Hough Common and Lea Hall

A farmland stroll to a historic house through Wybunbury.

Technical sheet

17398222
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  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 7.73 km
  • ◔
    Calculated time: 2h 20 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Easy

  • ⚐
    Return to departure point: Yes
  • ↗
    Vertical gain: + 31 m
  • ↘
    Vertical drop: - 32 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 76 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 49 m

Description de la randonnée

(S/E) From the front door, turn left through the gate next to the lychgate, then left again through a kissing gate by the St Chad’s Wybunbury information board and past an owl carved into a tree stump in the churchyard. Beyond a kissing gate, take the path straight on, down the bank. Bear left to pass a reedy pond and pass through a gateway beyond.

(1) Turn immediately left onto a permitted path into the nature reserve, negotiating a series of footbridges, gates, stiles and boardwalks. At a padlocked gate leading out to the open part of the moss, turn right over a footbridge, then right and left onto another boardwalk. Follow the narrow path through woodland over more footbridges and boardwalks. You emerge via a footbridge and gate into open fields; follow more boardwalks until you exit the reserve at a kissing gate with an interpretation board.

(2) On exiting the Nature Reserve, turn right to a kissing gate. Turn left to a stile in the wooden fence. Walk up the side of the field to a second stile into an area of hard-standing. Bear half-right to a stile on the far side, then continue in the same direction through a series of paddocks separated by stiles. After the last of these, at the top of the hill, bear right over a stile and walk alongside a narrow fishing lake on the left. Beyond the lake, cross the field, passing under the telegraph wires to a kissing gate at the corner of a wood. Ignoring this gate, turn right and walk along the edge of the wood. At the end of the wood, go through a kissing gate and cut the corner of the field ahead, before following the hedge towards Dove House Farm.

(3) Level with the farm buildings, turn left at a corner to a kissing gate. Follow the left-hand side of the next two fields to a path that leads along a garden fence and out to the road. Turn left past a layby on the right, then turn right into a no-through road. Beyond the football pitch, turn right past a picnic table and into woodland. Turn right at a fork past another table. On meeting a path along the edge of the wood, turn right to a gate into a lane. Turn left and walk towards the Hollies kennels. Just before the entrance gates, turn right through a kissing gate and bear left across a dog agility arena to a further kissing gate into a paddock. Turn right and walk round the right-hand edges of the field to a third kissing gate in the far corner. Cross a stile on your left into the driveway of Yewtree Farm; turn right and walk out to the road.

(4) Turn left along the road, past Highfield Farm to a bend with a mirror. Turn left along a footpath to the left of the first house, to a stile at the rear. Follow the left-hand edge of the field, which curves slightly to the right. When the hedge turns sharp left, strike out across the field, passing to the left of a dried-up pond and to the right of a telegraph pole, to a stile. Cross the farm drive to another stile, and continue in the same direction along the right-hand edge of a couple of fields. Dropping steeply, cross a stile on the right in the bottom corner and follow the valley for a short distance, before turning left over another stile, by a gate. Climb a slight hill, beyond which a field gate comes into view.

(5) At the road, turn left then right into a driveway (for a better view of the striking Tudor frontage of Lea Hall – pictured left – continue for 100 yards along the road to a bridleway on the right). Follow the driveway past Lea Hall on the left until it bends left and divides. Take the rightmost of the three tracks, into a field, and bear left on a sandy track. This bends right past a kissing gate and then follows the field edge down- and uphill before dropping to a stile in the corner. Turn left through a gate and down a bridleway past a telecommunications mast. Turn right just beyond a building on the left, onto a quarry track. A footpath runs parallel to the track on the left, which bears right to the bottom of a small valley before swinging left to a gate into a grassy field. Turn right and climb the hill, with glimpses over a large fishing lake on your right. Cross a stile into a paddock and continue to a second stile, beyond which the path drops down to the road.

(6) Turn left and follow the road with care back to Wybunbury and the Swan Inn.(S/E)

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 61 m - Swann Inn
  2. 1 : km 0.25 - alt. 49 m - Path
  3. 2 : km 0.9 - alt. 51 m - Kissing gate
  4. 3 : km 2.28 - alt. 66 m - Dove House Farm
  5. 4 : km 3.49 - alt. 69 m - Highfield Farm
  6. 5 : km 4.92 - alt. 72 m - Den Lane
  7. 6 : km 6.79 - alt. 61 m - Wrinehill Road
  8. S/E : km 7.73 - alt. 61 m - Swann Inn

Practical information

Some paths may be muddy after rain and you may encounter paths under crops or through cattle pastures. Beware of earth-moving equipment in the vicinity of Lea Forge. Numerous stiles.

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The GPS track and description are the property of the author.