{"id":543,"date":"2012-09-22T02:34:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T02:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=543"},"modified":"2012-09-22T05:45:23","modified_gmt":"2012-09-22T05:45:23","slug":"chelynch-and-the-fosse-way-somerset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=543","title":{"rendered":"Chelynch and the Fosse Way, Somerset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A cold North Somerset wind blew like a trumpet across the Mendip Hills as we set out from Chelynch. <script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.onload = setupZoom; function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=900,width=930,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script>First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Chelynch.gpx');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><\/script><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7088\/7176133593_2e3bcc3902.jpg\" title='steam-drawn cultivator'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7088\/7176133593_2e3bcc3902_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7220\/7176134851_23a4b76bcc.jpg\" title='crab apples in Three Ashes Lane'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7220\/7176134851_23a4b76bcc_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7094\/7361361640_3d0b0144c5.jpg\" title='old tree trunk, Fosse Way'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7094\/7361361640_3d0b0144c5_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7100\/7176140039_f044a77e69.jpg\" title='Beacon Hill Wood fallen beech branches'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7100\/7176140039_f044a77e69_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8011\/7361366480_1798e1b26e.jpg\" title='standing stone in Beacon Hill Wood'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8011\/7361366480_1798e1b26e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7094\/7361369662_af8a294f2e.jpg\" title='Charlton Viaduct, Somerset &amp; Dorset Railway, Shepton Mallet'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7094\/7361369662_af8a294f2e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8004\/7361370892_320d71013e.jpg\" title='porkers at Newman Street Farm'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8004\/7361370892_320d71013e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7079\/7176176633_9faa705226.jpg\" title='Mendip stone stile'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7079\/7176176633_9faa705226_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=540\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\nIt\u2019s all farming country round here. A couple of porkers came snuffling to the gate at Newman Street Farm, and a bunch of peahens fled down the lane, their speckly grey and white bodies bent forward as they scurried between the hedges like plump little old ladies heading for a bring-and-buy. <\/p>\n<p>We crossed the fields by way of proper Mendip stone stiles, big slabs of limestone a farmer can hop over but a sheep can\u2019t. Three Ashes Lane took us west in a tunnel of trees where fallen crab apples littered the trackway, already rotting from blotchy green to soft toffee browns and blacks.  <\/p>\n<p>At a dip in the lane stood a mighty cast-iron contraption, all bolts and cogs and great spoked wheels. \u2018It\u2019s an early kind of cultivator,\u2019 explained its owner, emerging from a shed under the hazels. \u2018You\u2019d have a steam traction engine at either side of the field, hauling this thing from one to the other and back again on a rope as it ploughed the soil.\u2019 How cumbersome such a monster looked to our modern eyes; but how our forefathers must have blessed its power, its capacity to spare them sore bones and wrenched muscles, back in the dawn of mechanised agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>At a junction of lanes we turned south down the Fosse Way. The military highway where Roman soldiers marched and grumbled is now a beautiful leafy lane, cutting across the grain of the Somerset landscape. In Beacon Hill Wood we veered away from the old road and up through a giant\u2019s graveyard of fallen beech boughs to where a standing stone rose at the apex of the hill, already ancient when the legionaries marched by.<\/p>\n<p>Near Shepton Mallet the graceful curve of the Charlton Viaduct, pierced by 27 arches, carried the trackbed of the long-defunct Somerset &#038; Dorset Railway across the infant River Sheppey. Walking back over Ingsdons Hill to Chelynch I thought of the miserable journeys I\u2019d endured along that line, sulking back to school after the holidays &#8211; and the joys of watching the clots of steam float by the window as the S&#038;D wafted me home at each term\u2019s end. Happiest days of my life? Well \u2013 some of them were.<\/p>\n<p>Start &#038; finish: Poacher\u2019s Pocket PH, Chelynch, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 4PY (OS ref ST 649439)<br \/>\nGetting there: A37 (Bristol) or A367 (Bath) towards Shepton Mallet. 200 m after they merge  (2 miles from Shepton Mallet), left at top of Long Hill (signed \u2018Wagon &#038; Horses\u2019) along Old Frome Road. In 1\u00bc miles, right at Wagon &#038; Horses PH (signed \u2018Doulting\u2019) to Poacher\u2019s Pocket PH in Chelynch.<\/p>\n<p>Walk (6\u00bd miles, easy\/moderate, OS Explorer 142. NB \u2013 Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk): From Poacher\u2019s Pocket, left; pass top of King\u2019s Road; in 20 m, left over stile (fingerpost). Across field and next stile; path across field to corner of hedge (649443); right over stone stile. Cross field to Newman Street farm lane (652444); left to T-junction (648450). Right to first crossroads (649455); right to cross Old Frome Road (652455; fast! take care!); through gateway opposite and on (yellow arrow\/YA). Through hedge by 2 tall trees; keep same line to cross stone stile (654458; YA). Left with hedge on left; over stile; through narrow woodland strip; over stile. Diagonally right through 3 fields (stiles). In 4th field, left over stile (657462); down to gate into Three Ashes Lane (658464). YA points ahead, but turn left along lane. In \u2153 mile, cross road (652464) and on along lane. In 200 m lane curves left, then right (650464); ignore both gates here, and continue along lane, then same direction along field edges for \u2154 mile to T-junction with Fosse Way (639466). Left to cross Old Frome Road (638461; take care!). Left for 70 m, then right through Beacon Hill Wood; continue along Fosse Way to road (636451). Left to T-junction; right; in 200 m, left (635449) along Fosse Way for nearly 1 mile. Pass barn on right (632437); in 200 m, left up steps, over stone stile (631435; green arrow, East Mendip Way\/EMW). Cross field, then Bodden Lane (634436); on up Ingsdons Hill (EMW). At summit (638437), ahead along EMW for \u2154 mile to road (647439); right into Chelynch.<\/p>\n<p>NB: Click on Facebook &#8220;Like&#8221; link to share this walk with Facebook friends.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Poacher\u2019s Pocket Inn, Chelynch (01749-880220) \u2013 good food and friendly atmosphere<br \/>\nMore info: Shepton Mallet TIC (01749-345258); <a href=\"http:\/\/visitsomerset.co.uk\">visitsomerset.co.uk<\/a><br \/>\n<A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/\">www.ramblers.org.uk<\/A> <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.satmap.com\/\">www.satmap.com<\/A> <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.LogMyTrip.co.uk\/\">www.LogMyTrip.co.uk<\/A><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cold North Somerset wind blew like a trumpet across the Mendip Hills as we set out from Chelynch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}