[1] From the layby across the A44 from the café, and facing the cafe, turn right uphill on the busy and fast A44. Great care needed walking round the bend. In about 150 yards turn right down a track to soon pass a house. Continue for 400 yards. Just before a Wellingtonia tree, go through a farm gate on the right, down to a stile in the left hand fence by another Wellingtonia, and down to a gate in the bottom far right corner. Follow the left hand fence then take a kissing gate and footbridge on the left. Bear half right to a gate, cross a bridge and follow the track up to a road. Cross over, go over a stile opposite, follow the right hand fence then go through a gate into the farmyard. Go up the steps in the bank opposite and over two stiles at the top. Cross to the fence (look right to see Whitbourne Hall in the trees) and follow it on your left to cross the bridge at the far end of field at the head of a lake.
(A) Whitbourne Hall is a grade II* listed neo-Palladian country house. The hall was first constructed in 1860 by the architect E. W. Elmslie, who also designed the Great Malvern railway station, as well as a number of other notable buildings in Worcestershire. Today, Whitbourne Hall is situated in eight acres of gardens, and is divided into twenty-three private residences. However the hall is periodically open the public (every Monday in May and June), and is also hired out as a venue for weddings, private receptions and corporate events. The hall and grounds are also used for cultural events such as theatre productions and choral performances.
Go straight ahead to cross a farm road and go through a kissing gate to the right of two oak trees in the fence beyond, then go forward to a stile. Continue forward by a power pole in the middle of the field and on towards a stream by a tractor bridge. Do not cross the stream, instead turn right with stream on your left and, in a few yards, go over a stile in the fence. Go down to the right and over a ditch crossing, with stream still on your left. Follow the right-hand fence, cross a stile in it, then follow the fence on your left over two stiles to reach a road.
[2] Turn right along the road past the lodge and driveway to Whitbourne Hall on your right. Go over a bridge and then immediately left through a kissing gate. Follow the brook on your left through two field gates. Go half right to the corner of a wood and uphill with the wood on your left to a wooden hunting gate. Through the gate turn right uphill and follow the hedge to a gate and a track, where you turn left. Go forward along the green lane to a field gate to your front with field gates on your left and right. Turn right through the metal field gate into an orchard and follow the track to a gate and stile into a farmyard. Bear left between the farm buildings (Poswick Lodge) and leave the farm yard by a field gate. Continue forward to a stile by a gate near the left hand hedge and go ahead with the hedge on your left. Go straight ahead to two farm gates side by side to the left of a coppice. Go through the right hand gate and then immediately over the stile on your left and turn right. Continue with the fence on your right to the corner of the field. Cross a stile and keep straight on, still with the fence on your right. Go through a kissing gate then over a stile onto a road. Turn right and immediately left through Whitbourne.
[3] At the road T junction, with the village hall on your right, follow the road left, signposted to Clifton. Just after the speed limit signs, take the gate on the left. Cross a narrow field to go over stile. Turn right and follow the right hand hedge down to a footbridge and on to the road. Cross over and go up the drive of Woodbine Cottage. Just before the drive ends turn right through a wooden pedestrian gate and follow the right hand field boundary over 2 stiles to the road. Turn right to Whitbourne Church.
(B) The largest of five churches in the parish of Greater Whitbourne, St John the Baptist is located directly beside Whitbourne Court, a moated medieval Bishop's Palace used by the Bishop of Hereford as a summer residence (now a much restored private residence). The church interior has been much restored in the Victorian period, and includes some lovely 19th century stained glass, but the real treasure of the church is the ancient Norman font. The church walls are of local sandstone with dressings of the same material; the roofs are tiled. The south doorway and part of the south wall of the Nave are of late 12th-century date, but the rest of the nave and the Chancel were re-built in the 13th century. Towards the end of the 14th century the West Tower was added and late in the 15th century the chancel was probably shortened and the east wall re-built. The church was restored in 1866 when the Organ Chamber and the North Aisle and arcade were built; the South Porch was added in 1887.
From the Church go past the entrance to Whitbourne Court on your left, turn left along the road, over a bridge then immediately left through a kissing gate and then over a stile to your front. Cross the field straight ahead going to the right of the oak tree and on over a stile to turn right onto an old tree-lined road. Continue over a stile near the top of the old road and turn left at the T junction. Follow this track to the main road, the A44.
[4] Cross the road and go over the stile by a footpath signpost. Go slightly left up the field to a corner jutting out. Continue in the same direction, with the hedge on your right and ahead through a metal gate. At the end of the next field turn right over a stile by a metal gate then immediately left over another stile by a gate. Keeping hedges on your right , and ignoring the landowner's crude stile partway down this hedge, continue to the fence line at end of the field and bear right to go over a stile next to a farm gate. Follow the right hand fence past several large modern barns and past the front of the farmhouse, Knightwick Manor (an imposing seven bay early 18th century manor house). Now turn right through a gate with a black barn on the left. Cross down and then uphill to far left corner of the field and continue on the track and through two gates through a coppice and into an old orchard. Continue ahead to a bridge over a brook. Do not cross but go left through rusty double gates and walk up a narrow valley with the brook on your right to reach a stile. Still keeping parallel to the stream on the right, continue forward through a narrow gap in the hedge and through scrub, gradually dropping down close to the stream again and on through a hunting gate. On entering a large green field with a stream coming down from the left in its own small valley, cross the stream, (which may be dry in summer) and go left up the bank to find a stile at the top of the field. Cross it and follow the left hedge to a ladder stile that leads to a road. Turn right.
[5] Pass the old Suckley Station on your left and, just past Pump Cottage, go over a stile in the hedge on the right and cross diagonally across a field to the far left corner. Cross the stile, then turn left to follow the hedge to a wire fence. Turn right just before the fence and stile and follow the left hand hedge through two gates, then turn right down a track. When the track goes right into Park cottage, go ahead and take the stile on the left just before a field gate. Go down the field with the hedge on your right. Go over a stile in the right hand hedge and bear left across a small field to stile in front of a tennis court. Cross the tennis court via two gates and continue ahead through a garden with ponds on your right and a country house on your left to a gate by the first pond, then left to a stile that leads into a coppice. Bear diagonally right through the coppice to go through a farm gate in far corner and join a road.
(C) In several places this walk passes over or near the Worcester Bromyard and Leominster Railway, now dismantled. This Railway was first proposed in 1845, and an Act of Parliament to build it obtained in 1861. Estimated to cost £20,000, that number of £10 shares were issued. When sold to the Great Western Railway in 1887, the shares were only worth ten shillings. (50 pence). The line had only arrived from Worcester in 1877, and was only connected through to Leominster in 1897. It was a common destination for 'hop-pickers' specials' from the Black Country. There were five trains a day in each direction. The line to Leominster was closed in 1952, the last train ran in 1958, and the railway was closed due troubled financial stability (it had never paid its way) and was a victim of the Beeching cuts in 1963-4.
[6] Turn right along the road. Just past the railway bridge turn right onto the second farm track and through metal field gates. (The first track goes up onto the railway.) Follow the left hand hedge, cross over a stream and go through 3 gates by converted farm buildings, then join a track leading to another gate and the road. Turn right along the road and in 200 yards, just past a farm drive on the right, go over a stile on the left and go down the field, bearing slightly right, to a track and stream. Go over the stream through the right hand gate. Go uphill on a track past a smartly renovated farm on your right, through a farm gate and over a stile. Continue along the track up a steep bank to reach a stile at the top then follow the left hand hedge/fence to pass a house on left and join a wide track, Continue forward past Foxhall Cottage and on to Bringsty Common at Foxhall. In about 80 yards after curving left on this wide track, turn left onto a grassy track alongside a hedgerow on the left to pass a bungalow. Continue on same line and just before the second bungalow, tucked away on the left, bear right to join a vehicle track and downhill to pass to the right of a white sports pavilion and down to the road, then bearing right to the café and your starting point.