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Beam Bridge Rockwell Green Circular, Somerset

Difficulty Leisurely

Walking time 2 hours 30 minutes

Length 8.2km / 5.1mi

Route developer: Chris Mumford

Route checker: Edward Levy

Start location Beam Bridge Inn, Nr Wellington, Somerset TA21 0HB
Route Summary An easy circular walk with the Blackdown Hills as a backdrop.
*move mouse over graph to see points on route
Getting there

By car: The Beam Bridge Inn is on the A38 about 2.5 miles South West of Wellington, Somerset. There is road-side parking with information board opposite the Inn.

By bus: The Taunton to Tiverton bus, number 92 will you drop at the location. This currently runs about every hour.  Webbers bus route number 15, running from Bridgwater and through Taunton and Wellington, at half hourly intervals, terminates in Rockwell Green, just past waypoint 5.  If this bus is used the walk can commence from waypoint 5.

Description

[1] With your back to the Inn go along the road then farm track parallel with the railway line above you. Where the farm track turns right you go left through gate to pass beneath the track.

(A) The rail track above you is the stretch where the “City of Truro” steam locomotive achieved over 100 mph in 1904.

On joining minor road turn left and walk up the hill. At the top of the rise near some cottages turn left (waymarker on wooden gate) into fields and head for the church. Go through the church yard and continue on the road through and out of village to a T-junction. Turn left and left again into fields and across meadow in front of Easterlands. Walk in front of the cricket pavilion to pick up stream on left. Follow it along until meeting a track.

[2] Turn right and follow track up the slight incline. Through the field gate at the top to follow right hand hedge down to a gate leading onto the main road (HAZARD). Cross over and down to stile behind telegraph pole. Cross stile and bear slightly right down to gap in hedge. Follow left hand hedge to cross over stile onto and over minor road, through a kissing gate and towards barn which you skirt with it on your right.

[3] Walk towards another barn, over a squeeze stile to turn right and join track where you turn left and follow it towards a field gate but just before it, pass through a 2-in-1 gate on your right. Then turn left to follow left hand hedge on headland path which brings you out onto a track through another 2-in-1 gate.

(B) On this stretch you should be able to see two water towers off to your right. The brick one was built in the late C19 whilst the concrete one was built in the 1930s. Both are listed buildings.

[4] Turn left following the track around to your left, pass through a kissing gate to follow the headland path eventually crossing a short footbridge. This brings you into a metalled path running straight through the housing estate (please note this estate is not shown on the current ordnance survey map) until it joins the street running through Rockwell Green opposite the butchers.

[5] Turn left and in a short while turn right into a pedestrian lane just before some cottages. Follow straight on down to an electricity sub-station where you turn left, then through a kissing gate into a field on a well surfaced path but in a short distance move off the metalled path and follow the left hand hedge which will bring you onto a path beside what was a weir.

(C) It is possible that this weir was constructed to irrigate the fields as opposed to feeding a mill.

[6] Cross over the river and then the railway line (Take great care and make sure a green light is showing before you cross)  and follow the path bearing slightly left to bring you out through a kissing gate onto a private drive beside a pretty cottage. Walk up the drive and onto a metalled minor road.

[7] Turn left, follow this road around to the left and just before a bridge turn in right (finger post) to walk beside the stream. At the path junction with a road cross diagonally left to pass onto a path between field and old mill building.

[8] In short while pass through a wooden gate and walk ahead and to the right of wooden fence which you follow, climbing flood defense bung and onwards to reach a fence barring forward progress. Turn right through a squeeze stile and cross a sleeper bridge and walk up to road. Turn left and follow road all the way to Prowse's Mill.  At the Mill turn left and cross a squeeze stile alongside a gate, immediately turn right and go between outbuildings and mill, over squeeze stile and follow fenced path to and over standard stile. Turn left, pass through a field gate and then diagonally right across field to cross stile onto road.

[9] Turn left and follow road back to Beam Bridge.

POI information

Your start area is named after the type of bridge that was originally located there. A beam bridge is the most simple of structural forms being supported by an abutment at each end of the bridge deck. No movements are transferred throughout the support hence their structural type is known as simply supported.

The simplest beam bridge could be a slab of stone, or a plank of wood laid across a stream. Bridges designed for modern infrastructure will usually be constructed of steel or reinforced concrete, or a combination of both. The concrete used can either be reinforced, pre-stressed or post-tensioned. 

Why Sampford Arundel? The first part of the name 'Sampford' means sandy ford and the second part 'Arundel' commemorates Roger Arundel who was granted the manor by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, and to differentiate the village from Sampford Brett.

It's a record. On the stretch of line above the first part of the walk, the steam locomotive, City of Truro was timed at 8.8 seconds between two quarter-mile posts whilst hauling the "Ocean Mails" special from Plymouth to London Paddington on 9 May 1904. This timing was recorded from the train by Charles Rous-Marten, who wrote for The Railway Magazine and other journals. If exact (Rous-Marten's stopwatch read in multiples of 1/5 second), this time would correspond to a speed of 102.3 mph (164.6 km/h), while 9 seconds would correspond to exactly 100 mph.

Go to  http://www.sampfordarundel.org.uk/sampage58.php for information on the Fox family who lived at Easterlands.

Notes

Maps: OS Explorer 128 – Taunton & Blackdown Hills

Terrain: A few gentle undulations but mostly level.. The walk is on farm tracks and fields with a little road work on quiet country lanes or in Rockwell Green village. One busy main road to cross. A several easy stiles.

Dogs: on leads near livestock and when requested

Refreshments: Beam Bridge Inn.

Total overall ascent: 370 feet.

Acknowledgements No details available.
  • A simple but effective beam bridge.
    A simple but effective beam bridge.
    By -
  • Easterlands House
    Easterlands House
    By -
  • Water towers at Rockwell Green
    Water towers at Rockwell Green
    By - Derek Harper
  • City of Truro
    City of Truro
    By -
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