A Long Amble from Mamble

Discover why the Leominster Canal failed to make money for its owners.

Distance 10.4 miles (16.8km)

Minimum time 5hrs

Ascent/gradient 690ft (210m)

Level of difficulty Hard

Paths Minor roads, field and woodland paths, tow path, 18 stiles

Landscape Undulating pastoral landscape

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 203 Ludlow

Start/finish SO 685712

Dog friendliness Lead often desirable, and don't forget dog's lunch

Parking Lay-by (bend in old road) west of Mamble on A456

Public toilets None on route

(2 user reviews)
Write a review of this walk

Directions
Background
Information

1 Towards Tenbury, take the minor road. Down High Point Farm's driveway a gate marks an indistinct green lane to Tetstill. Turn right. Soon cross an old railway bridge.

2 Through two fields, reach a stile. Follow the left field edge. Turn left. Just before Sturts' private bridge go down and right - concrete flagstones lead to a footbridge. Ascend a track left of Sturts. At the brow move right, taking the left of two gates. Go to the right edge of conifers. In 220yds (201m), at the next corner, turn left. Aim left of a massive oak, to a gate into conifers.

3 Descend to cross a wooden footbridge. Keep forward - not over another bridge - soon to return to pasture. In 325yds (297m) turn left. Find a stile through The Great House's gardens. Follow minor roads to St Michael's Church. Take the waymarked route, following pylons closely. In 600yds (549m), when descending, cross one stile but turn left at a second (not over it).

4 Follow this old tow path for 275yds (251m). By some exposed earth cross the canal bed (boggy in winter, overgrown in summer). Find a wicket gate to the right. Reach a track, Tavern Lane. Where the driveway to Oxnall Farm bends, go straight. Of two gates take the lower, right-hand one. In 60yds (55m) keep left. Leave a plantation at a stile then, importantly, take a gate immediately right. Strike diagonally to an opening. In 10yds (9m) turn right along a track briefly, then go forward to a corner stile into trees. Cross the old railway. The ditch on your left marks the canal. Its brick lining is evident at the next stile. You are now standing on the Rea Aqueduct.

5 Follow the canal for 1¼ miles (2km). At the A456 turn right. Cross to the old canal bend, taking the public footpath. Leave the driveway at Broombank Farm's gate. Walk along the left edge of several fields, initially in a cherry orchard. At a corner strike half-right to a pylon. Around a dry valley head, keep on the brow, beside a new hedgerow. Move left, to trees shielding a small pond (possibly dry). Ease away from new fencing (now on your right) to a two-bar stile through a plantation strip. Go to the woodland corner. Veer right for 75yds (69m); over this stile, go down to cross the Stocking Pool's dam.

6 Go up to the gate in the new fence's left corner. Walk 80yds (73m) to the second (not first) stile. Go forward to the road, turning left then right then left, into Mamble. Turn right, then left. Before the craft centre take a fingerpost, squeezing beside Tudor Cottage's garage. After a two-plank brook bridge go up and left, across fields to the Neen Sollars road junction and the lay-by.

Crude forms of coal mining were probably first carried out on the land around the small village of Mamble in prehistoric times. Much later, the Blount family lived at Sodington Hall, and the Mamble coal pits were part of their estate.

It may have been the case that mining was a part-time activity for what were primarily farmworkers. The inference drawn from the absence of much housing in the Marl Brook area is that mining was never more than a small-scale activity. Mamble's coal was not of premium quality, but it was adequate for domestic use and non-critical industrial processes such as lime burning. Coal mining continued in the locality until 1972. The last pit to close was the Mole Colliery at Hunthouse, about 1 mile (1.6km) south east of Mamble. The more modern, deep-mining techniques are the ones that cause least disruption at the surface. It is believed that, having won the coal from a pit, the ancient miners put it into wagons, to be hauled by horse along a rudimentary tramway to the (partially constructed) canal.

The rationale for the Leominster Canal, sanctioned by a 1791 Act of Parliament, was simple enough - provide a terminus for the distribution of coal emerging from the pits around Mamble, and reduce the price of conveying other goods between Leominster (pronounced 'Lemsta') and the River Severn. An advertisement displayed in 1797 proclaimed a cost saving, priced per ton, on this route of 25 per cent, and a 'more speedy conveyance'. Indeed, in 1796 the price of coal at Leominster was halved.

On the walk you pass Wharf House, where coal was loaded on to barges. For various reasons, the canal company failed to build nearly all of the remaining eastward section; in particular, the unfinished Southnett Tunnel collapsed. Its position is near Broombank Farm, roughly below Ash Coppice. All manner of constructional defects in this, and in the Rea Aqueduct (Point 5), were reported by a consulting engineer. The Rea Aqueduct is still standing; presumably it has been inspected recently, but it's a pretty scary sight!

Not having the Southnett Tunnel cut off access to essential water from Dumbleton Brook (beyond the tunnel's eastern portal) so the Stocking Pool (Point 6), a reservoir, was built. The canal was eventually bought by the railway in the late 1850s and wound down.

Where to eat and drink

Newnham's Tavern has hot and cold food, a beer patio and childrens' play area. Mamble's Sun and Slipper has a beer terrace. Mamble Craft Centre Tea Room has a lawn with gorgeous views.

While you're there

The Mamble Craft Centre has a stunning array of wares of varying degrees of utility, and four craft workshops attached to it. (My advice is that, if any of your companions are 'shoppers', do the walk first.)