Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford

From the memorial walk south towards the Redesdale Hall in the middle of the High Street. The Roman Fosse Way is one metre below you. Turn right 1 into Corders’ Lane. At the end cross a road, pass the allotments and through the first of 7 gates into a field. Straight on, with a glimpse of Batsford House, and look for a gate in the hedge on your left.

Continue through five more gates. At the fifth, continue straight on to a gap in the hedgerow then turn half right to a sixth gate then onto a stone bridge 2 over a stream which flows to the Thames. With a small wood on your right, after two more gates, look for a long wall on your right.

3 Here turn right through a gate and follow the track beside Batsford deer park. You might spot a bird of prey being exercised from the falconry. After approx 1/2 mile (0.6km) you should see Batsford House, a Victorian building in the Elizabethan style, where the Mitford girls grew up. After a gate, a track veers left toward farm buildings, but keep straight on through the metal gate, and you’ll reach a gate beside the road.

Turn left and walk along the road on the right (facing the traffic) for 50 metres. At the crossroads 5 turn right into a quieter lane. (You could detour to Batsford Church 4 – a Victorian Norman church).

It may look nothing but you are now walking the watershed, where raindrops turn left for the Bristol Channel (via the Stour, Avon and Severn) or right for the North Sea (via the Evenlode and Thames).

After the first house in Dorn hamlet, 6 turn right on a track which becomes a footpath across the fields to Moreton. At a gate entering the last field (Moreton Showground) turn half-left past two mature trees framing a distant house.

Before the road, spot the low mound on your right, 7 the remains of a Roman fort. Cross into the recreation ground, bear left beside the playground and climb steps to the road. Turn right for the High Street and the War Memorial.

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