26/12/16 - The Plough at Shenstone

Distance - 6.7 Miles
Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine Dec 2016, Walk 7
Geocaches - 1

Sometimes, walk inspiration just falls into your lap.  I awake to an unseasonably warm December morning, and make the most of the Xmas break by catching up on the backlog of Country Walking Magazines. The last but one issue has a local walk. It passes a CAMRA Good Pub Guide Bathams pub and reminds me that I had a 2016 plan to create walks from all the Bathams pubs - a plan that hasn't been added to since May.

There is no excuse not to get up and out there.

This walk is so good, the truly thirsty rambler could actually stop at 5 pubs, including another Bathams.  A fair amount crammed into a 7 mile country ramble.

I start at the Plough at Shenstone - a pub in the middle of nowhere but the quality of the beer (and prices) always ensures that they have plenty of punters.  Bathams have been recently tweeting around their near legendary festive XXX beer.  But will they have any left on Boxing Day?

Starting at the Plough in Shenstone

The walk heads South-East on good paths through a hamlet called Cakebole, before heading north to the Fox and Hounds at Chaddesley Corbett and ultimately into the village centre, where there is the chance to revisit the Swan.  As I've already walked/blogged from here, I walk on past to pick up the Monarch's Way through more fine countryside.

Countryside around Cakebole

A Chance to Double up on Bathams

The Monarch's Way is taking me to Harvington Hall, the architectural highlight of the walk.  This is a moated C16th Manor House, famous for its Priest Holes - although not famous enough for Charles II to take advantage of them as he fled from the battle of Worcester to hide in a tree in Staffordshire.

Harvington Hall

A full circuit of the Hall provides a chance to admire it from all angles, before reaching the Dog at Harvington.  If anything, the walking gets even finer, as we head North along a tiny brook to reach the ramshackle Stone House Gardens.

The Brook to Stone

Lanes take me past the Hare and Hounds and deliver me to the only Geocache of the day - a very nice hide, sizeable enough to allow a TB drop off.  Onward and back to the Plough.  2 Hours have passed since I left a deserted car park.  Its now full to bursting point - as is the narrow lounge, leaving space only to sit at high bar stools and wait to catch the eye of the busy bar staff.

The three pumps - Mild, Best and XXX are all facing the paying public.  I ask for the XXX.

It sold out before Xmas.  A £2.60, the Best is a fine consolation.

There's always Next Year