Biddestone & the valley
Biddestone, just a mile or two north of Corsham, is almost a cliché of ‘olde englande’. Here we have a rather handsome collection of Cotswold stone houses and cottages surrounding a charming green with its very own duckpond.
Alongside the green stands the White Horse inn, where the early visitor will find picnic tables with a view to die for, while there in the background is the old village water pump and st nicholas Church. The setting is almost too good to be true and, were it not for the proximity to Castle Combe, Biddestone would certainly feature more regularly on calendars and picture postcards.
Arthur Mee encapsulated the place beautifully. Writing just before the last war, he wrote of walls and roofs of the grey Cotswold stone, old stone tiles, heavy thatch, little dormers and stately gables. He went on to describe the occasional oriel and the groups of lovely chimneys.
in the church, Mee noted the norman doorway and the deep font, the pair of chancel arches and the grand box pews. And then, as the prose reached a crescendo of praise, he added that ‘Biddestone has builded well and laid itself out like a picture’. it is a place that will certainly have the camera lenses clicking!
A pleasant pastoral landscape with views brings the walk to slaughterford, a place altogether more beautiful than its name. This secluded hamlet, little more than a traditional farm, a rank of cottages above a raised pavement and a few grand houses, is lovingly carved from golden Cotswold limestone. There is also a fine church, standing in splendid isolation in the middle of a field, where a tombstone inside the churchyard gate tells the tragic tale of the children of John and Mary tavinor. none of their many children survived their childhoods due to the diseases that were so prevalent in Victorian england.
The os explorer map shows a ‘Friends Meeting House (remains of )’ as the walk leaves Weavern Lane and heads into slaughterford. Precise instructions are difficult but, having passed the first property on the right as you enter this isolated hamlet, battle through the woodland on the right and you might find a ruinous wall propped up with a wooden beam plus a solitary tombstone. The closest grid reference that i could find is st841739.
it is recorded that in 1673 George Fox, the eminent Quaker, preached in slaughterford. The impetus drove the Friends to build a little chapel. Given that Cromwell’s troops caused a lot of destruction to the village church in the Civil War, it is perhaps not surprising that this place of worship was sited in the woods on the outskirts. Meetings took place here for many years but the movement left for pastures new in Wiltshire. The building is believed to have been acquired by the Congregational movement and they worshipped here for some time. eventually, they too left, and in the 1960s it was abandoned.
in and around slaughterford is the By Brook, arguably the River Avon’s most picturesque tributary. From its source above Castle Combe, the By Brook flows for a mere 12 miles to its confluence with the Avon at Bathford. Along the way lie the villages of Long dean and Box, as well as Ford, villages where, in centuries past, no fewer than 20 mills used the river’s water power.
today the river, with its clear waters and wooded setting, is a haven for wildlife that now includes a number of egrets.
Directions
Follow the A4 from Bath for 10 miles to Corsham before turning left by the Cross Keys on an unclassified road signposted to Biddestone. In 2 miles, having passed Biddestone’s White Hart and village pond, bear left into Church Road and park alongside St Nicholas’ Church.
1. With your back to the church, follow the road to the right, ignoring an early right turn called Challows Lane. In 350 yards at a junction, follow the road called By Lane that runs to the right of Biddestone’s cemetery. This is a ‘no through road’ that leads to Field Barn Farm. In ¾ mile, where the lane bears right to the farm, pass through a gateway ahead and walk directly ahead on an uncultivated strip of land for ¾ mile to a stile and Weavern Lane.
2. Follow this track to the right for 1¼ miles to its junction with the Slaughterford to Biddestone road by a property called Valley View. Follow the lane ahead as it drops downhill before bearing left and right into the centre of Slaughterford. Just past the right hand bend, follow a raised pavement on the right up to a gate and field. Cross this field, keeping to the right of St Nicholas Church, to a stile and lane.
3. Follow this lane to the right uphill out of Slaughterford for just over ½ mile and, just before a left-hand bend, pass through a gate on the right to join a signposted footpath. Enter a field, turn left and follow the left edge of a hilltop field across to a stile. Walk ahead in the next field to a stile in its end boundary, before crossing one final field to a gap in the hedgerow opposite and a lane. Follow this lane to the right for 600 yards to a footpath on the right, just by the garden of a property on the edge of Biddestone. Follow this footpath down the left edges of 2 fields to a stile and lane. Turn left back to the church.