[1] With the car park behind you walk down the footpath and past St Peter's Church to Tagwell Road.
[2] Turn left and go up Tagwell Road. Cross The Holloway and continue on Tagwell Rd. At Cockshute Hill cross the road junction and immediately bear briefly left then right on a footpath signed Droitwich Spa Diamond Jubilee walks -- Hadzor Circular Route (HCR). Go straight on at a crossing path and turn left along a concreted bridleway (HCR) that goes under the M5.and brings you out on Gaudet Luce Golf Club. Follow the footpath until you reach the clubhouse, ignoring the HCR which turns off left just before it.
[3] Turn right and follow the main drive to emerge onto Middle Lane. Turn left and cross the road to face oncoming traffic. There is no footway but beware right-hand bend where you leave the road as below.
[4] After 150 metres at a road junction take a footpath over a stile on the right and turn left along a tarmac drive. Once through the farmyard climb a stile and go directly ahead, passing a pond left, following the line of telegraph poles. Arriving at the field edge turn right to the corner of the field. Climb a stile and walk down an enclosed and often overgrown path with a property on your left to emerge onto a lane which has become a dead end due to the M5. Turn left past 'Little Grange'.
(A) There is the constant noise of the M5 for this part of the walk. However in 1806 it did not exist and somewhere over to the right and now buried beneath the M5 is the spot where in 1806 Reverend George Parker was brutally murdered.
[5] Emerging from this lane on a bend in the road you will see the Oddingley village sign, cross the stile on your right. Walk across the field passing an old water tower and keeping the hedge on your right. Pass a semi derelict barn, climb a stile and follow the field edge to where a stile exits onto a lane. Turn left and in 30 metres turn right over a stile into a field. Go directly ahead. Cross an electric fence and two stiles. Continue straight ahead to a gap at a junction of hedges right of a solitary oak tree, then continue on with the hedge on your right. Cross a stile onto a small bridge over a dry ditch. Bear slightly right through this field (horses) to a stile in the furthest corner and climb it into another field. Continue along its right-hand boundary. There is an old orchard over the hedge on your right.
[6] Climb a stile and emerge onto Church Lane.
It was higher up this lane on the right that Reverend Parker lived in his Rectory in 1806. The rectory no longer exists. Every afternoon he left the rectory and walked up to his Glebe Meadow to check his cows. It was here on Midsummer’s day 1806 that he was shot and beaten to death. The Glebe meadow now lies beneath the M5.
Turn left and in a few metres turn right into St James Churchyard (B) .........A lovely place to pause for a break
(B) Leaflets (25 pence donation to church funds please) can be obtained inside the church giving a précis of the circumstances of 1806. The Reverend George Parker is buried inside the church but his stone is covered by carpet. At the time of the murder Reverend Parker had been the rector for 13 years but since his marriage had asked for the tithe payments to be increased. The local farmers refused.
Retrace your steps back to the lane and turn right. Follow the lane and pass the entrance to Church farm (C) on the right.
(C) This was the residence of Captain Evans in 1806. Captain Evans along with a few local farmers resented Reverend Parker because of his stance on tithes.
Continue down the lane and cross the canal. Take a short detour along the the canal towpath to view the old farm and the church. Retrace your steps and cross the railway at the manned crossing point.
Continue walking down Netherwood Lane On the right is a poplar plantation. Then on the left is Netherwood Farm (D). It was here in January 1830 during some restoration work that a skeleton was discovered. It was identified as Richard Heming. On an old brick barn is a plaque with the dates 1806, 1830 and the initials RH. The investigation of 1830 established that Captain Evans of Church Farm, Thomas Clewes who was living at Netherwood Farm in 1806 plus two other local farmers Barnett and Bankes had probably hired Richard Heming a local carpenter to kill the Reverend and then one of them had killed Heming and buried him in the barn. Clewes , Banks and Barnet were arrested and taken to Worcester gaol but later released. After his release Clewes took the lease of The Fir Tree Inn and became a coal merchant on the canal.
Continue along Netherwood Lane.
[7] Pass two cottages on the left and opposite a cottage on the right go over a stile on the left into a field. Follow the hedge on your left to go through a metal kissing gate then over a wooden bridge and a stile. Walk directly ahead across this field to the left hand corner and take a path which winds through woodland. Eventually arrive at a footbridge which you cross and turn right up a field edge to arrive at Sale Green, a junction of several paths.
[8] Turn left on a field edge path with Trench Wood on your right. Go through a hedge gap at the end of this field. After 20 metres cross the stile on your right into Trench Wood and turn left continuing in the same direction on a path which generally keeps to the edge of the wood throughout. After about half a mile a metal field gate at a junction of tracks is reached. Keep ahead, as waymarked, to soon traverse an open field in the same direction along a tree line before entering woodland again.
(E) Trench Wood a local beauty spot and revered for its bluebells also has a darker past. In 1805 Berrows Worcester Journal carried a piece concerning the discovery of a den where criminals hid their booty. Search for this if you have time! There are marvelous views over to the left. You can see the railway, the canal and the M5 none of which were there on that fateful day in 1806.You can also see at certain points St James Church, Church Farm and Netherwood Farm
At the far corner is a metal kissing gate. Go through and follow a well -walked footpath going steeply downhill, more centrally, through the wood to reach a stile and the railway crossing. Take great care trains are frequent
[9] Once across the railway pass by a property with caravans in the grounds turn right through a kissing gate and along a narrow enclosed path to emerge onto a lane.
Alternatively before reaching the railway, at the bottom of the steep drop turn right. It is possible to walk through the wood and emerge onto the lane where you turn left and cross the railway at the gated crossing. Take great care.
On your right is The Fir Tree Inn (F) where for many years there has been a Murderers Bar. You could pause here awhile and take refreshment but it has been flooded twice in 2012 so it may not be open. Once past the Fir Tree Inn turn onto the canal with it on your left. Further on the path leaves the canal because of Dunhampstead Tunnel but after a short climb followed by a descent passing the entrance to Tunnel Farm you are back on the towpath.
Continuing along it we are briefly joined from the right by the Wychavon Way but it leaves us again at the next bridge at Shernal Green. Walk on to bridge 32 otherwise known as Hammonds Bridge.
[10] Cross the canal at this bridge and follow a grassy track to reach Hadzor Lane. Turn right. By the telephone box turn left onto an enclosed footpath (HCR) leading to Gaudet Luce Golf Club. Follow the footpath with the hedge on your right around past the clubhouse and back under the motorway. The clubhouse serves refreshments and welcomes visitors but clean your shoes first using the blower.
Once on Tagwell Road turn right and retrace your steps to St Peters Church. (G) Captain Evans died in 1829 one year before the bones were found at Netherwood Farm. He was aged 92 and apparently beset by terrors and demons. He had spent his later life in Friar Street, Droitwich and is buried in St Peter’s Churchyard. Look for his headstone
If this walk has whetted you appetite read the book:
Damn his Blood
Being a True and Detailed
* History * of * the * Most
Barbarous and Inhumane
Murder at Oddingley and the
Quick *and *Awful * Retribution
Peter Moore