Widford Church and Paynes Farm
A longer walk through wooded country with magnificent views to Asthall village.
Description
(S/E) From the front door of The Swan Inn, turn left. Walk up the road into Swinbrook village, keeping left at a junction by a fine stone barn. Keep left at the village green, and turn left by the postbox.
(1) Pass below the church, then join a walled path to the left of the last house that leads to a gate into open fields. Cross two fields and pass to the right of a walled cottage as you approach Widford Church.
(2) Go through a gate to the right of a cattle grid and leave the track to the right to visit the church, then retrace your steps. Beyond the gate by the cattle grid, turn left to a field gate into the dry valley of Dean Bottom.
Walk up the valley for 600 yards, to a stile into a narrow lane.
(3) Turn right along the lane for 300 yards before turning left along a hedged green lane that descends to a gate. Ignore the valley on the right and follow the track half-right up the hillside opposite. Walk along the edge of the wood on your left before bearing right to a gate in the corner.
(4) Follow a stony track downhill to meet a metalled road. Turn right and walk down to a grass triangle in front of some stone cottages. Turn right to another junction, where you turn left, signposted to Fordwells and Leafield.
Walk up the lane with woods to left and right.
(5) About half a mile from the junction, shortly after the woodland on the right gives way to open fields, turn right onto an obvious track signposted “BRIDLEWAY LEADING TO BYWAY”. Follow this track for three-quarters of a mile, to meet a road at a junction.
(6) Take the descending lane (Ninety Cut Hill) opposite, signposted to Asthall. Pass the driveway to a farm on the left, then take a footpath over a stile on the right signposted “Swinbrook 1⁄2”. Follow the right-hand hedge to a gate, and then a stone wall to a second gate with a slab stile. Bear left to another slab stile opposite The Swan Inn. (S/E)
Waypoints
- S/E : km 0 - alt. 99 m - The Swan Inn
- 1 : km 0.32 - alt. 100 m - Fields
- 2 : km 1.07 - alt. 102 m - Widford Church
- 3 : km 1.83 - alt. 141 m - Wood
- 4 : km 2.97 - alt. 122 m - Stone cottages
- 5 : km 3.88 - alt. 143 m - Open fields
- 6 : km 5.03 - alt. 130 m - Slab stiles
- S/E : km 6.35 - alt. 100 m - The Swan Inn
Useful Information
Multiple stiles; paths may be muddy after rain.
Pdf Link : http://walksfromthedoor.co.uk/i/walks/Ox...
The swan Inn
Swinbrook, near Burford,
Oxon, OX18 4DY
Tel 01993 823339
Website www.theswanswinbrook.co.uk
Email info@theswanswinbrook.co.uk
Always stay careful and alert while following a route. Visorando and the author of this walk cannot be held responsible in the event of an accident during this route.
During the walk or to do/see around
The Kings Head, Bledington
This sister inn, in a picturesque village-green setting in another stunning Cotswold village. Described by the Sunday Times as “The classic English country pub that one always hopes to find but seldom does.”
Satnav: OX7 6XQ (11 miles)
Burford
Picturesque Oxfordshire town with its famous High Street, lined with historic buildings, sloping down to the church and river. Museums, antique shops and galleries, tea-rooms, pubs and a mag- nificent Cotswold church.
Satnav (car park): OX18 4DN (2 miles)
Cotswold Wildlife Park
One of the UK’s largest zoological collections, featuring birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Star exhibits include Asiatic Lions, Oryx and White Rhino, in gardens and parkland surrounding a Victorian mansion.
Satnav: S33 8WS (5 miles)
Cogges Museum, Witney
Farming and rural life museum near Witney, housed in a 13th-century manor house set among 17th-century farm buildings. Cooking and craft demonstrations, farm animals, café and farm shop.
Satnav: OX28 3LA (7 miles)
Bourton-on-the-Water
Popular Cotswold “honeypot” on the River Windrush, with multiple tourist attractions including Birdland zoological gardens, the Cotswold Motor Museum and a 1930s-era Model Village, a replica of the larger village.
Satnav (car park): GL54 2BN (12 miles)
Blenheim Palace
One of England’s largest country houses, the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and birth- place of Winston Churchill, set in grand parkland with an ornamental lake. Palace and gardens, Churchill exhibition, model railway and more. Satnav: OX20 1PP (17 miles)
