[1] From the village green, walk along the road with the New Inn pub to your right and the church behind you. Go left at the signed track (opposite ‘Wot Not’) and follow this surfaced route for some distance, crossing a little-used railway line and eventually reaching a lane
[2] Cross over the lane, and continue in the same direction until your route climbs to meet a surfaced road.
(A) On your right are the remains of Ram Hill Colliery. This mine, sunk in the 1820s to a depth of 558ft, was once the hub of 19th century coal mining in Westerleigh parish. The site is located at the heart of the North Bristol Coal Field and holds the remains of the steam engine house, the horse gin, the mineshaft, the Dramway terminus. The Dramway (the local name for the Bristol & Gloucestershire Railway), was built in 1828 and was probably the last railway in England designed to use horses as a means of locomotion. The colliery closed in the 1860s, along with other pits in the area. In 2006 the Ram Hill Colliery site was given scheduled monument status by English Heritage.
Continue ahead along the road signed ‘Dramway Footpath’, and ahead again at a road junction.
[3] On reaching a gated track on the left take this, but not before looking back into the field on the right, over the gate. Here, you can make out the line of the tramway, which crossed the road here and is the track you now follow.
In a short distance, where the track bears right to a house, continue ahead on a path and through a kissing gate.
(B) As you pass by the cricket clubhouse, notice the limestone blocks set into the ground. The holes held the iron ‘chairs’ that in turn secured the railway tracks.
When you reach a road, (site of another coal pit), cross and go through the kissing gate, then walk down the field, boundary left. Climb another stile and continue to a metal gate with stables beyond, then pass these to reach a road.
[4] The Dramway continues ahead, but your route continues to the right.
On you left now is Bitterwell Lake, once used to soak pit props.
You can usually walk alongside the lake parallel to the road, returning to the road via a metal gate (if the gate is open). Follow the road for a short distance, passing a cross-track – another branch of the Dramway from Henfield Colliery – to the signed path on the left. Go through the gate and follow the path through two further gates to exit at a road.
[5] Turn right and walk to the main road. Go left here and walk with care along the verge, eventually going right into Oakleigh Green Farm Lane. Follow this road.
[6] Turn left before the entrance to the slaughterhouse and walk round the perimeter fence to a gated railway crossing on the left. Beyond the railway, pass through a kissing gate then go ahead up the hill, keeping roughly left to reach a metal gate at the top. Go through, then head left towards the farmhouse. Climb the stile by the gate, cross a stretch of waste ground with the house to your right, then continue over the field to a stile hidden in the far side of this irregularly-shaped field. Climb this, and in a short distance another, then cross the field to a third.
[7] In the next field, keep in the same direction with a house up to your right. At the far side, climb a stile and take the steps down to a road. Cross over and take the track ahead, climbing a stile by a field gate, with Westerleigh church in view. Follow the obvious path towards the church, climb a stile and walk ahead through a kissing gate to enter a playing field. Exit this left of the church and follow the path to the road, with Ye Olde Inne to your left. The village green is to your right.