Westonbirt National Arboretum Gloucestershire

We went down to Tetbury in the Cotswolds for a family wedding at the start of August and had a few hours to spare before meeting up with everyone else on the Friday evening. I had a quick trawl on the internet beforehand and we considered the Wildfowl Trust centre at Slimbridge along with a few National Trust properties, but nothing seemed to stand out. A place called "Westonbirt" came up - I'd never heard of it, but a "National Arboretum" sounded impressive and ought to be more varied than some of the forests that have been imposed on the countryside. It's easily accessible just a few miles south-west of Tetbury so would be very convenient on this occasion.

What's in a name?

After leaving Bristol by car we had stopped off at Chipping Sodbury for lunch. It's one of those places with an odd name that you can roll around in your head, wondering what it's actually like, so we decided to find out. It seemed as though we might not get there, as we followed a confusing route signposted to avoid the centre of Yate and lost track of signs for Chipping Sodbury. Then suddenly we were back at a main road in between the two, and found the road into the centre of the town. Parking spaces were filled along both sides of the street, but we turned round after one pass and found a space on the way back.

There seemed to be a surprising lack of restaurants for such a touristy place, but we found a pub at the lower section of the main street with a covered yard where we had lunch. Afterwards we wandered back past the many delightful old buildings including a tolbooth now used as the tourist office. Several gateways led through from the busy street frontages into greenery at the back, offering glimpses of private worlds and recalling other towns.

Return to the top

Lost then found

There didn't seem to be anything to spend more time looking at, so we set off, but immediately managed to get quite lost driving out of Chipping Sodbury and ended up heading south instead of north! Maybe there's a virtual zone of disorientation hovering around the place - or maybe we need to sharpen up our mapreading skills.

Ideally we should have headed west on the A432 and had a quick look at Old Sodbury, before turning left onto the A46. Instead we found another way round to the A46 and drove past the sign for Old Sodbury on our way north. Three miles further on, the A433 turned off to the right, and another 4 miles took us to the prominent signs for Westonbirt. The Arboretum was to the left - a little further on, Westonbirt private school was to the right. At one time the two would have been part of the same estate.

The drive reached the little hut where we received a large fold-out colour information leaflet along with our tickets, and then drove on to the large car park. It was busy with cars, but woodland seldom seems crowded - trees can absorb a lot of people. Disappointingly there were a few drops of rain in the air and it was mostly cloudy, even though the forecast had been pretty good.

I checked the leaflet we'd been given, and it was rather jumbled up with lots of boxes of information on events, guided walks and so on. However, it seemed that there was one section of woodland on one side - the arboretum - and another down the slope on the other side - the Silk Wood. A seasonal route was shown around each of them.

First of all we walked up to the visitor centre, which was made up of various buildings including a restaurant, a gift shop, an area of picnic tables with a snack shop, and a hall used for events. It was about 3 p.m., and there were quite a number of people around.

Return to the top

The first walk round the Old Arboretum

The rain hadn't come to anything and it was quite warm, so we set off on our walk around the arboretum. It was very pleasant, but there's not an awful lot to be said about it - we saw an enormous variety of trees, most of them with labels indicating their species and origin. The path was wide and firm, suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, and this continued round in a complete circuit. The trail went beyond this, further away from the visitor centre then turning across a stretch of grassland between the tall lines of trees. This avenue extended in the other direction as well, across the main road, to the stately spires of Westonbirt School. Clearly this had once been a single integrated estate.

At one point early on we came across one of the recent addtions to the arboretum - a rather weird statue which we couldn't work out, although it was labelled "I wish I had a dog". It was mentioned in the leaflet - "I wish that I had a dog...", "a very poignant piece of art based on the arboretum's visitors' thoughts and fears" made by the artist John Newling - but it still didn't make a lot of sense! Worth a photo though.

Later, when we returned to the circular path, we passed a series of hydrangea bushes in shades of blue and yellow, enlivening the lower levels of the woodland.

This trail brought us back to the visitor centre in a little less than an hour, past some wooden sculptures, and we had some refreshment before setting off on the second woodland trail. There were a lot fewer people around now, and we only met a few on this walk.

Return to the top

The second walk around the Silk Wood

It took us through a gate at the far end of the car park, down a slope where cattle were grazing in groups and lines, almost as if they had been arranged by a choreographer. Just beyond them we went through another gate and uphill into the Silk Wood. This was planted more like mixed woodland than a collection of selected trees, but even so it had areas largely devoted to one species or another, marked on the map. The smoky appearance of one species of bushes was particularly noticeable on the first section walking uphill on the quaintly named "Waste Drive". At the top of the hill we reached a clearing and turned left along another broad grassy avenue between large mature trees, descriptively called "Broad Drive".

One of the trees, a tall conifer, looked a bit unusual and Maggie went to investigate - it turned out to be a group of trees planted close together that had merged into a single shape. Underneath it was almost like a primitive shelter with open "windows" around the sides. Other trees grew into different shapes, like natural sculptures set against the shady background. Often it's easier to capture the subtleties of woodland when there's less direct sunlight to create excessive contrast.

Maggie was keen to see the Japanese maples, and we found these a little further on. Certainly there was a large collection of these small trees, some smaller than others, in a variety of shades, with taller pine trees above. We sat for a few minutes on a bench, enjoying the tranquility, then set off again towards the long, straight path back towards the car park. It had become rather gloomy, but still there was enough light to make quite an impression on one of the small trees over to the right (see the photo).

There was a late bend in the path, and a dip, before it climbed up to the car park.

This walk had also lasted barely an hour, so the two were just fine for a half-day visit. Now we were ready to turn our minds to the preparations for the wedding the next day, as we drove up to Tetbury.

Return to the

Photos of another walk around Tetbury

There are some more photos of Westonbirt in the Gallery, and a separate Gallery with a few images captured on a walk around Tetbury. It's a lovely part of the country, with lots of marked footpaths connecting villages and passing through fields and woodland. We resolved to return for a longer visit sometime.

Return to the

< Back to England page for links to other stories

Gallery

View a gallery of further images for this story.

Comments

Join Walking Stories for free to comment on this story. Have an account already? Log in to comment.