Treborough, Roadwater and Leighland Chapel 16 May 2011

View Treborough and Roadwater in a larger map

This walk was a follow up to last week's Brendon Hill Incline stroll. It was slightly longer at 4.7 miles and took me 2 hours 30 mins. Not fast as I kept stopping for photos and to check the map. The weather was fair but with white cloud and temperatures about 14C.

The title is slightly misleading as I only touched on Treborough and Roadwater, although only short diversions would have been needed to visit either place properly. I started at Treborough Woods, about half a mile from the church, heading towards Roadwater. Facing Roadwater a path leads steeply downhill from the roadside. Not far from the path on its western side is a disused slate quarry. The Treborough slate, reputedly, did not split into fine tiles, due to its wavy cleavage, but did have a variety of uses. The history of the slate quarry is given on the Exmoor Encyclopedia web site. Plenty of pieces of slate can still be found on the path around here. Although the main pit of the quarry has been used for landfill and the area planted with trees, the satellite view of the map I have embedded shows evidence of the workings.

Slate cladding nead Treborough quarry

The path emerges onto a drive leading to a private house. The drive goes back to the public road and, I think, was the route by which state was taken away from the quarry. The gardens belonging to the house were full of colour and worth a photograph. My route took me along a path to the north-east, towards Treborough Lodge, a somewhat larger house surrounded by extensive gardens. Along this stretch there was a high density of rhododendrons, These look pretty in the spring, with there magenta flowers, but take over an area, driving out other species of plants and animals. They were widely planted on estates in victorian times.
The footpath crosses a field and leads through a farmyard. It then continues along a tarmac driveway through a plantation of conifers. I was amused by the way the telegraph poles carrying services to the housed were hard to see among the trees. Before long I came to the lane that runs between Luxborough and Roadwater and turned right towards the latter. The ponds of Roadwater Fisheries are close to the lane but are concealed behind a beech hedge.

Pill box near Roadwater

Beyond the Fishery is a collection of houses that is names "Tacker Street" on the OS map. The minor road from Treborough joins from the right. Shortly after the junction, at the end of a private drive, is a Second World War pill box. These hardened defensive structures are still common as they are not easy to demolish and the owner of this one has opted to turn it into a garden feature.

Not far beyond this is the start of the village of Roadwater. This settlement has two cores, Roadwater itself and Lower Roadwater. However, passing through it gives the impression of one linear settlement about a mile long. After passing the first few houses I came to the village pub, called "The Valiant Soldier" . I know the pub and it was tempting to stop for a beer, but I didn't. Roadwater is quite a well appointed village with a shop, a thriving village hall and a playind field. There is even some industry here in the form of Singer Instruments and Two Rivers Paper

Leighland Chapel

A few yards beyond the pub, on the opposite side of the road, a footpath  leads uphill, almost doubling back. This leads to the lane going to Leighland Chapel, which was on my route. However, I opted to descend the other side of the ridge to the road that is laid on the trackbed of the former West Somerset Mineral Railway, known locally as simply "The Mineral Line". The road gives away its railway heritage by being level and having a long straight stretch; unusual in west Somerset. This was easy walking until I took a footpath that climbed out of the valley to Leighland Chapel. This is a surprisingly large church for a small hamlet in such a remote location.

Inquisitive cattle

I took a footpath almost opposite the church towards Leigh Barton. This led uphill across pasture. In one field a herd of bullocks was grazing. These animals were not timid and started to follow me very closely. I was somewhat relieved to arrive at a gate with a stile next to it. I took a photograph from a position of relative safety on the stile. It was now a fairly short walk across a field and through a small patch of woodland containing a weedy pond, to Leigh Barton. This is a farm with a great deal of history and the buildings include a fine old barn. I turned left in front of the barn and headed along a track. Before long, I was in a navigational quandry. I came to a place where there was a choice of three routes.One doubled back to Comberow, another was signed to the Incline and the third was a restricted byway signed to Coldharbour. According to my map, there should have been a bridleway heading in the direction of Treborough, but there was no sign of it. I decided to follow the Coldharbour route. This would bring me to the road to Treborough, but further from it than the route I had planned. After a couple of minutes walk, the track started to head downhill. This was all wrong. The bridleway on the map climbed quite steeply.

Looking back from above Leigh Barton

I came to an open gate into a field. from the terrain this could be the route I was looking for so I went throgh and started climbing. There was a great view back to Leigh Barton and the valley towards Roadwater, but at the far end of the field there was no way out; thick prickly hedges. I followed the edge of the field downslope and found a rusty gate tied up with twine. I managed to negotiate this and came out on a track, possibly the restricted byway I had just decided was the wrong way! The track led to the lane to Treborough closer to the village than Coldharbour bear some new holiday cottages. It was then a simple matter of following the lane back to my car.


The walk had been interesting and reasonably strenuous in places.

Brendon Hill and the West Somerset Mineral Railway Incline 9 May 2011

View Brendon Incline in a larger map

This was a short impromptu walk of only 3 miles. For me, the attraction was to walk the length of the inclined plane that took the West Somerset Mineral Railway to the top of the Brendon Hills.The web site for the railway has considerable detail about the incline and its workings and a leaflet and detailed maps are available in PDF format. The  gradient of the incline (1 in 4) and the length (just over 1 km) are given explicitly but if you want to know the height climbed you have to refer to the contours of the maps. Allowing 10m for the height of the embankment above the surrounding country at the summit, I make the total rise 245 metres, or nearly 804 feet.

Interior of the winding house

I have a well illustrated book about the Mineral Railway "The Old Mineral Line" by R. J. Sellick. My copy is a 1981 edition and I believe the book is currently out of print. The ISBN is 0 900131 39X. 

The weather on the day was reasonably pleasant with some sunshine but rain did not seem far away. I was lucky though and only experienced a few drops. I had intended to walk somewhere on the Brendon Hills in West Somerset but was undecided as to where. As I passed the site of the bridge at the top of the incline, I noticed that things had changed since I last stopped and looked around here. Whereas there used to be barbed wire and a sign saying "No public access", there is now a new gate and a more friendly sign to a "Permitted footpath".

Tunnel for a hauling cable

A path led from the gate to the winding house which was built into the embankment beneath the railway track. The side walls of the winding house have been rebuilt since the building was blown up in 1917 and I do not think the metal window frames are original. However, a tunnel that one of the two original hauling cables ran through still remains. Its upper end, where the cable would have emerged at track level, is not exposed; a pity, I think.

It is years since I last attempted to walk down the incline and, as I recall it was not possible to do so because of vegetation, fallen trees and some of the bank having been washed out. It is evident that much work has been undertaken to make it stable, well drained and passable on foot. From experience on the West Somerset Railway, I would say that ongoing work will be needed to keep it so.

Wooden railway sleepers have been placed across the incline at intervals as part of the restoration. I am sure these did not come from the original track as any sleepers left would have long since rotted away. I found some rail that had been put on one side, but it was fairly light bridge rail not the sort that I believe was used on the Mineral Railway. It seems more likely that this came from one of the narrow gauge tramways associated with the iron mines that the railway served.

A corroded rail chair

I also found a very corroded rail chair but, again, this seemed out of place given that R. J. Sellick's book has a photograph showing that, on the incline, the rails were spiked to the sleepers rather than held in chairs as elsewhere. On the basis that sane people do not casually carry heavy rail chairs on 1 in 4 inclines, I presume that it is still a rare, remaining piece of the railway's permanent way that was somehow deposited here.

Entrance to the dipping well

About a third of the way down the incline there is a hole in the eastern side of a rock cutting. Inside is a hewn out cave with a few inches of water in the bottom. I guess this is the "dipping well" shown on the Brendon Industrial Society's map. I confess to ignorance of what it was that was dipped. Further downslope, on the western side, the incline is supported by a high, butressed retaining wall. A railing has been built along the top of this to prevent accidents, but it is possible, with appropriate care, to leave the the incline for a few yards to see this impressive piece of engineering.

Butressed retaining wall

Towards the bottom, the incline becomes rather overgrown, but is passable. I followed what appeared to be the predominant path, but ended up scrambling down a steep drop finding myself on the track to Comberow farm to the south side of the bridge carrying the railway overhead. On passing under the bridge I saw that I should have crossed over the bridge and come down the nice new iron staircase that has been constructed - oh well!

Bridge carrying the incline over the road to Comberow Farm. The new steps are seen left of the arch

I have dwelt on the incline but make no apologies; it is interesting and worth a visit. The rest of the walk took me to the upper part of the valley that the Incline descends into. I can see no name for it in the map, but the stream flows down through Roadwater where it joins the Washford River which  eventually flows into Watchet Harbour. The lower section of the Mineral Line followed the valley all the way to the sea. The part of the valley above Comberow is quite enchanting. There is a network of footpaths but it seems an awful long way from human civilisation. Encountering hobbits, elves or the occasional wizard would not have altogether surprised me.

Deserted House

I took a path the northern side of the valley, towards Leighland Chapel. Either side were borders of bluebells and white wild garlic flowers. Looking down I got a clear view of Comberow with the farm buildings and a line of trees giving away the position of the Incline. At a junction I took a path that almost doubled back and went towards the head of the valley. The path did not fall much, but the gradient of the watercourse meant that it converged with the stream. The valley's sides are steep and wooded with some parts of its floor occupied by meadows. Suddenly though, the head of the valley is reached and there is an abrupt change in slope. I followed a fairly steep path, passing some moss and fern covered rock outcrops and eventually reached a wider track that bordered the woodland. This followed the contour around a tributary valley. I soon passed an uninhabited house that, although delapidated, still had its roof just about intact. I think that this is the same house that is pictured on Exmoor Encyclopedia web site's page on Treborough. If so, it has been exhumed from dense vegetation. Further along, there is a waterfall that cascades down a smooth rock face. The
height is difficult to estimate, but I would put it at 20 to 30 feet.

Waterfall

Beyond the waterfall the path follows the valley floor for a while before heading up a long slog to intersect the Incline. There was still a considerable 1 in 4 climb to get back to the winding house and the end of the walk.

This had been an interesting and enjoyable walk and I am sure I will further explore the area soon.