Cotswold Way: Winchcombe to Cleeve Hill

The prime season for tourism in the Cotswolds is of course the summer, though the walker following the limestone ridges can rise above the parking problems and crawling traffic which besets the area. With so much on offer, the best time to walk the Cotswold Way may be in spring or autumn, when tourism is less intrusive, many of the attractions are still open to the public, and the beech woodlands that form an important part of the route are at their best. There is plenty of accommodation in the towns and villages along the way, but campsites are few and far between. With so many distractions, it is impossible to specify how long the route will take to walk, and careful planning is necessary to fit in with opening times of places to visit. Generally, the going is moderate, though there may be quite a bit of mud in wet weather and a certain amount of hill-climbing in the area around Cheltenham. Walkers are frequently surprised that the height gain over the whole route is equal to three times the height of Snowdon.

Winchcombe has grown from the Saxon settlement of ‘Wincel Cumb’. Much of its early importance was due to Offa, King the Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia who made Winchcombe his capital and its prosperous abbey, which played host to pilgrims paying homage to the shrine of St Kenelm, a young Saxon king murdered in mysterious circumstances in the 9th century. The abbey was dissolved in 1539, and today nothing of it remains, although its stone was used for many of the buildings in the town. Unfortunately, Winchcombe missed out on the wool boom that made other parts of the Cotswolds so wealthy and, after losing its abbey, it became a poor town. Nevertheless, there are many fine buildings, notably the Jacobean King’s School House, attributed to Inigo Jones. St Peter’s Church, opposite, was built in the 15th century and is notable for marks of shot in its walls dating from the Civil War, an organ case attributed to Grinling Gibbons, a magnificent collection of gargoyles, and a weathercock, which is one of the finest in Britain.

Winchcombe has always been an important stopping point for pilgrims. Today, six long-distance paths, including The Cotswold Way converge on the High Street in Winchcombe; with the town awarded Walkers are Welcome status.

The route leaves Winchcombe at the southern edge of the town via Vineyard Street, before heading across fields to turn left along Corndean Lane. In 350 yards (320m) turn right at a wide gateway for Corndean Hall.

Climb up past a cricket pavilion and riding arena. Crossing a minor lane, the route runs into woodland alongside a road, and then follows a track right, signposted towards Belas Knap.

From Belas Knap, the paths heads across a field followed by a track towards Wontley Farm. Turning sharp right before the farm, it heads downhill towards Breakheart Plantation. The route now goes north through the plantation turning right then immediately back on itself approaching a narrow lane.

The Cotswold Way begins to circles Cleeve Common to the north, thereby avoiding an area of sensitive calcareous grassland within the Cleeve Hill SSSI. Dropping down through woodland to a small stream, it then crosses fields and routes past a farm before approaching an ancient tithe barn and Postlip Hall. The hall disappears from view as you begin to climb the northern edge of Cleeve Hill emerging on flatter ground by, first, Severn Trent's Cleeve Common service reservoir and then the clubhouse of the Cleeve Hill Golf Club.