[1] Start in Tresham, where the road makes a sharp turn at the head of a valley. On the corner of this road are the signs for two public footpaths, take the one along a drive to the side of Burdon Court Cottage then go left, behind the house. There are no waymarks here, but cross the lawn aiming for a gap in the far top corner, beyond which a path leads you to a stone stile. Go over into a pasture, which you cross to a farm gate, then turn right onto a drive which soon bears left. Ignore a footpath sign on the right but continue for 100 metres to a point where the drive curves left. Waymarks here tempt you left, but your route is now to the right, through a red painted gate.
As you walk along the track, there are fine views over the valley to the left with the house of Newark Park on the hilltop beyond.
Ignore gates left then right, but when you reach a pair of gates take the one on the left and follow the track downhill. The track runs with the field boundary, bearing left and passing through a gate.
[2] Continue on, with trees lining your route.
The scent of wild garlic fills the air in springtime.
The track narrows to a path between high banks, with the soft Cotswold stone underfoot eroded by the water running off the hillside above. Continue your descent to another farm gate then follow the path right, to a pair of wooden gates enclosing the frontage of a fine farm house. Continue on to a metalled lane and follow this downhill, turning left to cross the brook and passing cottages on the right.
The demands of the cloth trade in the 16th and 17th centuries gave rise to intensive industry throughout these scarp valleys, which were lined with cloth mills powered by the waters of these Little Avon tributaries. Several hundred people once lived here at Ozleworth Bottom, many working at the woollen mill, now long gone; these cottages are all that remain.
Just beyond the cottages, ignore a bridleway to the right, but cross a stile ahead and clamber up right into the field. Climb towards the woods ahead and look for a gate in the black-painted railings, then go right, along the track.
The woodland up to your left is resplendent with wild garlic and bluebells in springtime.
[3] At the fork in the track, go left and start to climb gently through a beech coppice ignoring a track climbing up left. Go through a wooden gate and continue with woodland left and meadows falling away to Marlees Brook on the right. Your route eventually swings away from the woodland to cross the field then curves left with trees to your right. Cross a cattle grid, then ignore a track doubling back on the right to reach the top of the hill. Here, the track smartens itself up with fresh gravel bordered by well-tended lawns and an avenue of young lime trees which leads you to the entrance to Ozleworth Park Farm. At the gates, when you expect to continue ahead through the arched entrance to the farm, a diversion forces you right, skirting the property.
All is not lost though, as this must be one of the more attractive deviations with a duckpond to your right, whose waters feed a rivulet running down through gardens to your left.
When you reach a surfaced drive, turn left to Ozleworth Church.
(A) The (now redundant) Norman church at Ozleworth is one of the most unusual in the country. It stands in a remote situation on an escarpment overlooking the deep valley of Ozleworth Bottom and it is thought that the site, which was once circular, may have been used for pre-Christian rituals. The irregular, hexagonal tower is the only one in the country that stands in the middle of a church. The oldest structures are the tower and chancel which are early 12th century, since when the church has undergone a number of alterations and extensions.
Ozleworth Park beside the church was built in the 18th century. It has a large porch on six round pillars and a fine cedar tree on the lawn, these can be glimpsed if you peer over the churchyard wall. Construction of the house, with its extensive stables, outbuildings and gardens has removed most traces of the former settlement around the church.
Retracing your steps from the church, make for the large beech tree at the head of the drive and fork left in front of it. Follow the drive until you can see it swinging right; before this bend, look for a metal signpost on the left pointing to a bridleway opposite on the right.
[4] Take this path, climbing the stone stile at the far end to reach a quiet country lane. Go ahead, following the lane to a telephone box and here, take the left fork signposted Newark. The lane climbs towards woodland and gives splendid views across the valley. As you enter the wood, passing the last of the farm buildings down on the left, look for wild strawberries growing on the bank to your right. A little further, the lane bears right and you pass the entrance to Newark Park on the left.
(B) Newark Park was built by the Poyntz family during the mid-16th century as a hunting lodge using stone from the former Cistercian Abbey at Kingswood near Wotton. It was made into a four-square castellated country house by James Wyatt in 1790 and is now owned by the National Trust with restricted seasonal opening times.
[5] From here, continue for 500 metres with the wall of the Park to your left, to reach a road junction where you turn left. 400 metres further, the wall is separated from the road by a wide verge; here, the road bends to the right and starts to drop downhill, but your route lies alongside the wall where you pick up a bridleway signposted ‘Cotswold Way’.
An alternative route from [5] to avoid walking along the road is to enter Newark Park at the entrance and follow the driveway to the car park where you turn right and follow the wall on your right to rejoin the road just before the bridleway.
This well-used track affords fine views to the right with the Tyndale Monument clearly visible on the hills above Wotton-under-Edge.
Follow the Cotswold Way for about 500 metres, passing through a wooden field gate and ignoring the track which jinks left at this point, cross the field.
(C) Where the ‘Way’ turns to the left a 'wardens bench' has been built. This is a combination of beech and Cotswold stone and it is a most splendid viewpoint and/or lunch stop, with one of the best views of the walk.
[6] From here, your path continues to the left, entering woodland and then climbing a set of steps to join the track that you ignored earlier. Go right, with conifers on both sides of the track, to reach a clearing from which radiates a number of tracks and paths. Look for a yellow waymark arrow on a low wooden post to the right of the track and follow the footpath to which you are directed. The first part of this path runs between a mixture of shrubs and trees, mainly sycamore and coppiced ash, but as you descend into this sunken lane, the banks on either side become increasingly steep.
Carpets of celandine and primrose making a wonderful display in springtime. Wood violet, ivy and hartstongue fern complete the decoration on these soft (and often unstable) banks of sand and clay.
Suddenly, you are out in the open again and going over a wooden stile to a further track.
[7] Go left here for 150 metres then over another stile to a lane. Climb the stile opposite into a pasture where you go diagonally left, passing under power lines and aiming for the far opposite corner which as yet is out of sight. The path is well-trodden and you soon pass under further power lines before reaching a gate. Cross the following narrow strip of field with a stream to your right, then another gate, then the stream by way of an overgrown stone bridge. Follow the Cotswold Way to the right ignoring a path and stile ahead, and climb to the village of Alderley. When you reach the tarmac lane, turn right for a few metres then over crossroads.
(D) The village of Alderley (alder clearing) has fine houses, a legacy of the wealth accrued when the woollen industry was at its peak. Behind the church stands the Elizabethan Alderley House, now a school. Here, for generations, lived the Hale family, the most famous being Sir Matthew Hale (1609 -1676), who rose to become Lord Chief Justice and known as ‘The Upright Judge’ for his honesty and impartiality. He would have defended King Charles I at his treason trial in 1648 had the King admitted the validity of the trial.
In the churchyard is the grave of Marianne North who travelled the world painting, sketching and recording rare flora of remote countries. Her work was so admired that she built at her own expense a gallery at Kew to house her paintings so that any visitor could see them. She died in 1890 through ill-health brought on by the conditions in which she lived while travelling. At another house, The Grange, lived the eminent botanist Brian Hodgson who introduced the Himalayan rhododendron to this country.
Walk to a road junction where you fork left with the church on the right, then ahead for a few metres.
[8] Turn left along a drive with a fine Georgian house to your right. The drive ends at a wooden gate and from here, you follow the track which contours the hills, keeping close to the fence to your right. At the end of the path go through a gate to a track junction.
[9] The Cotswold Way goes down to the right but you go up to the left along aptly named Watery Lane. Take care as this can be very muddy after rain for the first 150 metres. You soon pass through a field gate and follow the now grassy track up through the middle of the valley.
(D) Around the marshy areas where springs feed the stream on your left, clumps of marsh marigolds grow; this once commonplace plant is becoming scarcer owing to its loss of habitat by land drainage.
The final stretch of the walk passes a pond on the left , goes through a gate then leaves the valley bottom via another gate with fence to the left. Follow the track through trees then out into the open.
Where the banks are free from grazing sheep, you see in spring and summer the purples, whites, golds, blues and yellows of countless flowers. Early purple orchids also flower here in late April, a fitting finale to a wonderful walk.
The path leads you in a few hundred metres to the top of the valley and the Millennium Garden, returning you to the hamlet of Tresham.