Eldersfield - hills, ditches and bridges

Eldersfield is a sparsely populated parish in south-west Worcestershire. It's largely flat but does have some distinctive low hills

An unnamed 33m hill in Eldersfield

The most notable small hill is Gadbury Bank or Camp which is an ancient hill fort  - unfortunately, there's no public access.

On the opposite side of Coles Lane is an unnamed hill with quite a few footpaths. The landowner has erected a bench at the summit - although there's no public right of way to it.

View from a footpath over the church and mid left is "Berth Hill"

There's another interesting hill on the North side of Hoggs Pitch. In theory, it makes a nice circular hill-top walk but at the time of writing, the footpath is blocked at the south-east corner.

Wide path leading around the hilltop

These hills are very much the exception - most of the land is low-lying and flat and part of the village is called Eldersfield Marsh - a reference the state of much of the land before being drained in the 19th Century. That's why there are number of deep ditches in the village with some nice small bridges

Another interesting bridge is over an arm of a lake near Marsh Court. The lake isn't shown on older OS maps so it (and the bridge) is probably fairly modern in origin.

This phone box has been re-purposed

The Longdon & Eldersfield Marsh Conservation Trust is a good source of history and wildlife information

 

More pictures

Marsh Brook

View towards the Malverns

Willows at Eldersfield Marsh

Nottingham Hill

It's near Cheltenham - nowhere near Nottingham and famous for a very large hill fort

View NW to Bredon Hill

I liked the pattern of the tracks

View NE to Alderton Hill

In the background is “Showlands”, a “Winter Quarters” for travelling show people. After a fight lasting around 15 years, they finally got planning permission. Foreground is Gotherington

Autumn colour starting in Gotherington

Elmstone Harwicke

Photos taken near Elmstone Hardwicke, Glos, UK where a farm road crosses the M5

Curious signs near the summit

Towards Cleeve Hill

Malverns

Dowdeswell

I'm not sure if Dowdeswell Nature Reserve still exists. It's on the maps. and Geograph has a photo of a sign but the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust doesn't mention it and when I got to the site of the photo, I found the sign had been removed with a saw.

The reservoir itself was still there. Its life has been undistinguished. Originally part of the waterworks for Cheltenham, it became redundant when the Mythe Water Treatment Works took over. The next job was to protect Cheltenham from flooding. It doesn't fulfil that mission particularly well because substantial tributaries off the Chelt join below the dam.

The dry side of the dam

The concrete overflow spillway is visited by local artists following a prolonged spell of dry weather

Further down the spillway. The yellow sign promises deep water

A curious tree by the old filter beds

Gloucestershire Lake District

Wainlodes

Combe Hill canal

Near Haw Bridge

Deerhurst

From  Deerhurst churchyard 

Bishops Norton

Cardington

My eye was caught by this story of yet another revival of the Airship although marketing have decreed it be called the "Airlander". In particular, I noticed they were being kept in giant hangers at Cardington near Bedford. I was passing the place recently and made a detour