Wedwel one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Wedwel here.

A beautiful, gently scenic Slow Way, partly on the Somerset Levels and partly in the southern foothills of the Mendips. A good walk and I’d happily do it again.

It starts out of Wedmore on an enclosed gravelly path which soon reaches the lush, flat meadows of Wedmore Moor, taking a straight course out across them to the River Axe, before meandering along the low levees of its canalised banks for a couple of miles. This first half of the walk is very tranquil and the surrounding views are lovely, as this part of the Levels is contained between the Mendip Scarp to the north and a low ridge to the south, with occasional interestingly-shaped hillocks, outliers of the Mendips themselves, rising out of the flat landscape, including that of Glastonbury Tor ahead to the east.

On the downward side the area also had, at this time of year (mid May) a lot of long, as yet uncut mowing grass which was a bit of a wade (and would have been a real boot soaker if wet). This did get a bit tedious and this section of the route would be best walked either a month earlier in the Spring or a month or two later in summer when more of the grass is likely to have had a first cut. Luckily there was a fine memorial bench for me to sit on and eat my lunch at the turn of the lane out of the moors into Westbury-sub-Mendip, and after that I didn’t dock the route a star for what is, after all, only a seasonal annoyance.

The way takes another dive back into the levels just before the centre of Westbury village but there is a pub and a community shop there if wanted. After another mile across fields and up a quiet lane into to the next village, Easton, the Slow Way crosses the main road and leaves the levels behind altogether, heading uphill to Wookey Hole (of caves fame). This part of the walk is all on a narrow road with high hedges, but it is a quiet lane with little traffic and there are views back over the levels through the gateways (or ahead of you if you are walking the route the other way).

Wookey Hole was quiet on a school day, but it can be very lively with visitors to the caves and other attractions on weekends and in the holidays. This Slow Way uses the quieter route along the Monarch’s Way through the fields and lanes around to the north of the village but you could equally well go through it (pubs, shops etc) using the West Mendip Way or along Limekiln Lane. All of these paths are fine and they all eventually meet up and take the same down route into Wells using a paved footpath between the houses on the outskirts of town and across the grounds of a secondary school.

Signage is pretty good and I found navigation straightforward. Access includes the usual selection of gates, footpath gates, kissing gates, stiles and wooden footbridges, plus, more unusually, a couple of simple bridges over ditches on Wedmoor Moor which were made of railway sleepers with a handrail beside. The rail on one of these footbridges had been knocked askew on the day I walked and was not a lot of use, so about a metre and a half of balancing on a solid and sturdy 15 inch wide sleeper was required. Hopefully someone will straighten it out soon.

Apart from that, there were a few arable fields which had recently been planted with sweetcorn, so you might encounter tall corn stalks for short distances in late summer and, as is pretty much standard anywhere in this region, there were plenty of cattle, including one group of lively and curious adolescent beasts who thought I was the most exciting thing that had happened to them all day and came barrelling up to Inspect me and follow along behind. Other than that, nothing to mention except the obvious, that the watery Levels and Moors will likely be soggy and muddy in winter.

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