[1] With your back to the New Inn, turn left along road and in 5 yards left again at footpath sign. Follow hedge and ditch on left, over a cross track and continue in field with wood on left. Cross stile on your left buried in the hedge and follow the path through right hand edge of a walnut orchard to another wood. Follow right hand wood edge and after short distance bear left uphill through a wood on well used footpath. Go over stile by gate gate missing, through more walnut trees following Way Mark signs, then down into a dip bearing to the right to a stile below a white cottage. Follow permissive path, over 3 stiles anti clocwise, to go round the back of the cottage, then up a field and over stile at top. Continue forward up path between two fences to stile onto road.
(A) You are now near Birchwood Lodge which was one of Edward Elgar’s second homes between March 1898 and October 1903. Elgar loved Birchwood beyond any of his other homes apart from the Birthplace itself. His letters to Jaeger frequently refer to the sense of escape he found there. He had a Broadwood piano installed in a bedroom in April 1898. Here he completed Caractacus, itself set among the hills that Elgar could now gaze upon from his study window, four of the Sea Pictures (In Haven, the second of the songs, having been composed two years earlier) and essentially the whole of The Dream of Gerontius. See http://www.elgar.org/2houses.htm
Turn right along road and in 25 yards re-enter field over stile on right. Bear left to gate by wood and trees Gate Missing. Continue across next field with fence coming in from your right, heading towards cottage in far distance. Go through gate in hedge in corner of field. Continue on same line and go through kissing gate to right of cottage, then continue forward along track through wood. After about 800 yards turn left , just before a cottage. Go down narrow path alongside garden fence on your right. At crossing path, turn left to keep another garden on your right and then soon turn right downhill to road.
[2] Turn left along road for 150 yards. At footpath sign on the right, go steeply down a narrow path on right to join a track. Turn left along the track. At end of track pass the entrance to garden and house on your left and continue ahead over footbridge crossing Leigh Brook.
(B) The large modern footbridge you cross was provided in 2008 at a cost of just under £10,000 following the floods in summer of 2007 when the original footbridge was washed away. Apparently the small cottage to the left of the footbridge was also flooded to nearly its first floor level.
You now enter the Knapp and Papermill Nature Reserve. Turn left uphill, through kissing gate, then turn sharp right alongside fence on your right for 50 yards to a gate. Go through a new gate and down steps to a track. You now follow the beautiful Leigh Brook with it on your right through woodland, then through a gate into a meadow. Continue as far as two large gates and go through a kissing gate on the right. Cross the brook again over an arched stone bridge called Piffany Bridge, so called because years ago tenants came here on Jan 6th, the Feast of Epiphany, to pay their rents. Bear left, then proceed uphill and over stile out of Reserve. Continue round field with fence on left to a farm gate leading into farmyard of Milham Farm. In 20 yards turn sharp left through farm gate into field and then turn right to cross field, with fence to Milham Farm buildings and gardens on your right, to stile in far hedge and steep steps down to road.(752519)
[3] Turn right uphill along road for 100 yards to footpath sign on left. Go up stone steps and through gate into garden. The Landowner reluctantly accepts walker’s rights to use this garden path but sometimes makes directed comments about unnecessary intrusion – it is best to avoid conversation with him. Bear left, keeping well below house, and head for stile in far left corner and out of garden. Continue with ditch and hazel trees on left to stile in hedge to your front, then forward through wood No clear path on the ground and often overgrown rough ground to join road. Cross road and go over stile into field. Bear slightly left towards right hand side of house and footbridge but do not cross footbridge. Turn right through farm gate and cross next field to stile at foot of bank. Bear right up bank and go through missing farm gate. Continue forward along fence on your right, then over two stiles into large field. Bear left across field to stile at far left and bend in road. (A shelter belt of trees has been planted and will impede the route) Hopton Court is on the left. Turn right along road (757523).
[4] Go up road and at T-junction (with cottage on your right), turn left. Almost immediately turn right through farm gate and follow bridleway across field, turning right in front of next gate. Continue along winding bridleway track, following hedge on left and eventually going through two metal gates to Ashcroft House with its hop kiln. Go along driveway and through another gate and on to road. Turn right along road. In a short distance (50 yards) bear left down cul-de-sac lane to Kingshill Cottages. Go through gate at end of lane, by cottages on your right, into an orchard, then straight ahead, ignoring footbridge and stile on your left, to follow a sunken small stream on your left. At end of orchard do not enter wood to your front but cross stream on your left and go through a pedestrian/bridleway gate. Climb bank and follow wood and hedge on your right to go through farm gate. The path continues uphill with initially wood on right to a small gate then on for another 150 yards to a small metal gate on the right, sometimes hidden in the hedge vegetation. Go through gate to admire a fine barn conversion, now an upmarket house, and turn left onto track and follow hedge on left.
(C) When first seen some ten years ago this was a substantial but deteriorating barn. The owner has mainly used his own workmen from his farm/orchard business to rebuild the barn into the fine house you now see. Local walkers have watched the slow progress with great interest over the years and have often speculated whether the work would ever be finished. I was privileged to be shown round the ground floor of the house whilst work was ongoing some three years ago and the quality of materials and workmanship was staggering as was the interior design of the new house.
The track continues gently downhill to pass The Norrest on the left with its many barn conversions and open plan apple and cherry orchards on your right. At far end of the approach road to Norrest, where road turns sharply left at some farm buildings, turn right gently uphill on farm track. In 50 yards go through gap in hedge on your left and diagonally across field on rough track to far right corner, Worcestershire Way, and back to the main road A4103 and the New Inn.