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Bremhill, Wick Hill and Maud Heath's Monument

From an Old-World Village on a Nature Trail Cupped in Downland

Far from crowds, through leafy lanes, woods, meadows and downs, this walk takes in tranquil pastoral scenes that could have come straight from the pages of a Thomas Hardy novel. Bremhill, at the start of the route, is a village with an ancient church on a hill that overlooks an old market cross and a single street of honey-coloured stone cottages. The walk climbs gently from Bremhill to follow the top of the downs, giving marvellous views over the surrounding countryside.

Start Point
Bremhill
Grid Ref: ST 98012 73085
Total Distance
3.8 miles (6.1 km)
Total Climbing
115 metres
Estimated Time
2 hours
Difficulty Grade
Easy

Ordnance Survey Explorer Map (1:25,000)

Essential paper map for exploring Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon:

The Walk Report

This is a good area for wildflowers. In the spring, the woods are full of bluebells and heavy with the scent of wild garlic. The lanes are embanked with cow parsley, ragged-robin and wild arum. The hedgerows are alive with small birds including wrens, chaffinches and long-tailed tits. Pheasants stalk the meadows and larks and hawks hover over the downs.

Many of Bremhill's old stone cottages have thatched roofs. The 13th-century church has a porch with a fan-vaulted roof and a rare ornately carved stone pulpit dating from the 14th century. The Reverend William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850) was rector here from 1804 until his death. His poems were admired by the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, who visited him at the old vicarage. One of his poems is dedicated to an old soldier and is carved on the wall of the church close to the south porch. Like Wordsworth, he wrote about country folk at a time when they were not considered worthy of notice. He had a habit of keeping sheep with their bells tuned in thirds and fifths. Their descendants still graze in the shadow of the church tower.

Further along the route, on reaching Maud Heath's Causeway, there is a viewpoint from the crest of the down and the panorama can be appreciated all along the ridge. You can see over the North Wiltshire Plain to the Cotswold Hills, and it is possible to see the curve of the horizon.

Along the ridge, the carved figure of Maud Heath stands proudly on top of her monument, looking towards Chippenham on the plain below. In 1474 she left all her money to build the causeway from the hill where she sits to the town. In January 1990 severe storms beheaded poor old Maud and her head fell from the monument, rolling down the hill into a bramble patch. Fortunately, her head was recovered and returned to its rightful place during repairs and restorations undertaken in 1990 and 1991.

From the monument, the causeway leads from Wick Hill and passes through Langley Burrell. A poem by William Lisle Bowles is inscribed on the column. It reads "From this Wick Hill begins the Praise / Of Maud Heath's gift to these Highways". There is also a newer inscription commemorating Maud's gift. This appears on the inscribed stone situated on the top of Wick Hill.

From Wick Hill the walk continues on the ridgeline past Bencroft Plantation and to Bencroft Hill where there is a small nature reserve. Afterwards, the walk continues down to Hazeland Farm before returning to the village of Bremhill.

Bremhill Church
Bremhill Church
Cottages in Bremhill
Cottages in Bremhill
The view to the North Wiltshire Plain from Wick Hill
The view to the North Wiltshire Plain from Wick Hill
Farmhouse at Bencroft Hill
Farmhouse at Bencroft Hill

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.

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