Walk from Shipley Bridge

23 November 2020

My husband was walking with me again today. He chose this walk from three possibilities which I suggested. It only visits two tors but does pass various other interesting points.

We parked at Shipley Bridge, where there was only one other car parked in addition to the vehicle belonging to the person cleaning the toilets. We noted the place reserved for the refreshment van, thinking there was little chance of this visiting on a November day especially during Covid lockdown.

We made our way up the road to the Avon Dam, noting some highland cattle as we went. After crossing the river on a bridge, I headed up the hillside and followed an intermittent path to Shipley Tor. My husband continued up the road and we agreed to meet later at the dam. It was a bit of a double back for me in terms of distance from the car park, given there was no right of way over the fields between the road and the moor. The tor itself was incorporated as part of the field boundary.

I followed a different path back as it looked better, but I lost it at one stage and was scrambling over rocks and through undergrowth – there’s no path shown on the map. I also saw that over the other side of the valley, there appeared to be a reasonable path between Black Tor and the road to the dam – but that would be for the end of the walk.

Once back on the road, I hurried along – saw more highland cattle including one on the road, but was fortunate that I got there just as some other walkers reached that point. I passed the cattle in the shadow of the other people. I walked quickly as I was concerned that my husband would moan about waiting. More haste and less speed as I continued up the road and past the turn off I needed. I realised soon enough when I saw that the road I had taken crossed the river again. Hence I turned round and walked rapidly back to the turning.

From the turning, there was a marked uphill (passing some ponies) to reach the top of the dam. My husband set off as soon as he saw me and says he had waited forty minutes – I’m surprised it was that long and think he exaggerated. We saw some circles on the hillside (ancient settlements) and soon we were crossing some boggy ground then over the new small clapper bridge at Western Wella Brook foot to arrive at the Huntingdon Cross. This was one of the boundary posts marking the parish of Brent. There’s a ford across the Avon here (not sure it would be very safe on foot today but I have walked across once in the summer) but we were keeping on the same side of the river and crossing at the clapper bridge just under a kilometre further up river.

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After a short stop to take photos on the bridge, we headed uphill, arriving at what appeared to be a disused workman’s hut. We ate lunch using this as a shelter from the breeze before heading for Petre’s Cross on Western White Barrow (a bronze age burial chamber). The chamber has been damaged, notably when taken over by workers in connection with the Naphtha Works at Shipley, who apparently re-used the cross as a chimney lintel at the same time. We had seen the remains of the naphtha works at the car park when we started the walk. It was relatively easy going over the moor along various old tracks to Eastern White Barrow. There were excellent views from the moor all the way to the south coast at times. Eastern White Barrow was a prominent target to head for with no route finding difficulties. It is an intact mound and, like the Western White Barrow, is designated a scheduled monument.

From here we had some difference of opinion regarding the direction to head to Brent Moor. We got there in the end. On the way it started raining but of course by the time we had put on our waterproofs the precipitation had almost stopped. Brent Moor was a pleasant grassy area and we could see Black Tor easily.

The route from Black Tor dropping to the dam road isn’t marked on the map but I had spotted it in the morning when I was walking on the opposite hillside. We made one false partial descent and had to return to the tor before discovering a trodden pathway to the road.

There were a lot of people on the road, mainly walking their dogs. We arrived back at the car park which, to our surprise, was almost full – and the refreshment van was there. In view of Covid19 we decided not to have a coffee – positive though it would have been to have supported this business.

Although I had only been to two tors, we had visited several other interesting sites on the moor.