Writhlington - Foxcote Circular (Radstock Walk 7)

1  RADSTOCK MUSEUM. With your back to Radstock Museum turn left and walk along Waterloo Road. Continue as the road starts to gently climb and becomes Tyning Hill. After the last houses, the road flattens and there are open areas left and right. The area on the right was the site of Tyning Pit. Carry on until one of the Lower Whitelands Terraces comes into view. Turn right down a lane beside Lower Whitelands. At the end of the lane follow the concrete path straight ahead until you reach National Cycle Route 24. Turn left and then shortly after, take a right-hand turn and walk with the large grain mill on your right. After a few yards, the path widens and crosses a bridge over the Wellow Brook. Just after the bridge turn left onto a bridleway to the right of a metal gate. Continue on this clearly defined bridleway for 550 yards until you walk past the former St Mary Magdalene Church and reach a lane which is Church Hill. The woods on the right of the bridleway mark the batch of Upper Writhlington Pit.

The parish church of Writhlington was dedicated to St Mary Magdalen. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building. The church has since been converted to a private residence. There are recent graves in the churchyard next to the church. The old rectory on the opposite side of the road dates from the 18th century and is also a Grade II listed building.

2 ST MARY MAGDALEN CHURCH. Turn left and walk down Church Hill. BE CAREFUL OF OCCASIONAL CARS ON THIS ROAD. Just below the church on the left-hand side was the site of Writhlington Manor House. The road bends to the right then to the left. Continue on, turning left when you reach a T-junction. Walk 60 yards and just before a metal farm gate take the footpath going right. The area directly ahead was Lower Writhlington Pit. Walk through the small copse to a metal kissing gate. Go through the kissing gate into large field. Continue ahead keeping the hedge on your left until you reach another metal kissing gate which leads into woods. Carry on straight ahead through the woods following the clearly marked path close to the left-hand fence. The woods mark the site of Foxcote Pit spoil heap. Cross a wooden stile as you leave the woods. Continue straight ahead to a metal kissing gate. Go through the gate and go uphill to the metal kissing gate ahead. Go through and bear left walking gently upwards, keep the hedge on your left until you reach another metal kissing gate.

The Fairfax family lived at Writhlington Manor House and were friends with George Washington, the first US President. In 1927 it was described as a very interesting specimen of Charles II period architecture. It was pulled down after World War II Lower Writhlington and Kilmersdon were the last two mines in the Somerset Coalfield to close. Both pits stopped production in 1973 after Portishead Power Station was converted from coal to oil.

Foxcote Pit dates from around 1853 and the shaft was 1212ft deep. Coal was moved either to Lower Writhlington Pit or by tramway to a depot near Turner’s Tower. In 1864 there was an eighteen-week strike at Foxcote, Writhlington, and Braysdown Pits. It started over a dispute at Foxcote Pit over the exact quantity of coal each miner sent to the surface. Output ceased in 1931 and the pithead was demolished in the 1950s.

3 BRAESIDE. After going through the gate, immediately turn right and then left and walk ahead with a hedge on your right and a wire fence on your left to a wooden stile. Beyond the stile the path narrows as it passes alongside a garden/building and then leads onto a road. Turn right and walk along the road to St James the Less in Foxcote.

4 ST JAMES THE LESS CHURCH. Continue straight ahead and walk gently upwards along the lane, past Foxcote Farm immediately on your right and the Old Rectory on your left, to where another lane joins from the left. Shortly after this junction and the entrance to The Tythe Barn there is a public footpath on your right opposite a metal field gate. Go
through the field gate on the left and walk diagonally right across this field to a wooden kissing gate in the corner of the field. Go through to join a lane. Turn right and walk along this lane. Continue on the lane, with wide-ranging views on both sides of the road, passing a collection of three houses and then a turning on your right signposted The Retreat. The houses at The Retreat mark the site of Foxcote Pit. Continue along the lane for a further 350 yards. As the lane curves to the left there is a narrow path going straight ahead. Follow the path down until your reach a lane. Turn left and walk along the road to a small metal gate beside a wooden field gate on the right. Continue on a path through the woods which climbs gently. After coming out of the wood the path forks; take the left fork up the slope to a wooden kissing gate to the left of a wooden fence and right of a large tree stump. Go through, turn right and then left. Then continue ahead with gardens, buildings and a wooden fence on your right. This is Combe Farmhouse. Keep the tall conifer hedgerow on your right as the path turns right and then left to reach a metal kissing gate. Go through the gate and walk ahead to join
the road. Turn right and pass the Old School House on the left and, opposite St Mary’s Rise, Manor Farm House on the right.

The Old School House was built and opened as a school in 1846. In 1901 the school moved to a new building at the Old Frome Road in Writhlington and the old school building became a Sunday School. In 1959 the parish sold the former school and schoolhouse and was converted into a single dwelling and named The Old School House.

Manor Farm House dates from the 18th century and is a Grade II listed building and was thought to have originally been part of the Ammerdown Estate.

5 MANOR FARM HOUSE. Continue down the road, which is Church Hill, and about 15 yards after the last house on the left there is a Bristol Gate on your left. TAKE CARE AS THERE IS OCCASIONAL TRAFFIC ON THIS ROAD. Go through the Bristol Gate and continue ahead keeping the houses on your left. After for 275 yards there is a crossing path. Turn right and walk down to the trees. Just before the trees, turn left and walk with the trees on your right to reach a metal kissing gate into the woods. Turn left after the gate and walk along the path until you reach a quiet lane. Turn right and follow the lane down until you reach a junction with Mill Road. Turn left and walk along the road for 200 yards and turn right. Where the road turns to the right, go straight ahead to reach National Cycle Route 24. The tree lined batch of Tyning Pit is immediately in front of you. Turn left and walk along the cycle path until reach Waterloo Road. The buttress wall by the cycle chicane and information board carried a tramway across the railway line. Turn left and walk back to Radstock Museum passing Pines Way and Pines Court on the left.

The houses in Pines Way lie adjacent to the perimeter area of the former Radstock Wagon Repair Company. The Engine Shed fell into disrepair in the late 1970s and was demolished in about 1980 and replaced by Pines Way and Pines Court. An embankment formerly ran along the back of Pines Way and Pines Court on which a tramway ran taking waste from Middle and Ludlows Pits to Tyning batch.

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