5 minute read
Walking Sue Gearing
Back to nature –a walk through Priddy’s history
THEold mining area around Priddy has been rewilded by nature in all its glory and is now a beautiful and important wildlife habitat with many flower species in the meadows as well as animals, reptiles and insects. From Priddy, the highest Mendip village, we climb gently up to North Hill through humpy ground and then go back in time past two sets of ancient burial barrows. Walking is on narrow paths, tracks and quiet lanes with good views. This is an ideal, short, summer circle when paths will be drier and you can enjoy the high open land without being too cold. Expect long grass at this time of year. There are a number of stiles.
PARK: Priddy village green in the heart of the village. Park near the now empty old New Inn.
START: Walk across or round the left side of the green with its famous hurdle stack.
This is purely symbolic these days, but originally these sheep hurdles were used during the annual Priddy Sheep Fair, which is believed to have come up to Priddy from Wells around 1348 at a time of plague. Alas, the fair is a thing of the past.
Turn right along the top of the green past Manor Farm – a mecca for cavers.
This area is honeycombed with caves and one of these, accessed from near here, is Swildons.
Turn left and cross onto the high pavement. After a few minutes, bear up right on a Tarmac track taking you up to the higher green.
1. SCHOOL
Continue up to the village hall and primary school. Over left is the church which we visit at the end. At the end cross a stone slab stile into a field and head downhill, probably through a temporary fence and then on down the bank. Go to the corner to a wooden stile and the remains of an old stone stile. Once over, go straight up the field and reach a very large stepped stone stile. Maintain direction in the next field following the left wall. Up on the hill left you can see some of the ancient barrows. Go through a gate at the end and continue on a path which goes up a bank and then across the field, bearing right, to a ladder stile. Once over, keep on to a small campsite and out onto Eastwater Lane.
2. LANE
Turn right a very short way passing Eastwater Farm and then go left through a Bristol Gate. Now bear right down the field towards a green shed. To the left of this cross a stone stile and continue across the field and a stone stile onto the road. Turn left. After a few minutes go left on a drive to Underbarrow Farm, at the side of Rose Cottage. Soon look for the footpath arrow which diverts you left off the drive and past buildings of The Belfry, a cavers’ centre. Note the skeleton on the wall!
Turn right through the garden and cross back onto the drive. Go straight over to a footpath.
3. ST CUTHBERTS
This is taking us through the uneven ground caused by former lead mining here at St Cuthbert’s Minery which was the largest and last lead smelting works to close on Mendip. It shut in 1910 because it was causing water contamination down in Wookey Hole where the paper mill relied on a ready supply of very clean – not polluted –water. You can see some of the slag piles over on the right.
Keep left along the narrow path, over a rickety plank bridge, following a leat on the right, until you reach a pretty area with a small pool under beech trees. You can make a very short detour here, straight on and then right to Fair Lady Well, one of very few ponds on Mendip.
To continue, immediately turn left following the left wall and begin to go uphill. The path is uneven and can be overgrown with grass in high summer.
4 miles, about 2-2.5 hours walking. Explorer 141, Cheddar Gorge and Mendip Hills West, grid ref: 525509 postcode BA5 3BB
4. NORTH HILL
Reach a stile at the top taking you onto North Hill. Maintain direction passing a Bristol Water reservoir. On your left are the Bronze Age Priddy Nine Barrows. Curiously there are only seven visible barrows now. Just opposite a gate ‘Private Land’ bear right across the field to a stile. And now head straight on to the second set of ancient burial mounds, the Ashen Hill Barrows.
5. ASHEN HILL BARROWS
Go through between the barrows and turn left paralleling them. The paths in high summer may not be very clear along here. Continue on, dropping down, bearing slightly left. In the boundary below is a hedge of trees. Aim to the right end of these and find a gate onto Nine Barrows Lane.
6. NINE BARROWS LANE
Turn left on the lane (ignore the track at the side) for well over half a mile, passing on the way the rather overgrown Priddy Pool on the right. After a gentle climb, come onto the flat and opposite Chapel House, turn left on a stony drive and keep on through a field to come into the grassy, natural churchyard.
7. CHURCH
St Lawrence church dates back to the 13th century. The tower is a nesting site for jackdaws.
Pass the church on your left and go on to a gate on the other side to the right of the church path (don’t go through the gate at the end of the path as it goes through the school grounds).
Turn right and retrace your steps to the Upper Green and down. Then turn left along the raised pavement and keep the main Priddy green on your right. Return to the start. The popular Queen Victoria country pub, open daily, is a few minutes away along the right fork at the end of the green.
