I originally walked this as part of a now-deleted Slow Way between Thornbury and Chepstow (Aust has recently been added as a Slow Ways place)....

Mockymock

I walked this Slow Way in the Berkeley to Thornbury direction. It is a really nice walk from Berkeley as far as the Rockhampton area and still a pleasant one from there on into town. Much of the northern part of the route goes through the old-world domain of the Berkeley Castle estate, passing close to the castle grounds in Berkeley itself; then its hunt kennels; its walled deer park; its shooting woods and its castellated horsey farmstead, complete with flag atop the house and jumps for the hunt followers to leap over scattered around the route. You simply turn right when you have come through the gate into the farmstead area and head over the stile to the right of the metal gate into the field ahead (it is pictured). Head in the general direction of the right hand oak tree at the bottom of the slope. In the next field the Slow Way is mapped along the official right of way but you can turn left and cut down through the field earlier, cutting off a corner. Between Rockhampton common and the edge of Thornbury the route gets more more fiddly with some eccentric, tatty infrastructure and the odd bramble tendril. Go through the right hand metal gate at the turn of the lane and head a little right to reach the double stiles into the new housing estate (pictured)....

Mockymock

The route is partly on the main road and partly weaves through green spaces and along stream-side paths, finally heading out of town through a neat new villagey estate. On the way down to to Falfield there are good views ahead towards the Cotswold edge. From here, the Slow Way takes the most direct route to the Little Avon river via an enclosed woodside bridleway, the corner of a road and hard tracks to Avening Green, but if you are not in much of a hurry, there is a nicer and slightly longer alternative route to the south via the Old Court at Tortworth. When it reaches the river, the route contours along its tranquil course to the old Mill at Huntingford where it takes to the lanes for a couple of miles to circumnavigate the difficult area of arable fields around Kitesnest Farm and Katherine’s Farm where the (apparently many) rights of way are rerouted, lack signs and infrastructure, or are obliterated by thick crops in the summer. In North Nibley, the Slow Way takes the longer way round via Nibley House Farm (signage and gates are a little wayward here) as the more direct path, which goes through someone’s garden, can be brambly and impassable....

Mockymock

It was good for the first few miles (as you’d expect given that a fair portion of that was along the Cotswold Way) but it was all change once the route departed the national trail at North Nibley, leaving the dependable footpath-maintenance territory of the Cotswold AONB and heading into a Bermuda Triangle of unwelcoming arable with little signage or path infrastructure. First the suggested path south out of the village, which partly routes through someone’s garden, was almost impassable with brambles, so I found my way round via Nibley House Farm instead along a right of way which is not quite as marked on the map, then headed happily enough downhill to the arable zone where the bigger problems started and the Slow Way eventually made it into a select group of routes I have given up on altogether. I then peered at the next path immediately to the south (from Elmcote) which didn’t look much of an appealing prospect either (but possibly works earlier in the year or after harvest time as there was a new post with a yellow arrow on it, pointing confidently into the wheaty oblivion) and opted to make my hot weary way around via lanes and a track west of Kitesnest Farm instead. Most of the remainder of the route I know from previous walks and is generally fine with only some more boring arable, a few big cronky stiles with wire under them and the usual nettlesome corners and occasional scratchy overgrowth typical of high summer walking in farmland. However, the route plot is totally wayward around Pound House Farm near the Thornbury end and needs to be redrawn, and I know that there is a slightly longer but much nicer route option in the Tortworth area..... Hope they had a better route than this one and didn’t get put off....

Mockymock

Once you have escaped the first mile or so of mazy alleyways through the housing estates of Thornbury, this is a good walk on quiet lanes and farmland in the rolling territory between the low-lying Severn Vale and the rise of the Cotswold edge. Some good views along the way and lovely today with angled late autumn sunlight and golden bronze leaves on the many oak trees. It is mostly on-road for the next few miles and the route climbs steadily uphill, but the lanes are quiet and there are some good views around and back over the Severn Vale. At Bibstone, there is a pub, the Royal Oak, with outside tables with a good view. The walk down from Church End into Charfield (nice bench to sit on in the church grounds) is good with a view to the Cotswold edge ahead. The route skirts the edge of the village and crosses the railway before routing through an area of arable land....

Mockymock

The crossing from south to north is better (although still requires care) but from the north side you find yourself stepping out from between the trees pretty much straight onto the carriageway with no view. It then follows out through a little damp path and a climb up through a scrubby hill to make its way from there across a fairly arable landscape with big electricity pylons until it crosses the M5 and departs the waymarked route and heads through a greenfield cemetery and woodland memorial ground, and on across fields to the scary road crossing....

Mockymock

A bit of a workaday stroll, with the odd meadow thrown in with southern marsh and spotted orchids as well as a chance to choose yourself a lovely future burial site....

Steve_Roser

Good route all the way from Thornbury to the edge of Yate where new and recent housing development has obliterated or rearranged the course of footpaths. It is easy enough to muddle around it all but I will share an alternative version which is easily navigable...

Mockymock

It’s not the most exciting walk as it traverses an intensively farmed area with a lot of electricity pylons running through it but is pleasant overall and does exactly what it says on the tin....

Mockymock

Although there is a fair amount of walking through wheat fields and lush mowing grass, and road noise from the A38, M5 and M4 rumbles around it at various intensities almost the whole way, this area has lots of pretty little copses and old hedge lines full of mature trees, and the undulating country offers some long views west over the River Severn and east towards the Cotswold Hills along the way. The route skirts the town through playing fields and some sheep-grazed pastures, crosses the B-road and takes a municipal bin-flanked path around the back of the leisure centre before heading out into the open fields and climbing a gentle hill up to Alveston. The path east around the back of the houses after crossing the lane a little further on looks as if it might get a bit overgrown in the summer, but also look to be walked regularly, as do the ongoing paths through the arable fields and pastures on the way to Rudgeway. Beyond Rudgeway, the route heads along and then gently down a hill to cross the M5 and there are long views east, with three big wind turbines in the foreground. Once over the motorway, there is more arable and grassy fields, with more views around....

Mockymock

The short section through Roundhouse Wood is lacking in waymarks and potentially quite confusing. I enclose photos of the unusual crenelated farmhouse at New Park Farm, part of Roundhouse wood in May, and a particularly unhelpful kissing gate near Rokhampton....

jamescorbett