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Martley: all the Hopehouses!

Difficulty Easy

Walking time 1 hour 20 minutes

Length 4.4km / 2.7mi

Route developer: Robin Waterhouse

Route checker: Michael Everitt

Start location Martley Village Hall, Martley, Worcestershire
Route Summary An easy walk in an area of fields and woods with pleasant rolling views.
*move mouse over graph to see points on route
Getting there

By car: The Village Hall is on the B 4197 as it enters Martley from the south-west.  It is the first building on the right, immediately after the cricket field on the right. Parking maybe available for cars at the Village Hall (often busy at weekends for sport fixtures). For permission try David Cropp 01886 888 398 

By bus: Martley is served by buses 308, 309 and 310 from Worcester on Mondays to Saturdays.  Some buses continue to Clifton-upon-Teme.










































 

Description

[1]    Exit from the car park in front of the Village Hall and turn right along the footway on the right hand side.  In a few metres turn left through a gate onto a footpath.  Take care here crossing the road as it can be busy.  In about 100 metres turn right in front of a shed with a hedge on the right.  At the end of the hedge go right between buildings onto a road by a garage on the left.  Turn right along the road, taking care of traffic.  In about 100 metres, where the road bends to the right, take a footpath on the left.  Go straight over the first stile and after the second stile fork right to pass through a gate in the diagonally opposite corner of the field.  There may be horses in these fields, so take care with children and keep dogs under control.  Follow the fence on the left to a gate on the left out onto a road.

[2]    Turn right along the road and shortly sharp left into a church car park.  Just before the church (A) Martley Parish Church of St Peter, turn right onto a track.  The track meanders a bit and then turns sharp right.  At this point, leave the track and take a half-right path diagonally across a field.  In some 400 metres continue straight along the edge of a wood on the right.  In a further 200 metres or so turn right on a track through the wood.  On emerging from the wood continue with woods on the left until they end and cross a stile and footbridge on the left, keeping the same direction with a hedge on the right.  Carry on through an orchard to another stile and footbridge crossing them to continue over a field, aiming to the right of houses and out onto a road.  This is Hopehouse Lane.

[3]    Turn right on the road and in some 150 metres enter a field on the left at a finger post, following its direction sharp left.  Continue uphill to the right hand corner of the wood on the left.  This is Little Hopehouse Coppice.  Turn right, aiming to the right of the wood ahead.  This is Great Hopehouse Coppice.  Continue with the wood on the left for about 100 metres to a stile.  Cross the stile and turn right, with a hedge on right for a short distance, towards a communications mast.  Continue past the end of a hedge on the left but a few metres short of the mast.  Just ahead is Hopehouse Farm.  At this point the path goes half-left.  Take care here as the route is not easy to find since the path is on rough ground, overgrown and under trees.  At the time of writing, it sets off between two piles of wood, dropping steeply into a dip and quickly emerging into a field.  Continue straight across the field to a hedge.  Turn right, aiming towards Martley church, and come out at a road junction at the right hand end of a row of houses.

[4]    Turn left on the road with the houses on the right.  Just before the end of the houses turn right into St Peter’s Drive.  Take the first cul-de-sac on the left and follow it round to the right to the end.  The path passes to the right of the end row of houses between high fences.  Come out onto a playing field and follow the right hand side back to the village hall.

POI information

(A) Martley Parish Church. The red sandstone parish church of St Peter is Norman in origin.  Its peal of six bells, cast locally in 1673 by the bellfounder Richard Keene of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, is the only complete set of original bells in the county.  St. Peter's was one of the first churches in Worcestershire to have as many as six bells and at the beginning of the 18th century very few churches had more than three or four bells.  The church also contains some medieval wall paintings and an alabaster effigy of Sir Hugh Mortimer, Lord of Kyre & Martley, killed in battle at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. In 1999 a new stained glass window was cut, leaded and installed by Patrick Costeloe for the Artist Tom Denny.

Notes No details available.
Acknowledgements No details available.
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    St Peter's Church, Martley.
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    St Peter's Church, Martley.
    By - Robin Waterhouse
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    Carved tree trunk seat in Millenium Green by Martley Church
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