Ledbury to Gloucester Walk: 19 Miles of Countryside and Cowpats
The last leg of a challenge that seemed like a good idea at the time: walking from Ledbury to its three nearest cities.
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| Walking from Ledbury to Gloucester |
Earlier in the year, our walking group took on a 17 mile hike from our hometown of Ledbury to our county town of Hereford. We followed the route on SlowWays, which is a national walking network linking Britain's towns and cities with footpaths that are verified and reviewed by members of the public. There were four of us on that walk and we had a brilliant day with a rewarding stroll, varied scenery and a lot of laughs.
The obvious next step was to walk to Worcester. That one was tough going, with a long section over the top of many of the Malvern Hills followed by the St Wulfstan Day Way pilgrimage path from Malvern to Worcester. We basically crawled to Worcester Cathedral at the end after a 22.5 mile slog, but it was another superb day out with good friends.
Ledbury sits roughly in the middle of a triangle between Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester, so having walked to the first two, it would be rude not to finish the set and hike our way to Gloucester.
I met up with Lee, Andy, Scott and Rich at the Market House in Ledbury at 7am on a cold Sunday morning. We had breakfast from Greggs and then started heading south to begin our 18-19 mile plod to Gloucester. I wasn't certain of the full distance at this point, because whilst we would largely be following the SlowWays route, I'd looked at a couple of diversions we could take.
We did have a deadline to meet though. The best way for us all to get back home would be a bus at 16:40 from Gloucester to Newent, which would give us enough time to have a quick drink, then get the last bus of the day from Newent to Ledbury.
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| An early start in Ledbury |
We headed out of town, over the bypass, and then started following the footpaths which would take us through roughly 75 fields to our destination. The first half was along the Ledsta route on SlowWays (Ledbury to Staunton) and then Staglo (you guessed it: Staunton to Gloucester). Having studied the route, I expected it to be a sort of box-ticking exercise, without that many interesting things along the way and no pubs to stop at.
As it turned out, it was actually a really good walk.
Those fields were surrounded by some beautiful scenery, and the route was relatively straightforward to follow. We had a nice sunrise sky over a windmill near Parkway and some generally pleasant walking along the footpaths down to Bromsberrow.
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| Ledbury to Parkway |
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| Walking through the fields of Parkway, Herefordshire |
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| Rich, Lee, Andy, Scott, Me |
We crossed the A417, then through a slightly overgrown footpath entrance on the Gloucestershire border before arriving in Bromsberrow Heath. We were full of beans at this point and there wasn't a reason to stop, so we quickly walked through the village. We passed along the top of a large sand a gravel quarry near Bromsberrow, and then across a bridge over the M50.
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| Leaving Herefordshire near Bromsberrow Heath |
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| Views of May Hill |
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| Sand and gravel quarry near Bromsberrow |
The two sections of our SlowWays route were split quite evenly at 9 miles ish each, which gave us a logical rest spot at the half way point in Staunton. That was also the only place where we'd find anywhere to get refreshments in the form of the local shop. We were making a good pace through more and more fields, down past Redmarley D'Abitot.
We then hit our first couple of problem sections. First, a field that unsuccessfully tried to avoid because it was full of staring cows. Then, a really overgrown path of thorn bushes that tested the durability of our clothing. In my many walks in Gloucestershire, I've found a lot of the footpaths to be badly maintained, but thankfully, this section of about 50 metres was the only path on this particular walk that caused us any issues.
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| An iron milepost near Playley Green showing we still had a way to go |
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| Lots of cows |
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| The worst section of the route between Ledbury and Gloucester |
With the return of pleasant paths, we marched into Staunton and our first proper stop of the day at the oasis that is the Premier convenience shop next to the mini-roundabout. I had lunch in my backpack and it was still a bit early to eat it, so I bought a bag of Haribo Tangfastics for a sugar boost to keep me going. We were now halfway through our walk, making pretty good progress as it was only 11am. Less than four hours into the walk, with a bus deadline five and and a half hours later.
There were two pubs in Staunton a while back. The Prince of Wales closed in 2009 and remains boarded up. The Swan was a victim of lost trade during Covid restrictions. It re-opened as a community hub in 2022, with a cafe and occasionally a bar. Sadly, it wasn't open when we were in the village.
We quickly finished our snacks and then moved along. There wasn't anywhere to sit and we made a plan to get past noon and then stop for lunch and the next suitable sitting spot we found.
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| Foraging for fruit in Gloucestershire |
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| A polite notice near Staunton |
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| A slightly less polite notice near Staunton |
We were all starting to feel a few aches in the feet and legs by this point, but the walk has around 300 metres of total ascent, so it was certainly a lot easier going than our gruelling walk across the Malverns to Worcester. We then hit a bank between Corse and Ashleworth which probably made up a reasonable percentage of that elevation, with a very steep path up through woodland. It's worth noting that this section would be really tricky on a muddy day. There were no steps and it was just dirt under foot all the way up.
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| A steep path between Corse and Ashleworth |
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| A view of the Malverns |
After the short climb and a mile or so of fields, we arrived in the village of Ashleworth, close to the Severn. We found some benches around the grounds of the Ashleworth Woodpeckers Cricket Club and took a break for lunch. It was a relatively chilly day and after about 10 minutes of sitting down we started feeling the cold, so wolfed our food down and moved on fairly quickly.
Not long after leaving the village, we passed the large tithe barn owned by the National Trust. The 15th century building was used by the church to collect taxes from local farmers in the form of a percentage of their produce. I'm not a religious man, but I'm from a different time and I enjoy my history. It was nice to have something interesting on the route.
From the tithe barn, we followed the Severn Way along the banks of river. The official SlowWays route takes you back onto more inland footpaths after a couple of miles, but I'd looked at my OS Map and realised that following the Severn to Gloucester would only add a third of a mile. That way would be far easier to navigate so we could go at a reasonable pace. There was also a large weir on the map near where the Severn briefly splits, so I wanted to have a look. We decided that would be the best plan to quickly get more miles under our belts and have a bit more time to have drinks in Gloucester.
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| The tithe barn, Ashleworth, Gloucestershire |
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| Joining the Severn Way |
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| The Severn near Ashleworth |
When we reached the split in the Severn, the other lads just carried on walking, so I tailed off for a better view. I managed to tread in the most disgustingly sloppy cowpat in the field in the process and then spent the next half a mile dragging my shoe through the thick grass to try and get the worst of it off. The weir round the corner was impressive, and with now only a relatively short distance left to Gloucester, we all had springs in our steps.
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| The cow procession, near Maisemore |
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| Where the Severn splits north of Gloucester |
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| Maisemore Weir |
We could now almost taste the reward of a beer for finishing the walk. We hiked at pace past Over Bridge, through Richard's Wood and into the outskirts of the city.
The cathedrals in Hereford and Worcester were where we stopped our smart watches on the previous walks, so we aimed for Gloucester Cathedral. We arrived, generally pain free and feeling pretty proud of ourselves for completing another long walk and the mission to hike to the three cities of the Three Counties.
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| Over Bridge, Gloucester |
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| Richard in Richard's Wood |
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| Ledbury to Gloucester walk. Done. |
So that was it. Walk complete. 19 miles in the end. We went for a pint in the Drunken Duck, then a quick one in Wetherspoons. We caught our 16:40 bus to Newent for another swift pint before returning home to Ledbury.
We all agreed that it had been a great walk and a brilliant day. On a group day out like this, you naturally find yourself catching up with people individually at different points and can have good, open conversations about life and general nonsense. To me, it feels like a great reset from modern stresses and I love having these walks in the diary to look forward to. I can't recommend this sort of thing enough. Healthy (apart from all the beers), rewarding and just really good fun.
If couldn't find any documented evidence of people completing all three walks from Ledbury to Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester. We definitely won't have been the first to do it, but it seems to be a pretty rare achievement. It's nice to do something a bit different.
If you fancy taking on this walk, or other walks linking towns in your area, please check out SlowWays and give it a go.
Andy, Lee and I have now hiked over 115 miles together on our five outings since we started the Midlife Crisis Walking Club in December 2025. If you'd like to read about our previous group walks including the Monnow Valley and Mini-Alps long distance paths, all of the posts can be found here.
Walk Details
Route: Ledbury to Gloucester via Staunton
Distance: 19 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Time: 7.5 hours
Terrain: Mainly farmland footpaths with occasional country lanes
Dog Friendly?: Lots of livestock and a bit far for most dogs.
Pub Stop: The Rose and Crown near Redmarley if you arrive in the afternoon or the White Hart in Maisemore
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