A seven week miracle
50 volunteers, some contractors, risk and years of diplomacy for a mile of path
Seven weeks ago it was just a field edge. Now a path carves a swathe beside a hedgerow, disappearing over a near horizon. To one side, contractors with an improbable-looking machine named Quickfence, all metal armatures and looms of cable, are stretching barbed wire between freshly creosoted fenceposts.
I’m just north-west of Shepton Mallet in Somerset, with a 50-strong group of volunteers determined to finish the Somerset Circle. A group of local residents, the Friends of Windsor Hill Tunnels, aided by one of the National Cycle Network founders, John Grimshaw (pictured below, left, recently turned 80) have conjured this path from nothing - with help from a very supportive local council. The Somerset Circle will, eventually, stretch 76 miles around the county, connecting the Bristol and Bath path, via the Two Tunnels and the Strawberry Line. It will link Cheddar and the gorge, Wells and the cathedral, the famous cities of Bristol and Bath, and Clevedon and Portishead on the coast. When complete it will easily rival any of the UK’s best traffic-free routes for beauty, variety and accessibility. Along the way are several spur routes, including the lovely Brean Down Way on the coast, the Colliers Way and others.
Richard Jones, a concert pianist turned path obsessive, says in effect this path will complete the Circle, albeit some of it still on road.
