Westbury Walkers May report

IT was a very warm day on Sunday 8th May when a group of 22 walkers (including three new members) set off from the pretty village of Steeple Ashton on an 11-mile walk led by Mike Pearce.  

The group started from Acreshort Lane toward Luffenham Field, a two-acre field bequeathed to Steeple Ashton in 1855 where there were lots of quiet places to sit and watch the wildlife.  

The walkers then continued on a footpath towards West Ashton, known as The Coffin Trail, which links the parishes. Turning right at Heath Hill Down they continued to Stourton fishing lake where they stopped for the group photo. It was then up Mudmead Lane and back to Steeple Ashton for a coffee break by the church. 

The group then continued towards Keevil, past an old WW2 hanger, along Green Lane and past the Postman’s Stone erected in the memory of local postman John Bailey who had walked that route delivering mail for 18 years but on 10th October 1887 never returned home and was found dead at this spot as reported in the Wiltshire Times on 15th October 1887. The route then took the walkers through Keevil churchyard and down into the village with its fine houses. 

They made a quick stop to read the stone remembering the aircrew who did not return from D Day and Arnhem in 1944, then a series of quiet lanes, from where gliders could be seen in the sky, took them to Wick Bridge, Bulkington where they stopped for lunch. 

After lunch the group continued across old water meadows and a drove road towards Edington before heading back towards Keevil Airfield, through the old ammunition dumps to Ashton Mill Farm where limbo dancing was required to negotiate a tree that had fallen across the path, and then the final stretch took them up Spiers Piece and back into Steeple Ashton.  

Report by Mike Pearce.