Walking DPS:Layout 1
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WALKING
8. SMALL STREAM After a few yards cross a small stream and turn immediately left along the edge. Follow the stream up along to a gate at the end of the field where the stream bends left. You go straight on along the right hedge in the next field beginning the gentle ascent to Maesbury Castle hillfort. Go through a kissing gate and on up along the right edge passing a line of beech trees. In the top corner go through two kissing gates and enter the edge of Maesbury Hillfort.
9. HILLFORT This is an Iron Age hill fort listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The name comes from maes, meaning field or plain in Welsh, and burh, meaning fort in Old English. The area was a boundary between the Romano-British Celts and West Saxons during the period 577-652 AD, when the nearby Wansdyke fortification comprised part of the border. The enclosure of 6.2 acres, lies at a height of 950ft and has spectacular views in many directions. This includes the Somerset Levels to Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll – two of the most easily identifiable landmarks. The fort has a single rampart up to 6m high, with an outer ditch. The fort and surrounding grounds are now owned by the Stevens' family who have been farming in Somerset for over 60 years. Follow a small path ahead over the ditch and up on to the outer bank. The official footpath goes straight across the hillfort, but there are paths along the bank. Turn right on the bank. On the west side, for the easiest route, go out right through an opening which takes you over the ditch. Then turn left between the hillfort and hedge and continue along until just before a wood on the right, find a marked gate and stile on the right. Or to enjoy the views from the top a little longer, stay on
OS Explorer Map 141, Cheddar Gorge & Mendip Hills West, grid ref: 521 456. 4.25 miles, about 2 hours walking.
the bank and continue on this along the south edge until you find a small steep path dropping down the bank and over the ditch and across to the gate and stile.
10. STILE Cross the field diagonally and drop down to a gate with a stone stile at the side. Cross onto the road and turn right, soon coming back to Rocky Mountain. But it is worth spending another minute or two by going on a little further to the bridge over the old railway. Look down left for quite a sight – the old Masbury Station complete with platform and grassed-over line. This was a small isolated station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway's main line between Evercreech Junction and
Bath near the summit of the line as it crossed the Mendip Hills. The station opened in 1874 and closed with the rest of the line under the Beeching Axe in March 1966. The station was never heavily used and from 1938 it was reduced to a "halt" status. A feature of the station was a substantial stone-built stationmaster's house on the main northbound platform. The site is now in private hands as a family home. Plans may be in progress to restore the station to its original state, including rebuilding the signal box and renovating the platforms and waiting rooms.
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MENDIP TIMES • DECEMBER 2016 • PAGE 59