Crebea three

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

This is a great Slow Way! I checked the route from Beaminster to Crewkerne after starting the day in Maiden Newton. The two Slow Way made a great 33km combination, connecting two stations and using beautiful Beaminster for a good break.

Really enjoyed walking this route. Some absolutely stunning views whichever way you walk it.

I've not got much to add to the excellent reviews that Helen and Mockymock have left.

As other have said, don't follow the OS footpath through Lower Chapel Marsh Farm (the farm east of Chapel Marsh and 1.5km south of Chedington). Follow the path as indicated in the diversion map in my photos. It's not well signed on the ground I'll switch the route to 5 stars once this is way marked.

I'd 100% walk this route again and think it would make a great leg for the Slow Ways National Parks Trail too.

See my review for CreBea2 which is the same as this but with the diversion round Lower Marsh Farm plotted. At the time I first walked it, it wasn't clear that the diversion would be permanent. I can confirm that the footpaths across the arable fields near Crewkerne are always open, as this used to be my regular dog walking area. At a couple of places in this area, the well worn route appears to differ slightly from the mapped footpaths, but that is seasonal, and in winter you can usually follow the official footpath fairly easily.

Good route. I caught the bus (3 times a day Monday to Saturday) from Crewkerne to Beaminster and walked back. It is a moderately hilly route with some rough ground and a few very short stretches of wet ground, plus some croplands over which the paths seem to reform quickly after cultivation. The standout feature of this route is lots of good views. I enjoyed walking it and I'd definitely walk it again.

It is a steady haul up out of Beaminster to start, mostly on a long track, the upper portion of which is quite rough and looks as if it has a stream running down it in very wet weather. Dry today though after the warmest, sunniest May on record. At the top, you take a breath, cross a minor road and enjoy a long view while walking towards Chedington, passing a luxury equine facility (horses all on the other side of the hedge) and heading into a valley along the way. There is some damp rushy ground in the field after the little footbridge at the bottom. In the next field on way out of the valley to the road there was a crop of wheat which did not have a path through and a new barbed wire fence halfway up but the new fence has a stile in it and the access is still fine going to the road. The locals however, seem to have taken to heading right along the headland and going through the gate by the house into the lane and up that way, so there is a potential extra escape if there is tall crop in the way or something.

There then follows a bit of quiet road walking heading first along the ridge (nice views still) and then downhill towards Pickett Farm, where the Slow Way takes to the fields again. The access to the footpath shown on the OS map is currently thoroughly scrubbed up, so follow the plot on the good track through the farmyard instead. The track heads on and through a narrow band of woodland where it arrives in a field with a newly built lake in it. This field is a bit rushy and probably wet in winter, when it might be a good idea to follow around the top edge of the field, but in dry conditions it was fine, and there are lovely views to the north. This path looks to be quite well walked. The day I went through there were sheep in the field and a low electric fence at either end, but the landowner had wrapped plastic bags around the wire at the access points and it was easy to step over anyway. At the end you pop out through the trees back onto the road You could alternatively shorten the route a little and miss out this whole section by just carrying on along the road, but it is a really nice path and I reckon only to be avoided in saturated conditions.

You soon arrive in the village of Mosterton, where there is a pub, cross over a minor main road and head uphill again on Mosterton Down Lane, which is hard surfaced all the way, and head straight on into the narrow wooded bridleway when the road turns the corner at Knowle Hill. This bridleway had a about a 50m boggy section half way along. If the going is like this at a time of near drought, then I suspect it is a swamp at very wet times of year, when you might consider taking the v-shaped diversion along Knowle Lane and back instead.

After this, a very short lane walk leads to a turn-off into a narrow winding footpath through some willow scrub, where you may get stroked by the surrounding vegetation in summer, and the path soon arrives in a zone of arable fields. All the fields had recently been planted with maize the day I walked, so you might not see much at some times of year as you make your way through the crops but it looks as though the footpath is well-walked and the route stays open. Note that the plotted route (correct at the time of posting) differs a little from that shown on the OS map in a couple of places where the official access has scrubbed up.

After this there is a dip into a stream valley with a very short section of roughish and perhaps slippery path up the other side before you cross the railway and head up through a meadow into the edge of Crewkerne, routing into the centre of town via a housing estate.

There are some stiles on the route and good footwear recommended, especially if it is wet.

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