A circular walk starting from Scar Lane, Staunton-on-wye

We often visit The Scar, there are beautiful views and woodland but it’s one of those walks where you go as far as you want then turn around and walk back again (if you stick to the footpath).  So on returning from one of those ‘there and back again’ strolls I had a quick look at an old OS map we have to see if there was any way of taking a circular route on official footpaths and there was.  It doesn’t take in The Scar or views of the river, although I’ve included some photos below but begins by walking down Scar Lane, onto Gypsy Lane and finally bearing right into Brobury Lane.

Detailed OS View

I saw one person and one car whilst walking down these lanes on what was a grey, blustery Saturday afternoon and so was able to let Bandit have a long leash.  The lanes are single track, gentle and pretty even in January.  Brobury Lane widens out and a short distance along there is a footpath to your right.  Careful as you climb the stile as it is extremely rotten and wobbly. From my quick glance at the map I had assumed that it was a fairly straight forward stroll across the fields back to Scar Lane and although the first three fields were easy to negotiate, put to grass and no stock about, the signage was sparse and I nearly missed a small bridge which was partially obscured by the hedge.

However after crossing the road which runs down to Bredwardine it became a lot more difficult to identify the route the footpath was to take and as you can see by my excursion down to Wetmore Wood, I took a few wrong turns.

I don’t know if land owners around these parts intentionally discourage walkers on their land but it would appear so. From planting right to the edge of fields, trimming footpath signs along with the hedges, and no effort to maintain styles and signage, they certainly don’t make it easy to stick to the official routes.  Finally after working my way around the edge of three turnip fields, I made it back to Scar Lane.  What probably should have been a three mile walk ended up closer to four.  Perhaps if more people walked this way it would encourage land owners and the local council to make it more accessible. So give it a try!

Today we went to Weobley because giant pumpkins had been spotted outside The Green Bean.  Since we were going I did a quick search on the web and turned up the Weobley Circular Walk.  However, having mooched around the village we had no idea where it began, partly my fault because I didn’t print out the leaflet. Asking a local sent us heading off up Mill Bank (B4230) and here we took the first footpath on our left (permissive access).  There were two options here, either bear left or go straight.  Bearing left appeared to head back towards the village so we carried straight on.  After crossing a few fields we came to a hard surfaced track and following this we eventually came to another track to our right which had the circular walk symbol.  We followed these markers until we reached the Hereford Road and turned left back towards Weobley, expecting to find more circular walk markers but did not.  Re-entering Weobley we took another footpath to our left and a short distance later reconnected with the circular walk leading us back to Broad Street.

View larger map

Detailed OS Map

All in all it was a very pleasant walk, meeting and chatting with friendly locals, with lovely views and autumn colours even on such a grey day, plus we even managed to collect some sweet chestnuts.  Unfortunately the markers for the circular walk, which is 3 miles as opposed to our 4, were intermittent, so if you intend doing that I would highly recommend printing out the leaflet.

On our way home we noticed an interesting antique shop, Utter Clutter, which is well worth a browse and was home to a cheeky robin (see photos).

]]> http://redeyedmonster.co.uk/2011/10/29/walking-in-weobley-herefordshire/feed/ 0 http://redeyedmonster.co.uk/2011/10/24/bredwardine-walk/ http://redeyedmonster.co.uk/2011/10/24/bredwardine-walk/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:10:44 +0000 RedEyedMonster http://redeyedmonster.co.uk/?p=1056 Continue reading →]]> A gentle 3 mile walk via Bredwardine bridge and church, Herefordshire.

 Yesterday we decided to visit The Scar near Staunton-on-wye and collect sweet chestnuts. Unfortunately when we arrived we found that everyone else seemed to have had the same idea and there was nowhere to park along the lane.  Determined to go for a walk of some kind we carried on, entering Bredwardine, parking just before the bridge, opposite Brobury House and gardens.  Both The Scar and Bredwardine are along the route of the 136 mile Wye Valley Walk. 

Walking down the hill and across the bridge take the first style on your left and follow the footpath up to the church.  On arriving at the church we noticed that new permissive access has been given to a traditional orchard, so we had a look around and sampled some of the apples.  It was sad to see that the apples were not being harvested but were just left to rot on the ground. Having walked the perimeter of the orchard we rejoined the footpath around the church and walked through the woodland parallel to the river.  There are some fantastic old oak and chestnut trees here but alas no chestnuts for the picking.  I think the locals had probably got there before us.  Further on down the path you arrive at a good sized pond, the edges populated with bulrushes.  From here it is a gentle climb  along the path, then farm track to the road where you bear right to head back down to Bredwardine.  See the map and pictures below and view a detailed OS map here.

View larger map

Detailed OS Map

Today we joined the Eardisley Ramblers group on their second adventure. A lovely crisp autumn day, the full walk was a little over six miles with the option to leave after about three on Park Lane, which leads to the back of the church (see map below).  The walk took us to the Great Oak (above) which is rumoured to have been mentioned in the Doomsday Book but probably not true as the tree is an estimated 800 – 900 years old.  If you find yourself here give it a hug and get in touch with your ancestors.

Have a look at the photos of our afternoon below and view a more detailed OS Map here.

 
View larger map

View a detailed OS Map

This weekend I attended, with my family, the Mass Assembly organised by the Stop the War Coalition in Trafalgar Square which marked 10 years of the war against terror.  Like, I imagine, most of the people there, we have been attending these marches since, and before, the illegal war on Iraq. In fact the march was led by 106 year old Hetty Bower who has been campaigning for peace & human rights for most of her life.  I was surprised however at the poor turn out as I had expected the place to be heaving especially considering the number of prominent speakers in attendance.

So why are numbers dropping?  Is it because of the governments exit plan? Doubtful.  Or maybe there are so many things to protest about these days that support is spread thin? Even the NHS reform protesters only managed to pull a couple of thousand the following day. Are people so concerned about there personal situations under the current regime that war becomes insignificant to them? Do they see demonstrating against war as a betrayal to our troops? It’s not.  Poor promotion? Was the campaign relying too much on social networks to spread the word? Or is it the poor news coverage that anti-war protests consistently get? Surely there is no greater cause than that which calls for an end to the murder of thousands of innocents.  I don’t know what the answer is but what I do know is that the 12 million (£12,000,000) spent each day on a war that cannot be won could rectify many, if not all, of the issues facing us today.

Yesterday we had a very enjoyable afternoon joining Eardisley Ramblers Group on their first outing.  The aim of the group, led by David Bennett is primarily to establish an inner circular walk around Eardisley, not the walk we went on today, and to highlight the poor state of repair to stiles, signage and the footpaths in general.

Twenty-three walkers met in The Tram car park  of various ages and abilities.  The walk had been designed so that people could easily drop off along the way during and after the first few miles if they desired. It turned out to be a lovely day with good exercise and very good company.  For more information on the group and future walks take a look at the Eardisley Community Access Point page on facebook and like it!

Directions
Follow the detailed map for precise directions, however: leave the Tram Inn, head up Woodseaves Road past Canon Ford Avenue and take the first stile on your left.  Follow the signs through two fields to join a narrow footpath running behind the Old Mill and The Barns where you exit by Eardisley Church. Go through the Millstream  Gardens estate and the field at the back onto the old tram line which joins the Almeley Road. Straight across the road following the signs into a large field.  Walking up the right side of the field at about two thirds through cross to the left, over a stile, and follow the line of trees in this field to the top. At the top turn right down a steep bank and across a rickety bridge into Hollywell Dingle. Take the high road (top path) through Hollywell Dingle and follow it right to the end. Over another stile, through a field and onto a lane leading to the A4111.  Shortly before reaching the main road there is a footpath to the left follow this across the field and exit via a gate onto the A4111. Turn left for 50 yards or so and then right into Bower Lane.  After a short distance (one field width) take the footpath into a field that you cross diagonally.  From this point the signage is pretty sparse but basically it’s all down hill from here. Keep an eye out for the few kissing gates and follow your nose!

Detailed OS Map

The last time I walked on Hergest Common I notices that a new footpath had been opened up. So, on possibly the hottest ever recorded October day, I set off with Bandit to explore.

The great thing about Hergest Common is that, although popular, there are so many footpaths and routes that once off the standard ‘hike to the top’ walk it is rare to encounter more than a few people for your entire visit. Today though, in the unnaturally hot weather with, literally, buzzards wheeling in the sky it had a slightly eerie feel.  It was almost like being in a scene from The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

For precise instructions see the detailed OS map.  However, walking up from Ridgebourne Road onto Hergest Common, look for a kissing gate after a short distance on your left. About two thirds of the way through the first field there is another kissing gate, again on your left, where you start to descend to Grove Farm.  Once through the farm carry on down the farm track.  There is a footpath running through some woodland about halfway down the track which I imagine is the official route but it was seriously overgrown and I was only wearing sandals, so I carried on down the track to Upper Hergest.  Turn right following the road all the way up to Hergest Common farm. Then right again to take you back down through the common and back onto Ridgebourne Road.

This is a short walk, about three and a half miles but with a couple of quite steeps climbs. I took it easy, ambling along, taking photos, and completed it in a little over an hour and a quarter.  Enjoy.

Detailed OS Map
Related Post: Hergest Ridge

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I don’t like to generalise but most developers I have met are not keen on writing documentation and having recently finished a piece of integration work using BizTalk 2010 I was delighted to find an automatic documenter on the open source CodePlex site.  Unfortunately it did not work properly on the environment I was using so I downloaded the code and gave it some tweaks and enhancements.  Having tested it, successfully documented projects at work, I have uploaded the now BizTalk Server 2010 Documenter to the same site and hope that some of you may find it of use.

Fortunately they supplied a handy link to export all existing data to the GoodReads site, which now having signed up seems to be a far superior and greater used service.  I’m often on the lookout for new ideas for books to read and this appears to be a valuable resource. It can also link in with Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and Kindle accounts, allows you to compare your bookshelf against your friends and supplies a number of widgets for inclusion in your site.  So I’m afraid I will not be mourning the passing of LivingSocial. Long live GoodReads!

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Supanames was taken over by 123-reg a few years ago.  This wasn’t something that affected me initially and I continued to use my Supanames account as always. However when recently trying to install the latest version of WordPress I found that the version of MySQL was not compatible with the latest upgrade.  I contacted 123-reg who informed me that there was no plan to upgrade old Supanames hosting and so with great reluctance I began to make preparations to move over to the more up to date 123-reg hosting.

The first thing to do was to backup the database.  This is remarkably simple to do using the Supanames MyPanel interface.

1. Go to MyPanel and then in the Left-hand menu choose MySQL DATABASES, MySQL Backup Submenu.
2. Click on the link on the next page in MyPanel to Backup your Database.

If successful, you will receive a message confirming the backup has been completed. The backup is zipped and stored on the root directory of your web space. Having done this I then downloaded my entire site via FTP (I use Filezilla) including the zipped database backup.

I am fortunate that I don’t have hundreds of email boxes consider, all mine are hooked into gmail accounts and I have records of the alternate addresses. So I contacted the account holders to inform them that their mail would be down for maintenance.  Once this was done I gave 123-reg the go-ahead to close down my old Supanames hosting and fire up the new one.  This was ready to go in a couple of hours and the first thing I did was re-establish the mail boxes and send instructions to the users on how to reconnect.

Next I FTP’d the entire site back up to the root directory so that it had exactly the same structure as it did before.

The final step is to restore the database and modify the configuration so pages and database can talk to one another.  Restoring a database with 123-reg is not quite as simple as Supanames but it is no great technical feat either.  First you need to create a database. In your 123-reg control panel go to Web Hosting -> Manage

Then select Manage Database -> Add database

Take a note of the username, password and server, you will need these for the config file. Return to the Add database screen and log on to your new database. Select the Import tab:

Select the previously downloaded backup via Choose File and then hit the Go button (you should be able to leave all other settings at default).  Hey presto your database is restored. Now for the configuration.

You need to edit your wp-config.php file typically found in the root directory of your web space.  Enter the database name, user and password against DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD respectively (you can get the database name from the Add Database screen). On the old Supanames hosting the host name (DB_HOST) was set to ‘localhost’ this now needs to be set to the server name.  Once done save wp-config.php back to your web space.

After doing this I was pleased to see my front page (this blogg) functioning correctly, however when I selected any of the links I was given a 404 Not Found error.  A quick Google and my suspicions were confirmed, it was something to do with the permalink structure I was using. I found a number of solutions and didn’t like any of them much so before trying any of them I went into my WordPress  Admin and selected Settings -> Permalinks.  I did not change any of the settings, merely selected the Save Changes button.  This completely fixed my problem, so I urge you to try this before one of the more complex and possibly dangerous solutions on the net.