Cornwell & Chastleton - Miles without Stiles

This fascinating walk takes in the estate village of Cornwell (designed by Clough Williams Ellis of Port Meirion fame), the Iron Age Chastleton Barrow and the Jacobean Chastleton House,

Distance

4.5 miles / 7.24 km

Duration

3 to 2.5 hours

Difficulty

Unsurfaced paths, basic fitness

Mobility aid rating

Stile free

Shape

Circular

Start

Address


View start on Google Maps

OS Grid Ref

SP270289

What3Words

motored.series.inherit

Travel Info

Minor road signed Rollrights, on the Chipping Norton side of the A44/A436 junction with The Greedy Goose on the corner.

Navigation

Cross the A44 and walk along the grass verge towards Chipping Norton for a short distance turning onto the track signed “unsuitable for motor vehicles. 1

Continue downhill, through Hollis Hill Farm. At Park Farm 2 take the footpath along the farm drive and go through the gate on the left into the field. Turn half right and go downhill towards a stream with a stone slab for a bridge. Cross and continue uphill with the wood on your right and go through the gate ahead. The track you are now goes past the track to Cornwell church on your left to emerge on a bend in a single track road.

On reaching the road 3 there is a short, optional diversion to glimpse the estate village of Cornwell. (Turning left downhill and up to a T-junction, left again to a view of the Manor House; return by the same route). Between the wars, an American owner had Cornwell redeveloped as a model village – the architect was Clough Williams Ellis, of Port Meirion fame. The school was refurbished as a village hall and the shop next door won prizes as “the prettiest Co-op shop in England”!

At 3 take the single-track lane uphill, i.e. right. Cross the A436 to a bridleway. 4 At the top of the field a gate leads you into Chastleton Barrow. Probably Iron Age, it is a typical single-bank circular hill fort. Cross it diagonally to another gate and two more gates to a driveway. Cross to a narrow gate. The path continues across parkland, parallel with a wooded road, through another gate onto an unfenced road. 5

At this point there is an option to see Chastleton by leaving the unfenced road via a cattlegrid to a bend on a minor road. Turn right to the church (mainly 13th-15th century), and then Chastleton House (National Trust). It is one of England’s finest and most complete Jacobean houses, with the atmosphere of almost four hundred years of continuous occupation by one family.

Otherwise at 5 take the unfenced road from the cattle grid along Chastleton Hill, to the A44. 5 Turn right back to the start and/or The Greedy Goose pub.