This time of year there are plenty of people walking the numerous footpaths. Farmers mention there is an increase in the number of gates being left open and incidents with dogs and livestock. To avoid this, especially near cattle we suggest you refer to the Countryside Code.

In 2017 WWAW contacted Taylor Wimpey to improve the muddy unofficial path behind Wyndham Way between Riverside and the Dell. Tewkesbury Borough Council (TBC) took control of the project as the path will connect with The Dell, the transfer of land ownership to TBC is still under discussion since April 2015.  WWAW is pleased to say the current work, funded by Taylor Wimpey is nearing completion with some minor raising of the path level adjacent to The Dell. The new, official path will finally link with the existing path at The Dell once TBC take ownership of The Dell. Currently the link is not accessible to pushchairs.

During the winter work has taken place to avoid some steep and hazardous steps near Monks Hole on the Gloucestershire Way leading up the escarpment. The path now circumnavigates a badger sett and reduces the gradient making the route safer. Two stiles at the top and bottom of the slope are being changed to kissing gates by the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens. This is another step with improving the surface of the long distance path.

English Heritage’s new museum telling the captivating and dramatic story of the Cotswold abbey that was once one of England’s most important pilgrim destinations. The new museum provides fascinating new insights into the history of the abbey and the lives of the monks who worshipped and lived at Hailes for nearly three centuries.

The new museum vividly brings to life 300 years of piety, culture and tradition at Hailes. Visitors will be greeted by an imposing 13th-century stone sculpture of Old Testament figure Sampson fighting a lion. Symbolising Christ’s defeat of death, the sculpture was once a boss in the ceiling in the abbey’s chapter house.

Among the other treasures inside the museum, visitors will find an exceptionally rare fragment of 14th-century monk’s spectacles, lost for centuries on the site of the monks’ choir-stalls.

Coinciding with the reopening of the museum,  the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway reopened the abbey’s station, Hayles Abbey Halt, which now allows members of the public to visit the site by heritage railway for the first time since 1960. The new museum at Hailes Abbey is open daily until 31 October.

For visitors looking for a mobile app to accompany them around historic Winchcombe then look no further than a Real Town Tour. You can download the free app and access a map, walking companion and tour guide of your favorite places rolled into one mobile package.

Down load the app and then view Gloucestershire Market Towns where you will find Winchcombe.

If you have not already booked for the popular Winchcombe Walking Festival then watch out as the walk to Postlip Hall is fully booked and others are filling up. Bookings are coming in from far and wide including overseas.

Some walk leaders are already out walking over the routes making notes and seeing the first signs of spring. What better way to see the countryside in it’s ‘new spring clothes’ than come on a guided walk.  Picture of deer encountered on a recent recent walk by walk leaders near Brockhampton. 

The first of ten new gates has been installed by the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens Winchcombe work party. Walkers will be pleased to know the steps over a drystone wall near the Salt Way have gone.

We are now waiting for the Rights of Way department to give us permission to replace the other nine stiles situated on the Winchcombe Way section – on Dunns Hill and a section to St Kenelm’s Well. Hopefully permits to dig a hole can be obtained from PROW soon. Thank you to the Wardens for helping to improve access to the countryside and the tenant farmer.