Honstr one

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The route starts in Stratford-upon-Avon town centre near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It’s also right by the visitor centre and the river so there’s plenty to see.

After a short stroll through the town you climb some steps to Stratford Greenway where you are greeted by birdsong and trees. Both railway cafes along the greenway were still open in mid September. I stopped at the Milcote one on the way back, the owners were friendly. It served nice tea, coffee, cakes and breakfasts too, amongst other things. I’d recommend the blackberry and apple tea and the toasted tea cakes! The route along the greenway is very straightforward, you walk across the old railway bridge and it’s worth stopping for the pretty views of the stream. It’s really beautiful.

As you turn right onto Monarch’s Way cross the road and the stile is hard to see at first because it’s buried in stingers and brambles. It’s passable but less accessible e.g. for wheels, whereas the greenway would be ok for that. Before going down here you could also stop at the Marston Arms for food and drink. The second stile and fence here are broken and didn’t seem the safest but it is passable, you’d probably want to be quite agile though because I had to use the broken stile like a seesaw! This overgrown part doesn’t last too long before you’re out in the fields.

The fields are nice but I found them quite challenging too. I agree with the review that says it’s a journey of two parts. I’ve put a photograph of the double stile, it looks really fun but unfortunately the second part is unstable and I had to climb the fence instead. Another stile was completely broken down and the space where it had been was overgrown with hedgerow, the landowner really needs to tend to it, but it was possible to climb the metal fence here instead. One of the stiles had barbed wire over it, here I’d recommend walking to the other end of the field and climbing the gate instead. There were so many broken stiles I stopped noting them all individually.

I really needed my navigation app to find my way across the fields because the paths aren’t well trodden like some, so it’s not obvious where to go. If you upload the route onto Komoot, at the part where it goes off grid after the fields it is still a public footpath and this part is well trodden through beautiful woodland. When you reach Honeybourne there are a couple of pubs that serve food.

I enjoyed the route, as things are I’d probably be more likely to do the Greenway part again than the second part, but if the stiles were fixed up that part would be far more enjoyable.

I didn't walk the whole of this route since I was coming from Mickleton so I joined at Long Marston for the very pleasant "Greenway" heading north to Stratford. A very easy, safe and convenient route, suitable for all (wheels included). I would only add to the previous review that the two railway carriage cafes are open in summer and are both excellent - I just had to stop to try them both out! When entering Stratford it might be even more pleasant to continue along the path to the river and enter the old town under the road bridge.

We took this decent 10mile walk northwards from Honeybourne today. A good walk which we split by taking a little detour half way at Long Marston to the Mason's Arms pub for Sunday lunch. Definitely a walk of two halves, with the section from Long Marston being the most straightforward as it takes you along the old dismantled railway line all the way into Stratford.

The section to Long Marston has a completely different character taking you across fields and farms. There was a little section on the walk today after leaving Broad Marston and before the road at Long Marston which didn't have any footpath signage and where which I was grateful to have GPS on the OS Maps app. Indeed, a couple of sections felt like the footpath wasn't being used that often and I did wonder whether some sections would be more overgrown in the summer. One section which has a new fence didn't seem to have any stile attached. It wasn't difficult for us to get over, but I did wonder whether it was only because it was a new fence that it didn't have any markings or stile attached. I guess time will tell. This fence is visible in my photos below, but unfortunately Slow Ways has changed the photo upload tool so I can't reference it other than saying it's the newest looking fence photo.

The greenway or dismantled railway has an old Carriage Cafe at Milcote which unfortunately wasn't open in the Winter, and there was also another old railway carriage hiring bicycles at the Stratford end of the greenway. Overall a good walk and one I would recommend with the caveat of perhaps taking a map app with GPS on to follow the correct route where I mention above. Plenty of stiles, gates and footbridges on the route, with some in better condition than others.

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