From the end of the car park, pass a barrier and follow the track. At the first junction go right, pass another track on the left, then descend to another barrier. Below this join another track and go left through Sowdley Wood. Follow this track, virtually straight and generally level, for almost a mile (1.5km) until it swings left into a small valley.
Just before the stream, which is sometimes dry, turn left up a neglected looking track. Climb this quite steeply. Near the top it may be blocked by fallen trees and new growth – if so, simply go rightwards through the trees to join a clear track just above.
Go right on this, descending slightly, to a waymarked junction and go left uphill. Follow waymarks through the next junction and then again as you turn left onto a track which climbs steadily and almost straight. Take the middle way at a three-fold junction and keep straight ahead again at a cross-tracks. The gradient eases and you arrive at a junction by a transmitter mast.
Turn right (waymarked) past a barrier and at the next junction go right again on a stony track (byway) under power lines. Follow this, climbing gently, and as it levels off turn left; it’s the first track on your left, and there’s a bridleway sign just beyond the junction. Walk down here, with young trees on the left, to a T-junction and turn right.
Ignoring any fainter tracks, at the next clear junction, go left and then left again. Rise slightly and then start to descend, gradually curving left.
At a junction with a dilapidated waymark post, turn sharp right on a narrower green track and soon fork left on a descending footpath. (The right branch is currently overgrown, and could easily be missed). Descend to a gate, turn left and drop steeply into a field. Go down the left edge to a gate and exit onto a lane.
Turn left. Pass the entrance to Cwm Hall as the lane bends left, and walk through the tiny hamlet of Cwm. At a sharp bend in the lane, just past Cwm House, by the entrance to Cwm Farm, take a footpath that climbs diagonally up two pastures to meet the lane again. Turn left and descend through Clunton Coppice back to the car park.
Cwm, of course, is the Welsh word for ‘valley’, and more specifically for a steep-sided valley cutting into a hill or range of hills. It’s related to the English word ‘combe’, which is common in some areas with a strong Celtic influence, like the West Country and the Lake District. In this... particular case, Cwm is both an apt description of the landscape and a reminder that Welsh influence is strong in this area. There’s no shortage of Welsh placenames within a few miles of Cwm: Llan Farm, Llanhowell and Llanadevy just down the valley, Pen-y-cwm and Pen-y-wern just the other side of Black Hill. They’re mixed, apparently indiscriminately, with distinctively English names – Rock of Woolbury, Fiddler’s Elbow, Clunton, Clunbury. It should remind us that the Welsh were not just opportunistic raiders from beyond Offa’s Dyke. Borders can be moveable, and often represent a zone of mingling and co-existence (peaceful or otherwise!) rather than a simple rigid barrier. In 1982 Bruce Chatwin (perhaps better known as a travel writer) published his greatest novel, On the Black Hill, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 1987 it was made into a film, directed by Andrew Grieve and starring Bob Peck. Variously described as ‘brooding’, ‘poignant’ and ‘lyrical’, it’s essentially the story of two brothers, unbreakably bound to each other and to the land; great events and changes in the outside world impinge only occasionally. The novel is set a little further south, on the borders of Herefordshire and Radnorshire, but owes much of its inspiration and atmosphere to the Shropshire Black Hill. Chatwin was friends with the owners of Cwm Hall and stayed several times in a cottage near the house. It was here, early in 1979, that he wrote the first chapters, and it’s reported that one night in the Hall’s kitchen, he said, ‘I’ve got it, I will call my book On the Black Hill’. The looming presence of the Black Hill (just look to your left as you walk past Cwm Hall) and the confined, almost claustrophobic character of the valley, are strongly reflected in the novel. It’s still easy, in Cwm today, to feel that the outside world is very far away.
Perhaps nowhere else in England will you find a county so deeply rural and with so much variety as Shropshire. Choose a clear day, climb to the top of The Wrekin, and look down on that ‘land of lost content’ so wistfully evoked by A E Housman.
From the end of the car park, pass a barrier and follow the track. At the first junction go right, pass another track on the left, then descend to another barrier. Below this join another track and go left through Sowdley Wood. Follow this track, virtually straight and generally level, for almost a mile (1.5km) until it swings left into a small valley.
1 of 7
Just before the stream, which is sometimes dry, turn left up a neglected looking track. Climb this quite steeply. Near the top it may be blocked by fallen trees and new growth – if so, simply go rightwards through the trees to join a clear track just above.
2 of 7
Go right on this, descending slightly, to a waymarked junction and go left uphill. Follow waymarks through the next junction and then again as you turn left onto a track which climbs steadily and almost straight. Take the middle way at a three-fold junction and keep straight ahead again at a cross-tracks. The gradient eases and you arrive at a junction by a transmitter mast.
3 of 7
Turn right (waymarked) past a barrier and at the next junction go right again on a stony track (byway) under power lines. Follow this, climbing gently, and as it levels off turn left; it’s the first track on your left, and there’s a bridleway sign just beyond the junction. Walk down here, with young trees on the left, to a T-junction and turn right.
4 of 7
Ignoring any fainter tracks, at the next clear junction, go left and then left again. Rise slightly and then start to descend, gradually curving left.
5 of 7
At a junction with a dilapidated waymark post, turn sharp right on a narrower green track and soon fork left on a descending footpath. (The right branch is currently overgrown, and could easily be missed). Descend to a gate, turn left and drop steeply into a field. Go down the left edge to a gate and exit onto a lane.
6 of 7
Turn left. Pass the entrance to Cwm Hall as the lane bends left, and walk through the tiny hamlet of Cwm. At a sharp bend in the lane, just past Cwm House, by the entrance to Cwm Farm, take a footpath that climbs diagonally up two pastures to meet the lane again. Turn left and descend through Clunton Coppice back to the car park.
Cwm, of course, is the Welsh word for ‘valley’, and more specifically for a steep-sided valley cutting into a hill or range of hills. It’s related to the English word ‘combe’, which is common in some areas with a strong Celtic influence, like the West Country and the Lake District. In this... particular case, Cwm is both an apt description of the landscape and a reminder that Welsh influence is strong in this area. There’s no shortage of Welsh placenames within a few miles of Cwm: Llan Farm, Llanhowell and Llanadevy just down the valley, Pen-y-cwm and Pen-y-wern just the other side of Black Hill. They’re mixed, apparently indiscriminately, with distinctively English names – Rock of Woolbury, Fiddler’s Elbow, Clunton, Clunbury. It should remind us that the Welsh were not just opportunistic raiders from beyond Offa’s Dyke. Borders can be moveable, and often represent a zone of mingling and co-existence (peaceful or otherwise!) rather than a simple rigid barrier. In 1982 Bruce Chatwin (perhaps better known as a travel writer) published his greatest novel, On the Black Hill, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 1987 it was made into a film, directed by Andrew Grieve and starring Bob Peck. Variously described as ‘brooding’, ‘poignant’ and ‘lyrical’, it’s essentially the story of two brothers, unbreakably bound to each other and to the land; great events and changes in the outside world impinge only occasionally. The novel is set a little further south, on the borders of Herefordshire and Radnorshire, but owes much of its inspiration and atmosphere to the Shropshire Black Hill. Chatwin was friends with the owners of Cwm Hall and stayed several times in a cottage near the house. It was here, early in 1979, that he wrote the first chapters, and it’s reported that one night in the Hall’s kitchen, he said, ‘I’ve got it, I will call my book On the Black Hill’. The looming presence of the Black Hill (just look to your left as you walk past Cwm Hall) and the confined, almost claustrophobic character of the valley, are strongly reflected in the novel. It’s still easy, in Cwm today, to feel that the outside world is very far away.
Perhaps nowhere else in England will you find a county so deeply rural and with so much variety as Shropshire. Choose a clear day, climb to the top of The Wrekin, and look down on that ‘land of lost content’ so wistfully evoked by A E Housman.
