[1] Go to the far right hand corner of the car park at the opposite end to which you drive in and take the gully leading away from the car park to the right. Enter the cul-de-sac and follow this through to the main road, at which point turn left.
(A)Studley is a large village in Warwickshire with a population of around 6,000 people. It is close to the Roman Road of Ryknield street and the River Arrow. Its history dates back to the Domesday Book and it was also the site of a nearby priory. In the industrial phase it became well known for the needles trade. Today it has a sizeable number of residential properties supported by a range of retail and local services.
At the traffic island take the wide drive on the opposite side of the road leading off to your right. Just before the drive bears round to the right pick up the narrow path on your left hand side through a kissing gate, proceed ahead in the same direction.
(B) The site of Studley Priory was around here. It was originally a twelfth century Augustinian dwelling, but was abolished under Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. Much of the stone was removed and used in other local buildings and little remains apart from a few fragments in the vicinity of Priory Farm.
Follow the path round, cross the river by the bridge, go through the kissing gate, and then follow to the right along the river. At the next gate, pass through and continue ahead aiming for another gate by the road.
[2] Do not pass through the gate by the road, instead turn left and head up a very large, open field, angling slightly left to eventually pick up and follow a hedgerow on your left hand side parallel to your direction of travel.
(C) To your right you can see Studley Castle. It is actually a country house, completed in 1835, in the Gothic Revival style. Formerly an agricultural college and a training centre for Rover Cars, it is now a modern hotel and conference centre set in attractive grounds.
Pass through a gate in the far left corner of the field, and carry on to the next gate. Cross a track and continue in the same direction following the hedgerow on your left hand side.
Continue through two more gates and then turn right and pursue a track towards a farm. Pass through the farmyard and continue along the drive. Shortly before reaching the road, go through a gate on the right and go diagonally left across the field to a kissing gate leading onto the road.
Go through a small gap opposite, that marks the start of another footpath. Follow it through two gates in quick succession, separated by houses on either side, and then cross a grassy field straight ahead.
Aim for a fence (do not get sucked into the wide drive on your right) and in a corner in front of a house cross it via a waymarked gate. Turn left to another gate and continue to a third which reaches a drive by an area of glasshouses.
[3] At this point turn left and continue along a very prominent and well made drive through some farm buildings. After a big house on the right take a footpath via a black metal field gate to your right, going across a grassy field containing some telegraph wires. Head diagonally across to the far right hand corner, passing through a gate onto a track. Turn right and follow the track round to your left. Where the track swings right carry on straight ahead along a hedgerow to your left.
Pass through another gate and then with a slight right veer carry on down to a further gate in front of a small copse. Continue uphill ahead with the copse on your right hand side. Descend the other side of this knoll and then go through another gate, continuing ahead with a hedgerow on your right hand side.
Pass two wide gaps in the hedge then take a gate in the hedge and pass immediately through a second gate. Go diagonally across the field to a gate in the far right hand corner. Pass through the gate, cross a stream, go through another gate and continue ahead keeping to the left hand side of the field. Take a gate on your left near the far corner and continue along a grassy track fenced on either side until you reach and pass through another gate.
Go ahead 10 metres and through a kissing gate on the right. Go up to the top right corner of the field, then keep ahead on a track going right of a brick house to reach a road. Turn left into a farmyard and turn right just in front of the stables to reach a gate. Go diagonally left across a wide, open field.
[4] Pass through the gate at the far left hand corner of this field on to the road and turn left downhill to take another gate on your right just past Chesters Green cottages. In a short way take another gate on your right and cross a stream, continuing ahead with the field boundary on your left hand side.
Climb over a small rise, pass through a gate and descend down the other side with a small stream and field boundary on your right hand side. Pass through another gate and continue ahead with a wire fence and then a small copse on your right hand side down towards a series of farm buildings.
Just before the farm buildings pass through a gate on your right, and then very quickly another one, before proceeding ahead with a fence on your left hand side. Cross a stile on to a tarmac path, and opposite go through a gate and then walk along a grassy stretch through another gate and out on to the main road.
Go right a couple of yards and cross the road to a stile which leads into a field. Continue ahead across a large, open field with pylons crossing in the distance. Aim slightly right of the middle pylon. A wire fence divides the field, cross it via a stile.
(D) Ahead of you is Oldberrow Court. It is a timber framed building predominantly from the 16th and 17th centuries now grade II listed since 1967.
Head towards the middle part of a hedgerow marking the far side of the next field. A double wooden plank crosses a stream leading to a stile, which you cross to get into the next stretch.
Pass through a gate and continue ahead with a wooden fence on your right hand side. Where the wooden fence changes design, step over a stile on your right onto a wide tarmac track in front of double gates providing the entrance to a sizeable property.
Follow the track ahead, after crossing a cattle grid just before the main road, turn right over a stile and walk along the left edge of a grassy field parallel to the road. At the end of this field cross a stile, and go ahead to another stile which takes you back to the main road.
[5] Turn right, cross the road, and then very quickly take a path starting at a gate on the left. Continue ahead with a field boundary on your left hand side. Where the field boundary turns left, continue straight ahead, crossing an open field and heading towards an opening in a hedge on the far side of the field, a little uphill.
Pass through a gate, and go diagonally left to the bottom left corner of the field. Turn left along a wide track, pass through a gate then go through the middle of three gates, where you leave the track and head towards an electricity pylon, with the field boundary on your left hand side.
Pass through another gate and continue straight ahead. Go through another gate and then a further one quickly on your right hand side to reach the road. Turn left and walk along the road which bears round to the right.
[6] A little way ahead take a gate on your right, which is waymarked as the Heart Of England Way. It climbs gently at first and then quite steeply up to Bannam Wood. Enter Bannam Wood.
(E) Bannam's Wood is an Site of special Scientific Interest well known for its invertebrates.
Keep straight ahead through the wood, following the footpath for some way. Eventually the path drops down to the road. On reaching the road, turn left and continue slightly downhill along it. The road bears first left, then right, and then drops down steeply. Continue past a farm, and further ahead, where it bears left by a wide drive, ignore the gate and waymark next to it. Instead continue ahead down the next straight stretch of the same road you have been walking along.
[7] A few hundred metres ahead, shortly before a left bend, turn right on to an open, wide track. A little way along, by a pylon, turn left along a grassy path, with a hedge on your right. Go through a gate, go straight ahead over a cross track and through another gate into a long field. Keep ahead, parallel to the wires at first, then angling over to the far right corner of the field to pass through an area of scrub and reach a field gate. Turn right, following a stream on your right, to reach a track. Turn right.
Continue ahead along the dirt track for some way. In front of a private access gate turn left into an open stretch of field. Take a grassy track ahead but slightly left between lines of newly planted trees (rather than the slightly straighter, grassy track in front of you). Proceed slightly uphill and then onto a downhill stretch. A hedge comes in from your left, turning through ninety degrees to run parallel to your direction and showing the entrance to a narrow, hemmed in path which you now follow through to a cemetery gate.
[8] Pass through the cemetery and exit at the other end by a gate onto a road. Turn left and follow the road round to the right in front of the church. (Ignore a path starting on the bend.) A few yards ahead take the gate on your left, go down some steps and continue ahead to cross the river by the footbridge. Take a diagonal right route, aiming at a point where the river meanders sharply to its right.
Follow the river on past the meander and come to a gate leading to a road. Immediately turn left and follow the waymarked path that leads uphill parallel to the field. At the end of this path turn right into a cul-de-sac. Shortly turn left along a road that leads you up on to the main road through Studley. Turn right, cross over and return via Needle Close further down on your left, and the gully you started along will take you back into the car park.