a sense of something ancient in the surrounding forest and landscape.  The Cotswold Way itself is quite a popular walking path and it wasn't long before we started bumping into other people coming in the opposite direction.

We met Americans and New Zealanders on this walk, which is another first, in Chester terms and it's probably the first time that our Chester adventures took us onto a major walking trail and to a 'normal' touristy place!

Cotswold Cottage

Sandford's Knoll to Selsley Common (2.3 miles/3.7 kilometres)

Back on the national trail, it was fairly easy walking, following sign posts around Pen Hill, all the way to Selsley Common.  The views from the top of the Common are also quite spectacular and it was great to see so many people outdoors, despite the slightly rainy weather, walking their dogs and flying model aeroplanes on top of the hill.

Selsley Common

Selsley Common landscape

BAM, in an admirable gesture of environmental awareness, had picked up a stray biro that she found back in Pen Wood, intending to responsibly dispose of it when we got to a village and bins, however, the biro exploded in her pocket and, as I enjoyed the views towards Wales, she frantically tried to clean up the ink stains and repair the damage the biro had done to her mobile phone case - all in a day's work, I guess!

Selsley Common to Woodchester (1 mile/1.6 kilometres)

It was a very easy and pleasant mile's walk downhill from Selsley Common, along Water Lane to Woodchester village.  Woodchester was the main object of our trip and definitely the more pleasant Chester to the two.  We didn't see any evidence of the Roman settlement or the villa that have made the village famous, however, we were impressed by the 'homely' feel of Woodchester and it was quite different to most of the other Chesters we've visited on previous trips.

Water Lane leading to Woodchester Village

Woodchester

Woodchester to Stroud (2.1 miles/3.4 kilometres)

From Woodchester, it was an easy couple of miles along a cycle path following an old railway line all the way to the railway station at Stroud.  The cycle path follows the Nailsworth Stream and passes factories on the outskirts of Stroud.  My BRH (Best Russian Husband) was waiting for us at Stroud station and we caught a bus back to Nailsworth, an interesting village, where we had dinner, before climbing the hill again along the Nympsfield Road and back to the campsite for an evening around the camp fire.

Woodchester sign

Stone figure at Woodchester church

Access for Wheelchair users:

Path through the forest

Unfortunately most of the walk described above would be completely inaccessible to wheelchair users and I definitely wouldn't recommend the roads around Frocester and Leonard Stanley.

A more pleasant alternative would be to follow the cycle path from Stroud to Nailsworth, which allows you to visit both of these places, also passes through Woodchester village.  

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