Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
through a second kissing gate, and continue to a third which takes you left
of Hayes Farm onto an enclosed path. This brings you out by the village
school in Old Sodbury.
LITTLE SODBURY
Little Sodbury is a tiny hamlet with a manor built in 1486 for Sir John Walsh. In 1521
William Tyndale came here as chaplain to Sir John's household. He began translating
into English Erasmus's Enchiridion Militis Christiani, and preaching in what was then
seen to be an outspoken manner. One oftquoted incident occurred when, at dinner
one evening at the manor, a visiting dignitary protested at Tyndale's views with the
remark, 'We were better be without God's law than the Pope's.' Tyndale was defiant:
'I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God shall spare my life, ere many years I will cause
the boy that follows the plough to know more of the Bible than thou doest.'
He left Little Sodbury for London in 1523, then travelled to the continent where he
met Miles Coverdale. In 1526 Tyndale's English version of the New Testament was
published at Worms, in Germany (the Old Testament followed in 1530), but 10 years
later he was put to death. The Parish Church of St Adeline, in which Tyndale preached,
originally stood behind the manor, but this was demolished in 1859 and the present
church built from some of its stones.
Walk through the churchyard of the stumpy towered Church of St John
the Baptist (the tower is original 13th century), and out at the far side to
find a simple topograph erected by villagers to commemorate the start of
the third millennium. Views from this sloping meadow extend to the Bre-
con Beacons. Go down the slope to the bottom left-hand corner and an-
other kissing gate, beyond which you continue towards a black barn with a
stile to its left. Walk through the farmyard to the main A432 opposite The
Dog Inn in Old Sodbury (grid ref: 754816, accommodation, refreshments).
Cross the road with care, walk along Chapel Lane for about 400 metres,
then take a footpath to the left through a kissing gate and go half-right to
another kissing gate, beyond which you pass to the left of a small pond,
and continue to the far right corner of the field. Maintain direction and
climb the hillslope, pass through a gap in a hedge, and continue along the
right-hand side of dividing hedges, making towards the left of some cot-
tages.
SODBURY HILL FORT
