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.