Distance: 20.25 miles / 32.59 kilometres (alt. route, 17.75 miles)
Total ascent: 1,460 feet / 445 metres (alt. route, 616 feet)
Walking time: 7.5 to 9.5 hours (alt. route, 6.5 to 8 hours)
Stage 3 of The Shire Way attempts to emulate some of the second day and most of the third day of Frodo, Sam and Pippin’s journey in The Lord of the Rings, from their encounter with a company of Elves to the ferry across the Brandywine River at Bucklebury. The 20-mile stage is divided into three legs, however wayfarers may choose after the first leg not to follow Frodo’s cross-country ‘short-cut’ and instead fulfil Pippin’s wish to divert to an inn.
Leg 3A: Inkberrow to Rough Hill
While Inkberrow’s inns and position, nine miles from the River Avon, make it a good stand-in for Tolkien’s village of Woodhall, it is deficient in one crucial respect. On the morning of the third day of their journey, the hobbits scramble down the hill above Woodhall and are thwarted by a steeply embanked stream. Its wandering course leads them too far left of their intended destination, an error for which the hobbits then overcompensate. There is no stream in the vicinity of Inkberrow that could replicate this important aspect of the story. The Piddle Brook flows in entirely the wrong direction, emptying into the Avon at Pershore, downstream of Evesham. The only stream that correlates with Tolkien’s narrative is 3.5 miles to the south-east, at the foot of Rough Hill, which is therefore the objective of Leg 3A.
The leg begins by rejoining the Ridgeway, east of Inkberrow, in an attempt pick up the hobbits’ journey at the point where they take a gently falling lane through a wood of ancient oak trees. The real Nunnery and Weethley Woods may not be replete with ancient oaks but they are, I think, evocative of this setting nonetheless. Here, Frodo, Sam and Pippin have another close encounter with a Black Rider. Fortunately for them, the enemy retreats at the approach of some wandering Elves.
The hobbits accept the Elves’ offer to escort them for some miles to the ‘woods on the hills above Woodhall’, which are on the way to Bucklebury Ferry. On the other side of a fold in the hills, the Elves turn right from the lane and take a hidden green ride, which climbs a shoulder of some hills. Here, the Elves entertain the hobbits with food, drink and song in their own ‘hall’ formed by the arching boughs, until one-by-one the dazed companions fall asleep. Sadly, you may have to make do with a homemade sandwich as there are no facilities beneath the branches of King Edward’s Plantation on Rough Hill.
Leg 3B: Rough Hill to Craycombe
When the hobbits wake on the morning of their third day of walking, they find the Elves gone. The three companions must make a decision: whether to cut straight across the ‘rough’ country between Woodhall and Bucklebury, as Frodo proposes, or instead make for the road which they can see in the distance on their left, as Pippin desires. This more established route, via the village of Stock, would permit the possibility of stopping at the Golden Perch inn, which Pippin claims has on tap the ‘best beer in the Eastfarthing’. The decision effectively falls to Sam, whose loyalty to his master just overcomes his own objections and thirst.
The Shire Way gives you the opportunity to relitigate this controversy and to choose an Alternative Leg 3B (& 3C) that complies with Pippin’s wishes by keeping to roads and visiting The Golden Cross pub in Harvington. If, however, you trust to Frodo’s superior judgement and adhere to the main route, expect some of the same obstacles that blight the hobbits’ journey: thickets, streambeds, bewildering woods and potentially ill-disposed landowners. There can be no substitute for Maggot’s Farm, but (in my experience) the food and service in the cafe at Craycombe Farm are excellent.
Leg 3C: Craycombe to Evesham
By a stroke of luck, Farmer Maggot offers Frodo, Sam and Pippin a lift to Bucklebury Ferry in his waggon, allowing them to reach the river in relative comfort and safety. After trundling down Maggot’s lane for ‘a mile or two’, they take the causeway road for five miles, as far as Ferry Lane. Here, they are confronted by a mounted stranger who turns out to be their friend Merry, come to look for them. The modern equivalent of the causeway (the A44 Evesham & B4624 Worcester Roads) is rather busy and fraught for waggons or walkers, but there are pleasant footpaths beside the River Avon for at least some of the distance to Hampton Ferry in Evesham.
Alternative Leg 3B: Rough Hill to Harvington
As I’ve written elsewhere on this website, my own view is that the Golden Perch in Stock may be a paranomasic reference to The Golden Cross in Harvington, which is the endpoint of this alternative leg.
Alternative Leg 3C: Harvington to Evesham
The second alternative leg brings wayfarers from The Golden Cross pub to Evesham via easy paths and roads, including a stretch along the River Avon.
NEXT: Leg 3A of The Shire Way