WESTBURY Walkers have been able to enjoy a year of walking despite difficulties at the start of the year. Paddy Yerburgh, secretary of the group, has given a review of this year’s walks.
All club walks were cancelled in January through to March because of the pandemic. In April we were allowed to walk, but only in small groups, so two groups of six and one group of five set off from Chitterne for an eight-mile walk. It was a lovely dry day, so everyone was delighted to be out walking again!
The May walk was put back a couple of weeks to allow Covid restrictions to ease so we can finally walk as one group again. We enjoyed a challenging walk, in blustery conditions over the Mendips, during which a successful but quite lengthy struggle took place to free a sheep with its head stuck through a very strong stock fence and was reminder to carry a pair of pliers in future!
It was a very hot day in June when we did a fortunately level walk of about eight miles from Mere to Milton on Stour. The trees in Silton churchyard provided welcome shade for a lunch stop.
It was an overcast day when we set out from the 800BC Iron Age fort of Badbury Rings in Dorset for an eight-and-a-half-mile walk, which took us through beautiful countryside and quaint villages such as Tarrant Crawford, with its 14th Century church and its mural, which is notable for its depiction of the story of St Margaret and the Three Living and Three Dead.
The Iron Age Forts of Battlesbury and Scratchbury were also a feature of the more local eight mile walk around Warminster in August, when the fine weather enabled us all to appreciate the fine countryside that we are so fortunate to live in.
In early September, a group of us travelled to mid Wales for two days of walking in the beautiful Elan Valley. The weather was ideal, and everyone was able to appreciate the splendid scenery and enjoyed staying at Elan Valley Lodge, which was once a school for the many children living there, when the series of dams were built to create reservoirs that supply water to Birmingham.
Later that month there was the regular walk which took us from Avebury up on to the Ridgeway, then on to West Overton and past the West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill. It was a fine and warm day for the nine-mile October walk which started from Westbury and followed quiet lanes to Bratton and the surrounding countryside, before we climbed up on White Horse Hill, where we were entertained by low-flying hang gliders.
The weather was again kind for rather a challenging and exceedingly muddy walk in November, but it did start in Wellow which is well known for its mud! The last walk in December will start from Avebury again, but this time take us up Windmill Hill and on to Winterbourne Monkton.
Already for 2022 we have walks planned for most months of the year. They are all fairly local – starting from Heytesbury, Westbury, Bradford on Avon, Urchford, Codford and Knapp Hill near Devizes. A full walking programme will be available early in the New Year. Anyone interested in more information should contact Paddy Yerburgh, Secretary at westbury.walkers.uk@gmail.com
