With Nigel Vile On top of the world
Twenty years ago, I wrote a book entitled ‘Kiddiwalks near Bristol & Bath’. This was a collection of 20 safe walks with young children in mind. The walks were packed with fun things to see and do, with each route offering a great outing in the local countryside.
All the walks had to pass what was called the ‘S’ test and be simple and short, stimulating and with stops.
There are longer walks to the summit of Crook Peak, for example from King’s wood on the A38, but these would maybe test the patience and resilience of young children.
The Mendip Hills would barely register on the Richter Scale to serious hill walkers. Driving south from Bath, it would be difficult to imagine that this was an upland region at all until the road network suddenly hits the south-facing escarpment of this limestone region and a vast view opens up across what appears to be the whole of Somerset. The landscape abruptly drops down to the Somerset Levels and it is immediately evident that this is some quite serious high ground.
The Mendips themselves stretch from the fringes of Frome in the east some 20-or-30 miles to the Bristol Channel just south of weston-super-mare. Unlike most upland regions, the area is characterised by a high plateau of gently undulating landscape. even in those three places where the legendary 1,000ft contour is reached – Beacon Batch, north Hill and Pen Hill – there is no obvious peak. Instead there is just a flat open hilltop, with only the expansive outlook giving any clue as to the height of the land.
It is only as we head west beyond Axbridge that we find a genuine summit – Crook Peak – where a rocky outcrop deserves to be credited with a good deal more that a mere 627ft above sea-level.
Crook Peak does appear to be a mountain in miniature, at least in this part of the world! The name ‘Crook’, incidentally, is due to the rocky outcrop at the summit which is said to resemble a ‘crook’ or packhorse saddle, that inevitably became the site of a beacon in centuries past.
Confirmation of this fact can be found in the nearby village of Banwell where the churchwarden’s accounts for 1580 make interesting reading. A reference to the sum of 5 shillings ‘pd the firste day of July for one load of wood for the Beaken and for carryinge of the same to Croke Peke’ can be found. Some old Admiralty charts actually mark the Peak as ‘see me not’, an indication of its unreliability as a landmark. This can be put down to the fact that low cloud often envelopes the summit.
However, on a clear day, the views from the summit are naturally far-ranging, and encompass the Bristol Channel and the distant welsh Hills, the Quantock Hills and exmoor, the Somerset Levels and Glastonbury tor. All of this geography might well be lost on youngsters who will no doubt prefer scrambling on the limestone outcrops that dominate Crook Peak. It is also the perfect spot for a picnic, something to keep those flagging spirits going on the 550ft of ascent on to this lofty hilltop perch.
GETTING There
Leave the A38 15 miles south of Bristol and follow an unclassified road into the village of Cross. This is just by the junction of the A38 with the A371 near Axbridge. Having passed the New Inn at Cross, continue for another 1¾ miles until, just past Compton Bishop, the Crook Peak parking area is on the lefthand side of the road.
1. Cross the road to an information board and, ignoring the gate and path beyond this board, turn right to another gate before joining an enclosed track. Follow this track for ¼ mile to a point where it climbs uphill to join an open grassy path coming down from Crook Peak.
Avoiding the temptation to turn left and climb the ridge, cross over and follow a track opposite, before bearing left into some woodland and dropping downhill to a junction. Keeping to the lower right-hand path signposted to Compton Bishop, continue for 50 yards to a gate.
2. Immediately before this gate, bear left up to a barrier before continuing along a footpath that runs along the bottom edge of the NT’S Crook Peak property, with views across the village of Compton Bishop and towards Wavering Down to the right.
Follow this footpath as it climbs uphill to reach a dip in the hilltop in ½ mile. Ahead is a hilltop wall.
3. Turn left and follow a wide grassy track for 325 yards to reach Crook Peak with its rocky outcrops, with an easy rocky scramble just before the final ascent. Follow the grassy ridge that runs south-east from the summit, once again passing above Compton Bishop, to reach a barrier in ¾ mile. Beyond this barrier, turn right along a track for ¼ mile back to a handgate, information board and the parking area.