[1] From the car park entrance and cross to Court Way. Follow Westholme Road ahead to the end where a path leaves, signed Heart of England Way waymarks showing four green trees.
(A) The Heart of England Way links Bourton-on-the-Water in stershire with Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, passing through about 100 miles of central England, Including the (alleged) centre, the village of Meriden. See: www.heartofengland.org
This fenced path emerges onto Jackson’s Meadow, turn left and then right along the main road. Continue on the right-hand pavement to just before the former railway bridge. The footpath waymark can be seen ahead on the opposite side. Cross to walk on the roadside up and over the bridge. Be aware of traffic in each direction as driver visibility is limited.
[2] Take the path signed left, down steps and along a fenced path to a road. Cross to another marked path, through a small copse to emerge in the corner of the village recreation field. Continue ahead, follow the left-hand hedge to a path in the corner by houses. This takes walkers to a road in Broom village, by house number 19.
[3] Cross to the minor road, passing the attractive brick and timber, Elizabethan, Broom Tavern. At the next road, still following Heart of England signs, cross to pass between a hedge and a brick wall to a stile into a field. Go ahead, pass to the left of a hedge to reach another stile (sometimes a gate). The track passes the entrance to an agricultural contractor’s yard. Continue ahead over five more stiles.
There is an alternative shorter route between waypoints [4] and [6]. Continue following the waymarked Heart of England Way, over the next two water courses including three stiles and two footbridges to arrive opposite the Fish Inn.
[4] At this point, leave the Heart of England Way,(which goes ahead) go diagonally right to a stile in the middle of a cross-fence and then ahead to a stile by the roadside field gate. The Three Horseshoes pub garden is on the left. It was possibly named as there used
to be a smithy next door .Turn left, pass the pub and take the second lane on the right, signed to Wixford church.
(B) This lane is a section of the former Roman road, Ryknild Street. Its route can be traced between the Fosse Way at Bourton-on-the-Water to Alcester and beyond to South Yorkshire. Some parts are road, some rights-of-way but others have all but disappeared through agriculture. At Bidford, the Roman road used to cross the River Avon by a ford, about 200yards upstream of the church. This was replaced in the15th century by a bridge which necessitated a slight change of the line. The village built up round the cross-roads with the main street.
(C ) The white house on the hill to the right is the Victorian Oversley Castle and can be seen for many miles around. St. Milburgha’s church at Wixford, built 1881, is worth a visit but the key has to obtained from the keeper named on the board. In the churchyard is an enormous yew tree and a little thatched building where, allegedly, the vicar used to stable his horse while conducting a service.
[5] On leaving the churchyard, turn right along a footpath in front of houses and towards the village. This becomes narrow and enclosed, goes through two gates and a permanent caravan site overlooking the River Arrow to reach the car park of the Fish Inn. Across the road is the Heart of England Way waymark where the alternative route rejoins.
[6] For both routes, now turn towards the river, taking the left-hand side of the road cross the bridge carefully, pass a gateway and, after another 60 yards, take the signed footpath left, down steps and through a hand-gate.
[7] Walk ahead, keeping the hedge and former railway line on the left. After three large fields, during which section there are some nice views even though the A46 is evident to the right, the path/track meets another road. Turn left towards the village and re-cross the river.
(D) Just before the road, the remains of Broom station can be seen on the left. There was a junction of railways just south of here and old maps and aerial photos clearly show the alignments. The north-south line ran between Evesham and Redditch and the eastern line connection to Stratford-on-Avon was completed in 1879. Passenger services were suspended in 1947 and the line closed about 1952.
[8] Immediately after the offices of the Royal Life Saving Society (note the building that allows for flooding), turn right on a signed footpath track, pass a few houses and continue ahead through a copse with the river visible on the right.Follow the road round to the left and on the next corner are some interesting thatched houses.
[9] Turn right onto a bridleway before a converted barn. The path crosses the former railway line and enters a field of asparagus. Ignore the track straight ahead and go diagonally right to a field gate.
(E) Behind the farm buildings on the left is Broom Court, built about 1618. Only a few parts of the original remain and have been added to many times in the18th century. The original moat is now little more than a ditch. An early crossing of the River Arrow was replaced by a ford and later a bridge upstream of this property. The river rises in the Lickey Hills and joins the River Avon below Marriage Hill, on the county boundary with Worcestershire.
Keep the woodland away on the right, go ahead across the next two fields, still on the no longer visible bridleway, to a track alongside a hedge on the left. Follow this for two fields when the path switches to the other side of the hedge. Continue on this bank (Marriage Hill) to the road, the B439 .
[10] Turn left and take the roadside pavement back to Bidford,(a long noisy stretch) passing the supermarket on the left. At the roundabout, turn left and return to the car park in Wards Lane.