Chipping Sodbury is an early example of town planning; William Crassus laid out the town in 1175 on the site of an older Saxon settlement. The wide main street originally had buildings in the middle, and the plots had service roads to the rear. The first market charter was granted in about 1200, at a time when cows could be bought for ten shillings (50p) and pigs for sixpence (2.5p pence).
[1] From the car park, cross the Wickwar Road to a tarmac footpath with the Kingfisher symbol of the Frome Valley Walkway. Walk with the river on your right to a road, go right, over the bridge and then immediately left on a grassy path with the Frome now on your left.
[2] Walk with the river to another road, cross, then beyond a grassed area pick up the river, still to your left, and pass a footbridge (your return route).
[3] Keep close to the river, eventually joining a surfaced path behind houses with views of the Cotswold escarpment away to your left. On reaching a footbridge, cross and follow the path into a field.
[4] Walk the length of this field, go through a gate and cross the next field where, beyond another gate, you keep right, with the Frome beyond the hedge. The path eventually drifts away from the river-bank, crossing the field ahead to a gate and footbridge in the far hedge. The path now guides you slightly right.
(A) Notice the railway ventilation tower (one of six) on the ridge ahead, built around 1900, on Brunel's South Wales main line from Paddington. Chipping Sodbury had a railway station that opened in 1903, closing in 1961. The bricks for the towers were made locally in Old Sodbury.
[5] On reaching another gate, pass through and cross the narrow field to a lane. Here, you leave the Frome Valley Walkway. Cross the road, climb the stile and in a short distance another. Walk half-left to a further stile and in the next field go ahead, aiming for Old Sodbury church on the hillside.
[6] After climbing the next stile go left, up the field, keeping the hedge to your left. In the top corner of the field you pass through a kissing gate and join the Cotswold Way. Make the short ascent to the church where you will find a comfortable bench, from where you can enjoy the views westward with Chipping Sodbury church in the distance.
Walk through the churchyard to reach a lane. Go right, then turn left onto a wooded path alongside the school boundary wall, waymarked ‘Cotswold Way’.
[7] Pass through two kissing gates keeping the fence on the left to reach a further gate. Go through and walk ahead along the top of the field. After the next kissing gate, follow Cotswold Way signs and double-back right, up the hill, ignoring the path ahead.
[8] You now have a short, steep wooded climb to a further kissing gate. On reaching it, go through, ignoring the path right, to reach Little Sodbury Camp.
(B) Eleven acres in size with ramparts up to twelve feet high, Little Sodbury Camp was a large Iron- Age hill fort dating from about 500 BC. It was subsequently fortified by the Romans and in later times was used as a resting place by King Edward IV on his way to the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
Your route takes you across the fort, exiting at the far side to the left of the farm buildings and turning left to a kissing gate.
[9] Beyond the gate, follow the Cotswold Way descending half left with the farm buildings on your right. Turn left, losing height along a wooded path to reach fence ahead with barn on your right. Go through the gate and cross a small orchard to the next gate and exit onto the road.
(C) The driveway is the entrance to Little Sodbury Manor. William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English in the early 1500s, stayed here in 1521 as tutor to the family of Sir John Walshe. The Manor was an important house – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn stayed here in 1535. In an age when religion was a political issue, Tyndale fled to the continent, but was arrested, accused of heresy and treason and burnt at the stake near Brussels in 1536.
The ruins of a mediaeval church are high on the bank above the manor house and stones from it were used to build the present one, that you will soon pass.
[10] At the road, turn right and walk through the village, passing the church of St. Adeline, the patron saint of Flemish weavers. Just before the road junction, you leave the Cotswold Way, taking the footpath left over a stone stile. You will now follow the Monarch’s Way back to Chipping Sodbury.
[11] Beyond the stile, walk through a small plantation, climb another stile and head out across the meadow to the far right corner and a stile by the electricity pole. Continue, hedge right, to a stile and footbridge, then in the next field aim again for the far right corner to cross another.
[12] Now proceed to the stile ahead and cross the bridge beyond. The fields either side of this crossing get waterlogged after rain, so choose your path carefully! Walk up the field to a stile in the hedge, Winchcombe Farm to your right then continue a short distance to pass through a gate. Now go left to cross another stile, then half-right to find a stile in the far corner, hidden in the trees.
[13] Beyond, go through the old orchard, cross the footbridge then the stile, and now walk half-left, picking up the left boundary and looking for a footbridge near the top left corner of the field. In the next field, go right, keeping to the right boundary, to reach two gates giving access to a farmyard.
[14] Continue through the yard, exiting via a gate in the right hand corner. Now, follow the fence on the left to a gate, then continue, crossing a metalled lane to reach another gate. From here, follow the well-defined path to a gate in the top corner of the field, then a short distance further, cross the footbridge passed on your outward journey.
[15] You will now retrace your steps for the last leg of the walk, cross the road and follow the path with the River Frome on your right to reach the bridge. Go right, then left, now walking with the Frome on the left. Continue to the Wickwar Road and cross to the car park.