Walks Near Bloxham

Archive for the ‘Length: 0 – 3 miles’ Category

• Start – 2.7 miles from Bloxham
• Length of walk – 2.8 miles (4.5 km)
• Fairly flat
• Dog – friendly

Introduction

The walk starts at the village green, heads off towards Bodicote and then to the end of Bloxham Grove before heading back to Adderbury.

Adderbury is about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Banbury and 9 miles (14 km) from Junction 10 of the M40 motorway. The Sor Brook divides the village in two and each part has its own green and manor house.

GPS Data and route instructions

Google Maps

Click here for a google map of the walk.

You can get an online OS map here.

• Start: 2.2 miles from Bloxham
• Length of walk: 2.25 miles  (3.6 km )
• Fairly flat
• Dog friendly but  farm animals on outward route

This walk commences in Barford St Michael whichis is a village on the south bank of the River Swere. Barford probably means barley ford – a place to cross the river at harvest time. In 1086 it was known as Bereford, and by around 1250 as Bereford Sancti Michaelis. Barford

The village has an attractive church which may be worth a visit before the walk. Some of the church is Norman but much of the rest was rebuilt in the 13th century in the Early English style

The second half of the walk runs alongside a disused airfield: RAF Barford St John’s .
The airfield was opened in World War 2 as training facility used primarily by the Flying Training School from RAF Kidlington. It was later modified for use by RAF Upper Heyford and Bomber Command flew Wellington bombers and Mosquitoes from there .
In 1943 it was used for test flights of the first jet, the Gloucester Whittle, and it’s successor the Meteor. The airfield was mothballed in 1946 but has subsequently assumed a role in government communications as evidenced by the many aerials dotted across it.

GPS Data

Route Description

1. Start – straight along farm road.
2. Dilapidated farm cottage and pond.
3. Keep heading towards the big farmhouse and then turn left (North) to pass through a field along the bottom of a hill on which the farmhouse stands.
4. Leave the field via a cronky wooden gate! You can go wrong here! Don’t follow the main footpath North. Turn left and pass through another gate just 20m or so away.
5. Now head more or less west along the side of the field with a ariels on your right.
6. Keep going basically west.
7. Keep going basically west.
8. The pathway bends slightly northwards here.
9. Arrive at a gate to your left and head through this to the road.
10. Turn left and head back to the starting point along the road.

Google maps

Click here for a Google satellite map of this walk.

Ordnance survey maps

You need OS Map 191
You can get an online OS map here.

• Start: within Bloxham – Courtington Lane
• Length of walk: 4.3 miles (6.9km)
• Steep hill- Can avoid by starting along Ells lane instead of up Hobb Hill.
• Dog hostile – stiles from Ells Lane to Broughton impossible for large dogs.

Introduction

Hobb Hill offers a panoramic view of Bloxham. In the snow it is a mass of slithering humanity utilising gravity assisted motion on sleds, trays and polythene bags!
Broughton is the site of Broughton Castle but this is not directly on the route.
There are historical references to Robert de Wykeham, mill owner, around 1218. The Mill would have been powered by the waters of the Sor Brook.
More recently the Wykham Mill Buildings has been the site of manufacture of the Jaguar XJ220 and then subsequently the Aston Martin DB7 from 1994 – 2004.

GPS Data and Route

Google Map

Click here for a Google satellite view of this walk.

Ordnance survey maps

You need OS Map 191
You can get an online OS map here.

• Start: 5.4 miles from Bloxham
• Length of walk: 2.9 miles (4.7km)
• Mostly flat
• Dog friendly

This information is mainly drawn from Wikipedia:
Evidence of early settlement include a Bronze Age barrow and Roman mosaic floors from the 3C.
The village was founded in Anglo-Saxon times and its ownership was linked to St Albans Abbey
Unlike neighbouring Lttle Tew it had its own church and in Old English Cyrictiwa means “Church Tew
William the Conqueror granted the manor to his step-brother and it is recorded amongst Odo’s estates in the Domesday Book. The present parish church dates back to Norman times but has been substantially rebuilt since then.
The cottages and houses, mostly thatched , date back to the 17C and are built from the local ironstone from the Great Tew quarry.
In the late 1700s the estate was bought by George Stratton, who had made a fortune in the East India Company. He had the dilapidated manor house demolished and engaged garden designer John Loudon who contributed much to the delightful appearance of the village and of Great Tew Park.
In 1815-1816 the son of the Birmingham manufacturer Matthew Boulton bought the Great Tew estate. Innovations in the middle of the 19C included a saw-mill powered by a beam engine of which the engine house and tall chimney still survive.
In 1914 the family died without heirs and for fifty years its properties became unoccupied and derelict.
In 1962 Major Eustace Robb inherited the estate and declared he would restore its prosperity but little improvement was seen but its subsequent owners, the Johnson family, have worked hard to restore the village.

GPS Data

Route Description

1. Start at the car-park. Turn Left down the lane then Right into Old Road near the post office.
2. Turn left immediately after the pub and basically keep heading East
3. Keep right on
4. Care here – there are footpaths in 5 directions! You want the bridleway that is straight ahead.
5. Follow the field around towards Hobbshole farm.
6. Skirt the edge of Hobbshole farm.
7. Keep to the bridleway
8. Keep to the bridleway
9. Arrive at the Gt Tew to Ledwell Road just outside Ledwell. Turn right to head West back towards Great Tew
10. Keep going (West) You reach a junction where you can see the Manor House and ahead the local cricket ground.
11. Turn right and head (N) along New Road . St Michael’s Church is to your right just a little way down. There is a small lane past the front of the Manor house if you want a small diversion before heading back to the car-park

Google Map

Click here to see a Google satellite map of this walk.

Ordnance survey maps

You need OS Map 191
You can get an online OS map here.

• Start:  4.6 miles from Bloxham
• Length of walk: 1.5 miles (2.4km)
• flat – as a pancake!
• dog friendly

Grimsbury Reservoir is a relatively small reservoir fed by the River Cherwell and owned by Thames Water and used both for water supply and sporting activities.
In the mid 1960s, when the reservoir was built the Banbury Ornithological Society negotiated  for a four hectare area to be set aside and developed as a wildlife sanctuary to address the potential importance of the area to birds .
A walk around two sides of the reservoir has been established  but this also links up with a pathway through a nature reserve and  the canal towpath . This walk takes in all three providing a short but varied exploration of the area.

GPS Data

Route Description

This is a very simple route.

1. Follow the signs to Grimsbury Reservoir off Hennef Way, Banbury.
2. Park in the car-park adjacent to the entry to the waterworks.
3. Enter the road to the reservoir and Banbury sailing club.
4. Follow the pathway to the right of the reservoir until you reach a wooded conservation area.
5. Take the pathway through these woods.
6. At the end of this path you can turn left back to a walk down the other side of the resrvoir or else turn right onto the canal towpath. Take the towpath.
7. Continue down the towpath and when you arrive back at the Waterworks cross a stream to arrive on a road back to the car-park.

GoogleMaps

Click here for a Google satellite map of this walk. (Awaited!)

Ordnance survey maps

You need OS Map 191
You can get an online OS map here.

• Start: 4.1 miles from Bloxham
• Length of walk:  2.25 miles    (3.6 km )
• Gentle slopes
• Dog friendly except for one stile!

This is a circular walk of 3.6k starting from Nether Worton (6 km. west of Deddington and 15 km. south of Banbury) passing through Over Worton. There is one part that dogs cannot negotiate without being lifted!

Worton derives from the Anglo-Saxon (Ortune) a settlement by a bank or slope,and probably applied to Over Worton as Nether Worton lies in a flat valley beside a small tributary of the Cherwell.
It consists of a tiny church, a few cottages, Manor Farm, and Nether Worton House.
The walk heads up to Over Worton where there is a photogenic church and then back down past some small lakes to return past tiny Nether Worton church.

GPS Data

Route Description

1. Start near the Manor House.  Walk along the road towards Sandford to a stile on your left.
2. Cross the stile and head to a gate. Through the gate and across the field .
3. Through the gate and turn diagonally right towards the corner of the next field towards a road
4. At the road turn left (South) and head to past Flighthill farm on your right.
5. Turn left and head up the footpath past the farm cottage and through various gates / stiles
6. Pass through the copse.
7. Along the edge of the next field.
8. Into another small copse. This is hard to get out of with a heavy dog!!
9. Along the field past some posh houses on the left. Out onto a road in Over Worton Follow the church sign.
10. Through the churchyard through a gate with limited opening! Down the field.
11. Keep going. Cross 2 stiles cutting off the corner of a field.
12. You should see Nether Worton Manor farm coming into view.
13. Arrive at Manor farm with a church on your left. Turn left  back to the starting point.

Google Map

Click here for a Google satellite map of this walk.

Ordnance survey maps

You need OS Map 191
You can get an online OS map here.