Grandstand finish

4:52pm Thursday 7th August 2008

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FOR this easy panoramic tour of Bromyard’s heights we shoot off on the old rifle range. The firing spots were ranged up to the left of the footbridge at (1) and the target plates were sited for (dubious) safety under the natural buttress of banking up to the right.

The Butts were fashioned for the Fourth Herefordshire Rifle Corps whose use of the north end of the Downs gave way to a nine-hole golf course. Popular between the wars, the fairways in turn were partly ploughed up for food production in a contribution to the war effort in 1939.

No longer endangered by stray golf balls or bullets in the back, head up to the prominent corner of Warren Wood on the top tier. Before the railways, herds of cattle were driven across country from Wales to feed the Midland cities. Needing to stop and rest the cattle, the drovers paid a halfpenny per cow to put their herd in the fields on the Downs by the wood. Passing by (or through) the oak trees of 1870, and older beech trees in some cases, below on the Downs road stands the Old Toll House called Turnpike Cottage. The Turnpike Trusts had been formed to improve the main road surfaces with even, graded stone, and by 1800 coaches from London to Aberystwyth were regularly stopping here.

Having gained an excellent perspective beyond (2) of another range, the Malvern Hills, more trees, including horse chestnut and sycamore, impressively line the avenue into the Brockhampton Estate. The National Trust also offers colour-coded tree walks beyond our dip into the parkland, which takes us by information areas and George Byfield’s 1798 gothic chapel. He is more noted for building prisons.

Returning to the Downs beyond idiosyncratic Shepherd’s Cottage at (4) a racecourse had been constructed by the Bromyard Volunteers at the time of the Napoleonic wars. This is thought to have been partly to offer employment to soldiers returning to an economic slump in post-war 1815. The races became an annual pilgrimage for thousands of Victorian enthusiasts. With the course becoming more accessible, especially via rail travel, spectators came from Birmingham and other parts of the Midlands, as well as from Hereford, Worcester and Stourport. The five-race meeting in May 1884, four over the sticks and one on the flat, drew a crowd of nearly 7,000.

The grandstand was sited on the upper tier between Hill House Farm (over the crest) and Rifle Butts Cottage below. This must have been a wonderful vantage point as the track plunged down below Shepherd’s Cottage to cross the Downs road further left and behind the Old Bowling Green. Then, with most of the jumps below the road on the western side of the course, it crossed the Bromyard to Stourport road twice to finish above the Royal Oak Inn and in front of the stand. The water jumps had their own springs.

Late Victorian racegoers increased conviviality by being able to visit any one of five inns and pubs in the area. Indeed, it is recorded that throughout the 1880s an unfortunate form of entertainment was very common – drunkenness. Consequently a social club and reading room for men was opened in 1889 as a means of discouragement. The “dry” advocates would no doubt be pleased that the walk’s Grandstand Finish is directly above the only one of the five which remains.

The Royal Oak had provided storage space for users of the rifle range, relaxation for the stock drovers, and sustenance for visitors to the course until the days of racing became numbered after 1904.

The route of the very easy three-and-a-quarter mile walk is faithful to parts of the old racecourse but can obviously be tweaked as preferred on the Downs.

Bromyard Downs Common, parkland, easily attained views over rolling countryside. Three-and-a-quarter miles, easy family stroll, one stile only.

Map: OS Explorer 202, Leominster and Bromyard.

Public transport: First Bromyard Omnibus 419/420 Worcester-Hereford to start walk between (2) and (3).

The Route: 1. Start from Bromyard Downs’ parking and picnic area next to the Royal Oak Inn. Strike up the Downs straight ahead over the footbridge closer to the information board. Stay leftish after 130 metres to reach the old racetrack, turn right past the memorial seat then left up the bank after 65 metres to the next sloping level. Turn right towards the corner of Warren Wood, leaving the rifle butt contours behind you where the racetrack plunged to Downs road. Skirt the wood along the obvious track above Bromyard, passing memorial benches, rising very gently beyond the NT wood entry and Turnpike Cottage below right. Stay left on the upper edge with Marcle Ridge over to the right. After a bench and before descending, bear left for dog-friendly stile.

2. Malverns View. Cross stile to follow left edge of field with mast in front and North Hill right betokening the Malverns south to the obelisk at Eastnor. Where the track becomes surfaced, Warren Farm displays notices about birds, grain and hedges. On over the grid to the (busy) road. Turn left for 100 metres only on the road verge and left on to the drive at the lodge entrance. Enjoy the trees and follow the driveway passing to the right of Brockhampton Chapel via two kissing gates next to cattle grids.

3. Brockhampton Chapel. With excellent views north and east having opened up, turn left down the three steps along drive. After 100 metres, instead of bending right for Greenfield, go straight ahead on a rough track past the English oak to reach the gate to Warren Farm’s approach track. Ascend to pass in front of Warren Farm, bearing right with grid behind to the left. Beyond the River Teme valley over to the right are Woodbury, Walsgrove, and Abberley Hills. Pass farm outbuildings on left through gate, staying left through another to the Defra notices by Shepherd’s Pool. Take the higher NT wooden gate, noting the better view from the double metal ones, then along the fenced lane with the water reservoir behind left.

4. Shepherd’s Cottage. Through the gate get your bearings from the slate map, and take the upper right path from the second gate, straight ahead. Go further right towards the hedge after 180m to skirt in front of Hillfield Coppice, planted in 1910 with oak, ash and sycamore. Move left away from the trees to the Buckenhill sign and old shelter. Now turn very sharp left between the shelter and car parking area. The two oak trees mark the 600-yard firing point on the rifle range, and you are now on the last couple of furlongs of the racecourse. Turn right in front of the old grandstand area down a single discernible track, going 20 metres right of a wooden post, and directly above (what was) Rifle Butts Cottage. Thus, the Grandstand Finish.