Bredon Hill and Evesham

Sunday 21st April - sunny first thing this morning, then increasingly cloudy. Colder than yesterday and still cold for time of year. Cold in wind. 

On Bredon Hill

Walked up Bredon Hill from Ashton under Hill on east side. Up hill via a path near the church, around back gardens. Further up from here, a field of sheep, the ewes and their lambs numbered. Angular oolite pebbles in the ploughed / sewn fields nearer the top. The larger trees were still  bare and looked wintry.  View east back to main Cotswold limestone (Jurassic oolite) escarpment, the top  at about 300m. Bredon Hill just under 300m, 294m. An outlier, surrounded by older (early Jurassic) Lias.

Still wintry trees on Bredon Hill

Higher up, the path followed a drystone wall on our right, cyclists racing down hill  - a ding-ding bell or hooter would have been good here, particularly when hurtling down from behind, as they were when we came back down. Cloud was coming in by the time we got to the top, near the tower and the big lumps of limestone nearby, the Banbury Stone. Views across the plain to the Malverns. In the middle distance, the River Avon meandered around Pershore, Birlingham and Eckington. A white dome and radio dish stood out to the west - Madeley?

Too cold in wind to hang round long on the top - just as it had been when we were last here in 2010 – and that was December. The hills then were above thick fog in the Severn and Avon plains below. Walked along the southerly rampart of the fort and headed back down the way we came. 

Got back down to Ashton under Hill just before 2pm and headed into Evesham. There, we bought some sandwiches for a late lunch. Sat on one of the benches near the River Avon in Abbey Park. Again, rather cold. Again, the tall trees across the river were still bare and looked wintry.  It was cold the last time I was here, too, in  2005 – and that was late February.  

A very quick sketch here, then, before following the River Avon around the meander wrapping round the town. As at Shrewsbury, Evesham all started sensibly, on the hill presumably starting with the Abbey, but then spilled onto the flood plain. I couldn't see any floodmarks today,  but  the first one exceeded 17 feet (17.2ft, 5.23m  above the normal river level. The 2007 flood went even higher - 18.1ft (5.52m). This didn't surprise me: recall footage of a caravan being rammed into the town bridge (the more northerly stone one). In an account of these floods in Weather (published by Ian Currie et al’s Frosted Earth, late 2007 or early 2008),  this quote from Evesham, "I reckon it [the Avon] was flowing at 4 metres per second.". That's nearly 9 miles per hour.

Environment Agency - 2007 floods, Evesham 

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/library/publications/40587.aspx

River Avon, Evesham

The river was gentle enough looking today, much slower moving than the Severn recently, though again debris from higher water levels during the winter, caught in riverside branches and fences. 

There were major bridge works on the main A44-A4184 road bridge, to strengthen it. As we followed the diverted riverside path under it, the concrete did indeed look tired and worryingly weak, from pounding by heavy traffic over decades. Saw as we crossed on the way out of town, Severn Bore Piling were there with their big steel borer, as they had been near along the Solent at the Osborne View, Hill Head after a landslip there a while back. This bridge extends across the floodplain, with  gaps underneath for any excess water. 

Major bridge work, Evesham

A new leisure centre on hill in the middle of the meander. We walked as far as the westerly railway bridge. This stretch of the Avon wasn't as inviting as our recent Severn walks.  It’s the same along the Severn as well, but there’s been a proliferation of mobile home parks at both ends of the meander around Evesham:  one opposite Hampton ferry, the other near the town bridge to the east. The stretch between the ferry and railway looked generally untidy towards the back of the town. By the time we got to the railway, we felt uncomfortable about walking on any further. Signs of someone sleeping rough beneath remnants of stone bridge which once carried branch line.  On way back, short circuited the meander and went up hill to town centre, towards the “award winning toilets”, according to the signpost. This brought us back into old town opposite the Abbey. Turned left into the wide main street. Back from here about 4pm to the B&B for a cuppa.