Winchcombe and Sudeley Castle

A walk above the burial place of Henry's sixth queen - Catherine Parr.

Distance 4 miles (6.4km)

Minimum time 2hrs

Ascent/gradient 490ft (150m)

Level of difficulty Easy

Paths Fields and lanes, 10 stiles

Landscape Woodland, hills and villages

Suggested map aqua3 OS Outdoor Leisure 45 The Cotswolds

Start/finish SP 024282

Dog friendliness On leads (or close control) throughout - much livestock

Parking Free on Abbey Terrace; also car park on Back Lane

Public toilets On corner of Vine Street

Write a review of this walk

Directions
Background
Information

1 From the parking area on Abbey Terrace in Winchcombe, walk towards the village centre and turn right, down Castle Street. Where it levels out cross a bridge and after a few paces turn left on a path between cottages. Pass into a field and go half right to a gate on the other side.

2 Turn right along a lane. At the end of a high stone wall to your right, turn left into a field. Go half right across this field to find a well-concealed gap in the hedge, about 50yds (46m) left of a gateway, with a plank across a ditch. Cross this and then turn left to a gate. Go through and continue half right to another gap in the hedge. Pass through and maintain your direction to a protuding corner. Once you are round it, keep close to the fence on your left and continue into the next corner to find a (possibly overgrown) path leading to a stile.

3 Cross the next field to another stile. Continue up the following field to a gate. Go through and then go half right to the far corner to another stile, again possibly concealed. Cross this and then another stile almost immediately. Continue until you come to a stile beside a gate with a stone barn above you to the right.

4 Don't go over the stile but turn right to head downhill to a gate (at first hidden) in the hedge about 250yds (229m) below the barn. Go through this on to a track and follow it as it curves towards a house. Cross a stile.

5 Just before the house turn right, cross the field and go over a stile. In the next field go to the bottom left-hand corner to emerge on a road. Turn left and, after a few paces, turn right along a lane, towards Sudeley Lodge Parks Farm.

6 Opposite a cottage turn right on to a footpath across a field. At the bottom nip over a stile and turn right. At the next corner turn left, remaining in the same field. Cross another stile, continue for a few paces and then turn right over a stile. Walk half left, following the obvious waymarkers to a fence, with Sudeley Castle now on your right-hand side.

7 Go through two kissing gates to enter the park area. Cross a drive and then cross a field to another gate. Go through this and bear half right to the farthest corner. You will emerge on Castle Street in Winchcombe where you can turn left to return to the village centre.

At the end of a long drive just outside Winchcombe is a largely 16th-century mansion called Sudeley Castle. The first castle was built here in 1140 and fragments dating from its earlier, more martial days are still much in evidence. Originally little more than a fortified manor house, by the mid-15th century it had acquired a keep and several courtyards. It became a royal castle after the Wars of the Roses before being given to Thomas Seymour, Edward VI's Lord High Admiral. Seymour lived at Sudeley with his wife, Catherine Parr - he was her fourth husband. Seymour was executed for treason. Consequently the castle passed to Catherine's brother, William, but he was executed too. Queen Mary gave the property to Sir John Brydges, the first Lord Chandos. Sudeley Castle was a Royalist stronghold during the Civil War. It was disarmed by the Parliamentarians and left to decay until its purchase by the wealthy Dent brothers in 1863.

Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII and the only one to outlive him, is buried in Sudeley's chapel. She was born in 1512 into an influential northern family and educated in Henry's court. She was first married at the tender age of nine, but widowed six years later. Back at court, she was at the centre of a group of educated, capable women, using her influence with the King to protect her second husband, Lord Latimer, from the machinations of courtly politics. When Latimer died in 1543, Catherine was left one of the wealthiest and best-connected women in England, and an obvious choice of wife for Henry. She looked after him and his affairs during the years until his death in 1547. She quickly married Seymour and moved to Sudeley, where the future Queen Elizabeth was often her companion until Catherine's death in childbirth in 1548.

The village of Winchcombe has a considerable history. It was a seat of the Mercian kings and the capital of Winchcombshire until its incorporation into Gloucestershire in the 11th century. It became a significant place of pilgrimage due to the presence of an abbey established in ad 798 and dedicated to St Kenelm, the son of its founder, King Kenulf. The abbey was razed in the Dissolution but the parish church survived and is a fine example of a 'wool church', financed through income from the medieval wool trade. Of particular interest are the amusing gargoyles that decorate its exterior. They are said to be modelled on real local people. Winchcombe also boasts two stimulating small museums: the Folk Museum on the corner of North Street and the Railway Museum on Gloucester Street. Unlike many villages in the area, it has has retained many of its shops and local services.

What to look for

If you go into the church at Winchcombe, note the embroidery behind a screen, said to be the work of Catherine of Aragon, a wife of Henry VIII. As you descend the hill on the approach to Sudeley Hill Farm, look out for St Kenelm's Well. This is a 19th-century version of a holy well connected with the martyred prince, patron saint of the vanished Winchcombe Abbey.

While you're there

In Winchcombe itself you should try and visit Sudeley Castle, the parish church and the two museums (P Background to the Walk). Just outside the town, on the road to Stanway, is Toddington Station, and the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway. Here enthusiasts are aiming to reopen the old Great Western Railway route between Stratford-upon-Avon and Cheltenham. Steam train services operate at weekends over their 6½ miles (10.4km) of restored track between Toddington and Gotherington.

Where to eat and drink

For a small town, Winchcombe has a disproportionately large number of possibilities, ranging from pubs to tea rooms and restaurants. It also has a bakery (and a supermarket). If you visit Sudeley Castle, there's a good café.