Hawkesbury Upton - Cotswold Edge - Hawkesbury

Peter Salenieks

You need to log in as a member of Walkingworld to access the details for this walk and have an active subscription. Please join, or log in above if you are already a member.

This easy circular walk on the edge of the Cotswolds links Hawkesbury Upton and Hawkesbury, crossing fields and meadows before returning via Church Hill Wood. It can be combined with a visit to the Beaufort Arms, an award-winning real ale pub.

Hawkesbury is one of several settlements built on small benches of level ground formed from a thin bed of hard rock that acts as an aquifer, from which streams emerge. This rock lies beneath a sixty-metre-thick layer of Cotteswold Sands from the Lower Jurassic period. These silty sands have been eroded to form part of the steep scarp slope of the Cotswolds and are also cut through by a series of sunken lanes.

The church in Hawkesbury is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. King Edgar introduced Benedictine monks here in 984 at the intercession of the Bishop of Worcester. Whilst the building dates from Saxon times, it also includes architecture from most subsequent periods, including Norman, Early English and Gothic features.

Towards the end of the walk, there are views north towards the Somerset Monument, which was built to commemorate Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset.

England - South West England - Gloucestershire - Cotswolds