Walk 3: Stanway to Winchcombe (6 miles)

 After a very wet and windy week, the weather was clement and dry as we set off from Stanway for our third walk. Four of us  started where we had finished the last walk.

The walk began on a lovely lane which passed Stanway Mill, a working watermill which produces excellent bread flour. 

It was a pleasant walk to Wood Stanway, a small hamlet, 

from where the path started to climb steadily and steeply. Our reward was magnificent views across to the Malvern Hills and beyond.

A mile or so later we came to the site of an iron-age fort at Beckbury Camp, where Thomas Cromwell is said to have sat to watch Hailes Abbey burn. The monument "Cromwell's Seat" marks this spot.

From there it was a lovely downhill walk to Hailes Fruit Farm where we stopped for a welcome rest and refreshments. 

The walk from Hailes was over farmland, which was extremely muddy due to the very wet weather we had been having. 

We saw and heard a skylark. And heard the regular whistle of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Train.

Once we got out of the fields, the walk was along a pleasant stony lane, reaching Winchcombe on the interestingly named Puck Pit Lane.

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