Another circular walk around Chaddesley Woods which is perfect in all weather and guaranteed to offer plenty of sightings of interesting woodland wildlife.
We always take the car to the edge of the woods along Woodcote Lane off the main Kidderminster Road just before you get to Dodford heading from Bromsgrove. You go along Woodcote Lane for about 2/3 of a mile before it forks off to the right, you go straight on rather than staying on the lane.
You can park in a number of stopping areas once you've gone down here and come to a dog leg bend in the lane (there's a little metal gate into a big field on your left). We normally park on the right at a gateway and then walk back up the lane to the little metal gate.
But you can carry on and park a bit further down on the left by a metal five bar gate which leads to a main path into the woods. The picture above shows the wood hut which you come to at the top of this path.
Today, we're going to walk back from our usual stopping place and walk back to the little metal gateway which opens into a big field. There is a public right of way along the right hand side of this field but you need to be on your lead if there are cattle in there.
The farmer who owns the field is a dog walker himself, he has a perky little Jack Russell named Charlie with funny little bow legs who usually makes more of a fuss of Maimee than me when we meet him.
Stick to the pathway at the side of the field because although it's tempting to go galloping off across the field, this is not part of the right of way and our farmer friend gets, understandably, cross.
At the top of the field, you'll come to another gate which you go through to get into the woods. you effectively carry straight on here along a lovely trail which takes you along the edge of the woods until you reach a log pile on your left.
From here, you can take a sharp right and double back on yourself along a pathway which runs parallel to the one you've just taken.
Today, we're going straight on and following the pathway round to the right down a steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, you follow a worn track off to the left which clmbs back up onto another pathway.
Keep going along there and look out for another pathway on your right which heads up into the wood again. If you stay on the path before taking this right hand turn, you'll come to another gate which leads out over a field path across open land.
If you stay on that path, you can walk all the way back down into the village of Chaddesley.
We're staying in the woods after taking the hill path on the right. Go up here and eventually you'll come out to another grassed track which leads round to the right.
Stay on this path and you'll come out to the main path leading up from the wood shed in our phto.
Turn left and stay on the pathway, back past the wood shed and all the way down to the metal five bar gate which opens out onto the road where you have parked.
We turn right and walk back up to the car parked on the left.
This walk is about two miles and is perfect in all kinds of weather. Squirrels, muntjac deer, rabbits, foxes and badgers are all resident along these woodland routes, not to mention the amazing variety of birds; green woodpeckers, owls, buzzards, red kites and kestrels.
Recommended by Primrose.
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