Cheswardine Walk 4 – 7.5 Mile Family-Friendly Countryside Route with Valley Views (Shropshire)

Cheswardine Walk 4 – A Scenic and wet 7.5-Mile Loop Through Lanes, Fields & Valley Views

Sunday 1st September 2024. Despite having competed in a football match with his team in the morning, our eldest was still keen to do a long walk in the afternoon, so after lunch we headed out with our neighbours to Cheswardine. Cheswardine Parish Council have put together a series of 6 circular walks that all start from the heart of the village, and we’re working our way through them all. Check out our Walk 1 here, or view all their routes here.

It’s a long ‘un!

The walk is approx 7.5 miles along country lanes and across fields with magnificent views over the valley. The walk starts and finishes at Cheswardine Parish Hall where there is ample parking. You may also encounter livestock on this country walk.

Our walk started from the Parish Hall, and as we got out of the car, we had noticed how the cool weather from this morning had turned into a muggy and dull afternoon. Checking the forecast again, rain was now predicted – and heavy – thank goodness we’d packed our coats. We popped our bags on and headed back toward the Church, before then turning right and out of the village toward Cheswardine Hall. This short section of road was fairly quiet, and it wasn’t long before we were skirting up the side of Cheswardine Halls Gatehouse, through the first field. The field was full of maize and it was a tricky footpath to follow, with the first part seeing us squeeze tightly between the maize on one side, and thistles and nettles on the other. After a short time we then had to follow another tight footpath through the maize, which seemed to go on and on…

Eventually we came to the end of the maize and returned to open fields, where we were met with views of the beautiful Cheswardine Hall.

It looks like the maize stretched 3 fields, but thankfully the rest of the walk, so far as we could see from here, was both crop and livestock free! A few more fields later and we crossed a quiet lane, continuing forward up what looked like a driveway.

The Heavens opened and the Devil appeared!

As we were getting to the end of the driveway the heavens suddenly opened, and we stopped by a paddock with horses to waterproof ourselves (and our bags) as quickly as we could! Halfway through zipping up our coats we were suddenly accosted by a woman, who had ran out of her house, shouting at us quite aggressively to not feed the horses. Taken aback at the sudden accusations, we told her we hadn’t even been anywhere near them (we never feed horses anyway)! She then asked as us rather sternly what we were doing, (despite it being quite clear what we were doing), so we told her we were putting our jackets on and she huffed off back into the house. I do sympathise with landowners that have rights of way through their land, it must be frustrating and I don’t doubt they get some disrespectful people walking through it. However, it does upset me that people tend to immediately go in at the deep end these days, instead of approaching us in a positive manner, especially when there are children present. Interestingly, in all the years I’ve walked, it’s only ever been on the 2 Cheswardine walks I’ve done that I’ve been approached abruptly by landowners!

On a happier note, as we walked past the farm house, a chap, presumably the husband, who had also noted the sudden change in weather, was busy putting away his precious car into the dry. Our boys love their cars, so we passed a few comments about the vehicle with the owner (who was happily much more approachable and chatty) before heading on our way, over an electric fence and through a field with a very interesting, very pretty little building in it!

Through this field we continued, and over a stile, where we entered another field and were met with views of what can only be described as ‘rolling countryside’! The passing heavy shower had also subsided and even though we suspected there’d be more rain, we put our coats away as it was incredibly warm and muggy.

A Bouquet of Pheasants

As we entered the second quarter of the walk, we found ourselves on a very short track leading to a steep field. As we made the climb, my eldest shouted he’d seen something in the hedge! After heading through the gates and finding ourselves on this next track, we could finally see what he did – huge groups of pheasants fleeing in all directions as they realised humans were approaching!

All along this track we continued to see large groups of pheasants running off, running in front of us, or suddenly flying out of the undergrowth. We soon realised why there were so many, as we came across a pound, clearly set up for breeding for the shooting season. I wonder if the owners realised a fence panel was down and the pheasants were now free? Curious as to what a ‘group of pheasants’ was called, our neighbour asked Siri – and apparently it’s a Bouquet of Pheasants! Today’s fun fact for you!

It was also around here that we saw one or two signs for some Loggerheads walks – more to add to our list!

Halfway there!

We followed the track/driveway for some distance, past a Roman Villa Site (we couldn’t see anything Roman from this vantage point) before ending up in Hales, walking down a lane of quaint cottages. At the end of the lane, we turned left to follow the ‘main’ road of the village, then turned right down another very grassy walkway.

We passed a couple of ladies walking their dogs, who told us they lived in the end house on that lane, and had never seen ‘other humans’ on this walk. I laughed and told them ‘we do exist’. It must be lovely to live down somewhere so quiet! The stile here (it’s beside the gate above!) was broken and very slippery, so climb with care!

At this point our youngest was beginning to complain of sore feet. I wasn’t surprised, it was the longest walk we’d done together, and he’d done a fair few miles this weekend already! His tiredness was thankfully short lived, as a little critter caught his attention and took his mind off his feet…

The grassy track turned into a grassy field, then disappeared via another dodgy stile into a small area of thickly planted trees with a beautiful little stream trickling through it. My camera does it absolutely no justice at all, but it was so picturesque – even in the dark and slightly eerie area that we had found ourselves in!

We followed the stream on a narrow bank, that got tighter and tighter the further we followed it up, before then having to cross it and walk a small section in the stream. Fortunately the stream was shallow, and we all had trekking poles to steady us on the slippery rocks. As we climbed the bank up the otherside, the footpath then went behind an old large shed. Our neighbours, who’ve walked this walk before, said it was thick with nettles the last time they visited. It was still thick with nettles today but thankfully someone had clearly recently walked it, as there was a bit of a pathway to follow. This in turn lead up the side of someones garden, with beautiful low fences and festoon lights, then over another very old, wobbly and slippery stile.

On the other side of the stile, the footpath lead through a field, and not up the concrete driveway. In the distance we could see a huge flock of large grey birds, presumably the first of the geese to migrate this year.

A rocky end…

After the fun of the stream, spirits were high among my own pair, and there was no more mention of aching feet from the youngest. In fact, they spent much of the final mile or so right at the front of the group, pinching blackberries, and even had plenty of energy left to play in the elephant grass we passed before we entered the village again!

The rain came and went in steady showers, but we had all got the point that we couldn’t be bothered to keep taking our coats on and off. It was so warm and muggy that we would dry almost instantly anyway.

As we passed through the final 3 or 4 fields we came across more electric fences, all fortunately passable with either insulation over the passing area or handles to open it up like a gate (I had great fun showing the other adults how the insulated handle worked – I’ve seen them in photos but it was the first one we’d come across!)

Finally we arrived at the wooded area that leads to Lawn Lane – the very same ending as Walk 1. As we wandered back to the car, the neighbours showed us Cheswardine Henge! Their child went to school here so they know the village quite well and knew we’d enjoy seeing this!

Family Feedback on Cheswardine Walk 4.

All in all, this was a really lovely walk, and one we would do again. The views are wonderful, and our neighbours pointed out that on a beautiful day, the views are just breathtaking. There is a wonderful mix of landscapes to walk through, and plenty of wildlife to see too. It’s a walk that could be done at any time of year, but I would be mindful of long wet grass and the stream on wetter days (sensible, grippy and waterproof footwear for this one!) and in the summer you might want to make sure you have a stick for the nettles that grow up behind the shed after the stream. I can’t see there being any other issues you might encounter.

Aside from the fact that it’s quite a long walk, I personally wouldn’t recommend this as one for smaller children. This is mostly because of the number of electric fences we passed. Most of the fences were insulated with a tube of plastic, across the area that you had to cross, but there were often open sections at each end and I watched with caution as the children climbed over or under, in case they lost balance and reached for an non-insulated bit (they’re at that age where they don’t need Mum’s help!)! It’s important to educate your children on electric fences and how to get past them safely – I think being married to an electrician makes me much more aware of their dangers! I should have taken a photo to show some of the options we came across, but helpfully I found this from the Isle of Wight Council which has some clear photos of all the insulation options we saw on our walk – take a look here – including what the handles look like, so you’ll know what to look for!

I was incredibly proud of the boys for their resilience in this walk. Whilst it’s not too technical, it was our longest walk to date (by a mile!) and my eldest had already done a couple of hours of football in the morning. My youngest had a little wobble around the 3/4 mark, but fortunately, distracted by nature, it didn’t last too long, and we never heard about his achey feet again until we sat down to eat our dinner, and he declared ‘I’m not doing anything tomorrow!’ Who could blame him 🙂

However, the next morning as I wrote up this blog, I asked the boys their thoughts on the walk, and clearly the ‘sore feet’ wasn’t as bad as my youngest had made out, as he never mentioned it again, even when I asked him ‘but didn’t your feet hurt?’ He stands by his ‘no!’ 😂 My 8 year old insists he loved the length of the walk, and his favourite part was holding the little frog! My 10 year old particularly loved seeing the farmers car (he does love his cars, he got very excited the other day on one of our dog walks, when a blue Mclaren passed us and the boys waved and the driver flashed back), and he also said he enjoyed the length of the walk, despite having played 2 hours of football before hand! He also recalls with interest all the trees that have been struck by lightening along the walk!

TOTAL MILES: 7.91 | TOTAL TIME: 3h59 (3h15 Moving Time)