Wayman & Beverley led a walk on Sun 24 Sep from The Bear Inn, Berkswell (Google Maps). The route of just over 8.5 miles (13.7km) skirts Eastern Green and then comes back via Millison’s Wood and Meriden. The walk is mainly on footpaths across fields with a short detour into Millison’s Wood.
A route description and a map follow below the photo album.
The route shown below is all on public rights of way. Some in the walking group live on Berkswell Estate so on 24 Sep we were able to take a slightly shorter route (8.3 miles / 13.4 km) back to The Bear through the estate past Berkswell Hall on a path which is not a right of way and has a locked gate. Some of the photos in the album above are from the estate, and not from the route shown on the map below.
Route Notes: We head from Berkswell along the Millennium Way to the outskirts of Eastern Green passing St Andrew’s Church. A few weeks ago, the farm on the footpath beyond the church was destroyed in a major fire. The footpath was closed but we are assuming that it is now open otherwise a short diversion will be required.
We then go west to Millison’s Wood past St Laurence Church, Meriden which is 1000 years old. The name may refer to the early Christian martyr St. Laurence in Rome 258 AD or to Lawrence, second Archbishop of Canterbury 604 AD. Legend favours the latter. Several churchyard memorials are interesting. General Whichcote, veteran of Waterloo, who lived at Meriden House from 1848 to 1891 is buried here, as is Christiana wife of the workhouse doctor, Edward Clarke and sister of George Eliot, the authoress.
From Meriden, the route heads towards The Barn at Berryfields, a 4th generation family-run, multi-award-winning hospitality, restaurant, retail and pig farming business. The walk then crosses Cornet’s End Lane and heads back past St John Baptist Church in Berkswell to The Bear.
Click the Learn more button above to open the map in Outdooractive from where you can download the route to the free Outdooractive app for Android or iOS, or export the route to a GPX file for use in other apps. A GPX file for this route (HHIK0098.gpx) can also be downloaded from this folder. For more about using Outdooractive, and a list of all our routes with GPS files, see: GPS Routes.
A GPX file for our track on 24 Sep, including the stretch through Berkswell Estate not on a public right of way, is available here.
