Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
½ mile (800m). Before long you will pass a cluster of farm buildings on
the right, among which there is a corrugated-iron shed on staddle stones.
Continue along the track until it brings you to a small wood with a gate.
Do not go through this gate, but instead turn right onto a path striking
north-west alongside the wood by a drystone wall. Pass through a gap in
the wall and resume direction, now with a large field on your left. In the
bottom corner bear left, still skirting the field boundary (big views into the
Vale of Evesham again). Maintaining direction you will come to the hill fort
of
Beckbury Camp
and the clump of beech trees marking the spot where
Thomas Cromwell is said to have overlooked the dismantling of Hailes Ab-
bey.
BECKBURY CAMP
To the east of Hailes Abbey is Beckbury Camp, the site of an Iron Age hill fort of more
than 4 acres (1½ hectares). It originally consisted of a single ditch and rampart, but
the ditch has since been filled, although along the east side of the rampart its position
can still be identified. Located on the scarp edge the hill fort would have been compar-
atively easy to defend.
Go through the gate, bear right and descend among the beeches, then
below the trees veer left to cross a large meadowland. With the guidance
of waymarks make a gentle diagonal descent through a series of meadows
linked by gates to reach an enclosed crossing track. A signpost here gives
directions. Turn right and walk downhill along the track among trees, with
orchards on the left and Hailes Wood to your right. When the track brings
you onto a lane, note that refreshments are available at Hayles Fruit Farm,
which has a tearoom and farm shop (to gain this, turn left).
Continue down the lane and you will shortly come to
Hailes Abbey
. A
few paces beyond the abbey remains, and just before the little Norman
church, bear left through a kissing gate and into a meadow. Hailes Abbey
ruins can be seen over the fence on the left. The meadow footpath brings
you to a collection of cottages, then onto a lane where you turn right. This
is Salter's Lane, an old saltway and part of a major route from Droitwich
Spa to the Thames Valley which crosses the Cotswolds between Hailes and
Lechlade.
HAILES ABBEY
