THE OLD ABBEY AND THE TRENCH ‑ 3.7 MILES
From the Chipping walk along Hillesley Road for 350
yards, to the first bend. A stile on the right marks the start of footpath 24.
With the hedge on the left, cross a double stile and continue to a further
stile, by a water trough, at the end of a long field. Turn immediately left,
over a double stile, and then immediately right, to continue in the original
direction. The hedge is now on the right and Upper Barns Farm on the left.
Cross a stile in a wire fence, take the second of two gates immediately on the
right and traverse the next field passing a line of oak trees in the right hand
hedge. Pass through a gate and down a short slope to a stile by a wooded
stream.
The site of the original Kingswood Abbey is on the
right, marked now only by a Dutch barn and other farm buildings. Cross the
small stream, which one provided an inadequate water supply to the Abbey.
Astride the stream is a small stone bridge that formerly carried the medieval
Trench Lane past the Abbey site. Once
over the stream, cross a second stile and continue in the same general direction, with the hedge again on the right
hand side, footpath 37. This is the line of the old Trench Lane, though all
evidence of it has been ploughed out long ago. It continues for a about 1000
yards, crossing first a stile and then two wooden bridges, the second of which
is in a clump of trees. Continue to the corner of the next field. On the right
can be glimpsed the ruins of a farmhouse, destroyed when it was hit by a World
War 11 aeroplane. Turn left, away from the farm, footpath 39, and make for a
stile in the middle of the far hedge. Walk through the next field, with the
hedge now on the left, towards Mounteney's Farm. After a stile in the corner of
this field head just to the left of the farm buildings and cross a stile into
the corner of the farmyard. Follow a track from the farmyard, with a hedge and
netting fence on the left. Continue until the hedge begins to turn to the
right. Climb a stile in the fence, cross the ditch; pass through the hedge and
cross the next field to a gate by an ash tree, footpath 29.
Continue in the same northerly direction, across the next field to a bridge, by a line of poplar trees and then on to a clump of trees and a stile in the extreme corner of the field. Continue towards Upper Barns Farm, now with a hedge on the right. Cross another stile and pass through a gate in front of the farm, footpath 25. After two further gates on the same line bear right on the original footpath for a short walk back in to Kingswood.