Oxenton Hill

Abstract

Oxenton Hill is an outlier of the northern Cotswold Hills and lies due east of Tewkesbury. It can be reached via the Gloucestershire Way, one of Britain’s long-distance paths. The start of the Gloucestershire Way at Tewkesbury is not well marked, but you pick it up at the back of the hospital, first taking the path by the River Swilgate and then continuing along the Tirle Brook before passing under the A38 and crossing the fields to the north of the Wheatpieces housing development and onto the village of Walton Cardiff. The rough grassland is crisscrossed with many paths because this is a popular area for people to exercise their dogs and it is not too difficult to find a way to take you east. From Walton Cardiff the path crosses arable land where you can find early Jurassic mud oyster Gryphaea in freshly ploughed fields, before you cross the M5 motorway via a bridge connecting the farmland either side. Lapwings can often be seen resting and feeding on harvested fields during the autumn and winter, especially when the fields are wet and standing water fills the hollows. Occasionally you will put up Snipe from these same fields. The land is flat and rather monotonous with large fields planted in all manner of crops. Bredon Hill is a prominent feature to the north that breaks this monotony, as is the sky that seems to stretch from horizon to horizon in this flat landscape. The dull roar of the traffic moving along the M5 fades into the distance, and by the time you get to Homedowns, it has been left behind.