THE MENDIP RING - Leg 8b

Rodney Stoke to Westhay Nature Reserve Car Park. 10 Miles

Starting from St. Leonard's Church, Rodney Stoke G.R. ST 482 498

Section 1
Start from St. Leonard's Church and continue down the lane; at the junction turn left into Barrow Wood Lane pass Treasures Farm then across the fields to reach the River Axe At ST 470 480 turn left through the Bristol gate and follow the river for roughly a mile until you come to a black plastic water trough; turn left here and follow the raised path across the fields to reach a gate with stiles to the right; follow this path until you reach the tarmac, (Short Drove). Continue along this drove to the junction and turn left. Where the road bends left, take the path on your right and aim diagonally right up the hill to cross a stile. Go round the side of the hill and down to a gate onto the road (Moor Lane). Follow the lane left until you reach Lodge Hill Farm.

Section 2
Turn right through the farmyard, down Windmill Hill Lane; turn left at the junction into Rodmead Lane and follow it to enter the fields via a stile at the end. Follow the hedge on your right through the Bristol gate. Go over the bridge dog leg right and left to keep hedge now on left and keep following this path over another bridge to reach a gate after which you turn right. When you reach a water trough turn left cross the field to cross a bridge onto Knowle Moor Drove. Follow the drove for roughly a mile and when you come to a wooden footbridge on your left, cross this and follow the path across the fields to reach the B3139 at Bleadney. Cross the road into the lane opposite. At the top, turn left then up the steps at Rookery Farm into the field. Once over the stile at the top of the stairs, make your way right down the hill through the first field hedge to the next hedge in the valley bottom and follow this until you reach a double stile on your right. Cross these and then aim for the house to your left which takes you onto the road. Turn right and follow the footpath along the concrete track through Barn Farm (not signed) until you reach Yeap's Drove. Turn right follow the road over a crossroads. At the next junction turn right to reach the B3139 again.

Section 3
Turn left, then left again onto the alternative footpath avoiding the farmyard, aim for a stile in the far right hand corner, follow this path across the fields to eventually reach Dagg's Lane. Turn left following the lane over the old bridge and out to the road, cross the road into the drove which will take you to the car park at Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve.ST 456 437

Points of Historical Interest

Section 1
The bridge is over the old Strawberry Line (Leg 8a).

On Barrow Wood Lane the walk is approaching the northern edge of the Moors and Levels. Ancient erosion left the ridges of the Poldens and the 'islands' such as Meare, Westhay and Glastonbury. The margins of the wetlands were used as seasonal pasture by the local communities but there is no evidence of early settlement onto the Moors, probably because of the constant flooding. The first authenticated settlement is the Glastonbury Lake Village, later in this walk, which is now known to have been a summer residence only.

Although there seem to have been no attempts at draining before the 12th century, this was not a wasteland. It was abundant in fish, fowl, rushes and reeds. The owners of the land, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Dean and Chapter of Wells and the Abbot of Glastonbury quarrelled constantly over their interests in the pastures, turbary and fisheries. In the early 14th century formal divisions were begun to identify who owned what. Drainage, interrupted by the Black Death and the Dissolution of the Monasteries began again in earnest in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the increasing interest in agricultural improvement. Each field was surrounded by ditches or rhynes (pronunciation varies!) which combined drainage and boundaries. There was a long held local antipathy to hedges, which were thought to bring flies that would harry the cattle. The older enclosures, such as those at Meare, have larger fields. The newer fields of the 18th and 19th centuries rarely exceed five acres. Many of the raised roads were made when the spoil from ditches was thrown to one side. By 1797 there was no area of the valley that did not have some form of drainage and the reclaimed land was excellent pasture. Large scale water engineering and pumping works were to follow. Many parts of the Moors are now wetland Nature Reserves.

In the field opposite Treasure's Farm is a Duck Decoy. Described as 'old' on an 18th century map, it is one of the best preserved and most complex in Somerset. The earthworks are a central mound surrounded by a series of depressions and holloways for pools and streams. The site is a Scheduled Monument.

The two fields on the right beyond the Treasure's farmhouse are called Adam's and Lucy's for Adam and Lucy Treasure who had the land until about 40 years ago.

Just before the junction of the track to Short Drove there is a Clapper style bridge, It is potentially early medieval. Short Drove adjoins Gooseland Head Rhyne in an area called Gooseland. Adjoining the medieval deer park (see below), drainage was introduced early here to provide an area for the breeding of semi-domesticated geese for the table.

On the southern side of Lodge Hill, where Short Drove joins Westbury Straight Rhyne, is the boundary of the medieval deer park belonging to the Bishop of Wells, first mentioned in 1178. Lodge Hill, Chalcroft Hill and Windmill Hill were all within this deer park.

The old Axbridge to Cheddar Valley railway line is under a light industrial unit on the left; one goods yard building being still visible. The original station building was moved to the East Somerset Railway at Cranmore in 1989. The Air Strip, shown on maps and still marked by an old wind sock, is on part of the railway track. It was used by a firm taking commercial photographs from a light aircraft.

A step aside moment
Westbury sub Mendip was a separate parish from Wells before Doomsday. The church of St Lawrence dating from 1160 was restored in the 19th century. There is a guide to the church in the church. The village has a Post Office and shop, which has copies of the Westbury sub Mendip Rural Walk leaflet, published by Mendip District Council. It includes some history of the village.

Section 2
On Rodmead Lane the walk coincides once again with the Samaritans Way South West (see Leg 8a).

On the left of the lane is the site of a Roman settlement called Hurn Close which was investigated in 1990. The word 'hurn' derives from the OE word for heron.

Rodmead Lane and the path as far as the footbridge are inside the area of the medieval deer park.

Bleadney. The OE suffix 'ey' or 'iey' means an island and as early as the 8th century a harbour is recorded here. Glastonbury Abbey held Bleadney before the Dissolution and it is recorded that the Abbot took stone, corn and lime by boat from here to Glastonbury. The river flow today is generally east-west but aerial photographs confirm that in the Middle Ages the Brue flowed south-north through the Panborough to Bleadney gap and into the river Axe. Sometime between 1782 and 1822 a causeway was built between Bleadney and Panborough, linking Wells to the coast. The Wells, Highbridge and Cheddar Trust (Leg 8a) maintained this road until 1870.

Section 3
Panborough was referred to as Pathenebergh in 956, in connection with the grant of a vineyard from the King to Glastonbury and as the 'island of Patheneburga' in 1336. The name is said to mean 'where one wades across to the hill' and may refer to the crossing of the river Brue from Bleadney as described above.

The Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve is the Somerset Wildlife Trust's pilot project for the Avalon Marshes. There are hides and information boards on the Drove.