Gloucester - Bus times, Broadband and the story of Bill's

It's been just over a year since we had our first foray into Gloucestershire, when we walked in the Cotswolds last June (visiting Frocester and Woodchester).  But this was our first visit ever to Gloucester city itself.

In Roman times, Gloucester was called Colonia Nervia Glevensium or Glevum for short.  The origin of this name is a bit obscure, but it might come from a Celtic word for 'bright place' (sounds suspiciously like the Germanic word glow - which makes me think there may have been some obfuscation of the meaning down through the years).

Glevum - the Roman name for Gloucester

Interestingly, the modern Welsh name for Gloucester is Caerloyw and the modern English name is what's left of Gleaw + chester.  It's one of the English place names I really struggled to pronounce, when I first visited this country - for anyone who's still a bit unsure, it's generally pronounced Gloster.

The Museum of Gloucester on Brunswick Road

Lodgings and victuals

It wasn't very bright when we arrived off the train around 9pm on a Friday evening in August and it was difficult to get a sense of the place, as we made our way along Brunswick Road towards the Travelodge, our destination for the evening.  We managed to have a half-decent meal at The Lord High Constable of England in Gloucester Quays, run by the Wetherspoons chain and the pub was packed with the Friday night crowd - a friendly buzz of conversation, laughter and background music.

Gloucester Quays - the place to be on Friday nights!

Gloucester Quays is probably the most attractive part of town and there is a good selection of restaurants and bars in converted customs buildings near the River Severn.  Not to mention a Saturday morning market and an artificial beach beside the quays, which intended to save people the long journey to the coast!

The artificial beach on Gloucester Quays

We decided to have breakfast in Bill's Gloucester Quays, which was nothing less than sensational! Purely by coincidence, I had been in the original Bill's in Lewes the week before and I'm quite interested in Bill's story and how this restaurant chain has become so successful - not to mention the fact that their food is amazing!

Breakfast at Bill's in Gloucester Quays

BAM (Best Aussie Mate) was convinced that Bill's is, in fact, an Aussie chain, but a quick search on Google cleared up the confusion, as we learned that there is another chain of Bills, which has also has a story and started in Sydney, Australia.  By all accounts, the food there is also very good and I'm sure some of our Australian readers will be able to confirm this.

Mitcheldean to May Hill (3.3 miles/5.3 kilometres)

We decided to start in the country and walk back to Gloucester, both for the satisfaction of having a sense of destination, but also for the convenience of being able to jump on a train afterward, for the journey back to London.

Getting to Mitcheldean was a bit of an adventure though - unfortunately, the bus times from Gloucester to Mitcheldean have changed recently, but the website I was looking at hadn't been updated, so we missed our bus by about five minutes and ended up catching a taxi to Mitcheldean instead.

Mitcheldean in Gloucestershire

Thirty minutes and £27 later found us on Hawker Hill in Mitcheldean, looking for the Wysis Way, which is the path we followed for most of this walk.  Mitcheldean appealed to me, as Mitchel is another way of saying Michael and, indeed, the main church in the village is called St Michael's.
I don't think we'd walked on the Wysis Way before and it's a handy 55-mile link between the Offa's Dyke path and the Thames Way.

As we left Mitcheldean on a small road which passed the Business Village, we had an interesting debate on the responsibility of governments to provide decent broadband and I was trying to convince BAM that we're living in a first-world economy with third-world Internet connections.

View from May Hill Farm

I'd read recently that the UK's connectivity is worse than Romania's, but actually, researching this further, I've learned that this isn't true and, actually, both the UK and Romania have strong Internet connections - about 16.1 mbps in Romania and 16.3 in UK.  There is an organisation called Akamai that publishes quarterly reports on the State of the Internet - well worth a look, if you're interested.

The highlight of the walk was reaching the top of May Hill, not the biggest hill in the world, at 296 metres, but with fantastic views across to the Wye Valley and the distant hills of Wales to the West, as well as a stunning view of the River Severn, wending its way to the south.  I'd like to return to May Hill on May 1st, as apparently they have Morris dancing on top of the hill every year!

May Hill - view towards Wales

May Hill - old signpost

Trig on the top of May Hill

May Hill to Tibberton (4.8 miles/7.7 kilometres)

From May Hill, it was an easy path down towards May Hill village, then a very quiet path through Newent Woods, where we met a rather rugged man, who was carrying a sawn-off piece of tree.  We stopped to talk to him and he showed us the rings on the bark, which he was going to use to calculate the age of the tree.

There is a rather lovely-looking pub at Glasshouses called The Glasshouse Inn, after which we followed the least well-marked section of the entire walk, through Castle Hill Wood, past a small lake hidden in the depths of the Gloucestershire jungle!

The Glasshouse Inn

After Byford's Farm, I had to face my worst fear again with a field-full of young cows, who seemed rather panicky at the sight of us.  We passed through a total of four fields full of cows on this walk and I think I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that if I don't panic, they are also less likely to panic.  Animals can smell fear and stress and they don't respond well to that, so I kept my breath calm, as we slowly made our way past the various herds of cows we met on the Wysis Way.  Still not my favourite thing though and the thought of cows fills me with dread!

It's hard to write this in September and realise how hot the weather was, just over a month ago but, by the time we got to Tibberton, I was starting to feel a bit dehydrated, so it was lovely to sit in the churchyard at Tibberton Court and have a little rest , about halfway through the walk.

BAM negotiating the fields around Tibberton

Holy Trinity Church at Tibberton

Tibberton to Lassington (3 miles/4.8 kilometres)

I have to say, the people of Tibberton weren't particularly welcoming, especially when we missed the signpost for the Wysis Way in Orchard Rise and got told off by a rather obese lady, who had been enjoying the sunshine in her back garden, until we appeared on a lane between houses, trying to get back onto the path again.

After Tibberton the path disappeared completely into a field of crop and we almost got scratched to death making our way to an eerie cluster of buildings called Bovone, the kind of place that looks like it could feature in an American movie about serial killers!

At Bridge Farm, we crossed the road and joined a disused railway track, which is now part of the Three Choirs Way - a path we walked on before, when we were visiting Worcester back in 2012.  It was an easy path and not too many cows between Bridge Farm and the medieval village of Lassington.

Disused railway line, now part of the Three Choirs Way

Lassington to Gloucester (3.5 miles/5.6 kilometres)

There is nice view of Gloucester and the Severn Valley from the north side of Lassington Hill, then a complicated route downhill through a small wood and out onto the main road at Over.  From Over, we followed local footpaths all the way the Gloucester.

Train near Over

By the time we got to Gloucester, my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, so I was really happy to have a cold beer and some food in the garden of the lovely Fountain Inn just off Westgate Street.

Street Art in Gloucester

Access for Wheelchair Users

Field edge near Taynton

Very little of this walk would be recommended to wheelchair users - but there are plenty of interesting and accessible paths around Gloucester.  I would also recommend a return trip to May Hill from Glasshouses, all of which could be done by using small roads.  

There is a small road that runs from Glasshouses to Tibberton, pretty much parallel with the Wysis Way, but you should only use roads at your own risk and I couldn't really recommend this.  

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