Cider with rosie country
Back in 2019, I wrote a pocket-sized book entitled Guide to cotswolds Pub Walks, published by countryside Books of Newbury. The walks started in the ‘deep south’ of the region at avoncliff, and went as far north as Ford and Guiting Power above cheltenham. This walk from Slad is my favourite in the book.
Picking up the king’s England volume on Gloucestershire written by arthur Mee, it came as a surprise to find no reference to Slad in what is one of the weightier reference guides to the region. Forever associated with Laurie Lee, the village is a collection of delightful stone houses and cottages that cling to the hillside above one of those archetypal cotswold valleys. Each of the properties enjoys a fine outlook across acres of rolling green pasture in an area that has fortunately been spared the ravages of the plough and pesticides and intensive arable farming. The author of cider with Rosie, and much else besides, would in all probability find that little had changed since his youth, other than the soaring prices of local properties.
a steep climb out of Slad, followed by a more leisurely stroll across a hilltop, brings the walk to the Frith Wood Nature Reserve. It is an example of woodland which has been managed for timber as well being of high conservation value. The high quality beech in the wood today is thought to have derived from seed planted after the Napoleonic Wars, possibly from Belgium. The reserve is also home to an array of woodland plants, including uncommon species such as White Helleborine and columbine and the more familiar Woodruff, as well as the nationally scarce ena montana, a Bulin snail whose strongholds are now in these ancient woodlands of the cotswolds.
a delightful swathe of cotswold landscape – steep hillsides and valley bottoms, isolated farmsteads and shady woodland – brings the walk to another reserve, Elliot Nature Reserve at Swifts Hill. This is one of Gloucestershire’s most valuable sites for butterflies, no doubt attracted by the rich array of flora that includes 13 kinds of orchids that grow on what is unimproved limestone grassland. Unimproved? If ever that were a misnomer. The reserve is an ancient cotswold common, whose name is thought to derive from the many swifts that seasonally fly overhead.
Swifts Hill, according to Laurie Lee, looks like a primitive animal and sometimes like a fossilised racing car, “glowing like a heap of ashes of roses on an autumn evening”. It certainly commands a grand view down the valley towards Stroud, a view that no doubt provided a great deal of inspiration. “The sun sets down at the end of the valley over the Severn and there is this afterglow which catches those quarries, and it just sits there glowing when the light is gone from everywhere else in the valley - it holds the light to the last drop”.
and back in Slad – where to pay homage to the great man? In the churchyard of Holy Trinity church, a plain but striking tombstone marks the spot where Laurie Lee’s remains were laid to rest. Better still to walk a few paces down the road to the Woolpack Inn. Here, a corner of the pub is left in solitude in remembrance to one of Gloucestershire’s favourite sons. alongside lies a collection of his famous works, an understated but evocative tribute.
Getting there
Follow the A46 north from Bath to Stroud before following the B4070 towards Slad. Park on the roadside in the vicinity of the Woolpack Inn.
1. With your back to the Woolpack, follow the B4040 to the right for 200 yards before turning right into Steanbridge Lane. In 200 yards, where the road bears right just past Laurel Court, keep ahead on a narrow lane up to the B4070 by a war memorial. Follow the access road opposite uphill for 100 yards to a property called Mayfaire. Follow a bridleway to the right beyond this property, keep left at a junction by a marker post and continue uphill to a crossroads. Keep ahead to reach a junction on the hilltop by a seat, turn right and follow a track to the B4070 at Bulls Cross. Follow the road ahead for 100 yards to a point where a public footpath crosses the road.
2. Turn right, and follow a track downhill through woodland. In 600 yards, in the bottom of a valley, follow a path on the right that passes a pond before reaching a cross track. Keep ahead, climbing steeply uphill, to a track on the hilltop. Follow this track to the right to a gate, before continuing across an open hilltop to reach a stable block and a lane. Follow the lane ahead down into Steanbridge, and having passed Steanbridge Mill continue along the lane for 80 yards before turning left on to a restricted byway. Follow this track steeply uphill to reach a lane in 600 yards, turn right and drop downhill into Elcombe. On a right-hand bend in this hamlet, enter Laurie Lee Wood and follow a path that runs above the lane through to a gate at the end of the wood. Turn left to a gate and follow a path around the top of an old quarry to emerge on to the open hilltop of Swift’s Hill. Walk across to the southern edge of the hilltop, turn right and drop down the hillside to a cattle grid at the foot of the slope.
3. Follow the road ahead for 200 yards before turning right on to a driveway leading to Upper Vatch Mill. In 100 yards, cross a stile on the right, turn left and walk across a field to a gate. Cross the middle of the next field to a stile by a pond, enter an orchard and turn right across to a stile and path. Follow this path to the left up to a lane by a property called Solomon’s Byre. Follow the lane to the left past a number of properties before continuing along a track to a gate. Walk across the top right edges of two fields before dropping down to a gate and following a footpath through some woodland to a field. Drop down the left edge of this field to a gate and a lane just beyond a pond. Follow this lane – Steanbridge Lane – to the left back up to the B4040 before turning left back to the pub.