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THE | WALK
Clouds over the Severn
The Roman Road to nowhere
This month Andrew Swift explores a little-known corner of Gloucestershire about an hour’s drive northwest of Bath and experiences some astounding view of the silvery Severn
T
he villages on the eastern shore of the Severn estuary have a character all their own, with ancient churches, manor farms, half-timbered cottages and resolutely traditional hostelries. Long, level lanes wind between moss-grown orchards, the skies are vast, the light everchanging, and the swift, treacherous waters of the silvery Severn flow silently seawards. All these villages have the feeling of remoteness, of lying close to where the land ends, but in none of them is that feeling more potent than in Arlingham, which sits in the arm of a broad meander, with the river on three sides, and only one road in or out. Arlingham wasn’t always a dead end, though. For centuries, the river could be forded to Newnham on the western shore. So important was the crossing that the Romans built a road to it from the Fosse Way. It seems always to have been a risky business, though. In 1779, when Samuel Rudder wrote his New History of Gloucestershire, he described it as a “ford over which, at low water, wagons and people on horseback, of more resolution than prudence, sometimes pass. Many have lost their lives in the attempt.” When a sandbank was swept away in 1802, however, making the crossing even more treacherous, a ferry was introduced and performed a useful service for almost 150 years. Unfortunately, it stopped running when the last ferryman died in 1948. Although there have been plans to revive it or even to build a bridge, for the moment at least this is one part of Gloucestershire you won’t pass through on the way to somewhere else. You have to make a special effort to get here, but Arlingham’s unique character makes the trip well worthwhile. To get to Arlingham, you have to turn off the A38 at Fromebridge, not far from Junction 13 of the M5. After driving straight on through Frampton and Fretherne for nearly five miles you come to the Red 64 THeBATHMagazine
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january 2022
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issue 227
Lion at the heart of Arlingham. Carry on for another 100m, before pulling into a car park on the right (SO707110; GL2 7JN). Ahead, the road leads on towards the old river crossing, its wide verges indicating that for centuries it was a drove road, along which Welsh cattle were driven to market in London. Instead of carrying on along the road, however, the walk starts by turning off it just beyond the car park to follow a restricted byway on the right. This is shown on old maps as Netting Lane, and, although it starts off reasonably enough, after passing through two gates it soon turns muddy. Carry straight on, with a drainage ditch – known locally as a rhyne – on your left, and after 750m, when you come to a T junction, turn left to follow another restricted byway sign (SO712115). This is Warth Lane – ‘warth’ being a local word for a flat meadow by the river. Follow the lane as it swings left and then right past an old orchard, its trees hung with mistletoe. Arlingham was long famous for its cider, with two apple varieties – Arlingham Schoolboys and Arlingham Churchyards – being named after the village. After bearing left and then right once more, the lane ends at a group of barns, where the going may turn mucky (SO710122). Once through the gateway, turn right and then left when you come to the end of the barns, before bearing right through a gate with a footpath waymark. Carry straight on for 125m and, after going through another gate, climb onto a levee for your first view of the Severn. Ahead is the spire of Westbury on Severn church, with Garden Cliff, famous for fossils and spectacularly stratified, to the right of it. Turn left to follow the path along the levee. Although initially leading north-west, it soon follows the river to curve south-west. After rounding the bend, look out for two reed-choked ponds, created when soil was extracted to shore up the sea wall in 1984,
