Blockley and Norcombe Wood

The Blockley and Norcombe Wood walk is a 3.1-mile (5km) circular route from Park Road at the top of Blockley, into the woods and back down the brook that drove its silk mills. It is moderate, with 115m of climbing, and takes about an hour and a quarter. Blockley Café on Bell Lane is on the way back.

It is in the North Cotswolds, and much of it is under trees, which walkers say makes it a good choice on a hot day.

Northwick Park and Norcombe Wood

The first half climbs gently beside the Northwick Park estate into Norcombe Wood. The estate was held by the Rushout family from 1683 to 1912, and the house there was rebuilt around 1730. From the estate the path climbs to Norcombe Wood and follows it west, then turns south past the wood called Hobb's Quarry to cross Greenway Road. The National Landscape's Chipping Campden to Blockley walk comes through Norcombe Wood too.

In late April walkers find the woods full of bluebells. The woods are also part of a game-shooting estate, full of pheasants, and walkers have met shooting parties in season.

Down the valley into Blockley

The way back drops from the high point at about 235m, south and east beside Bourton Woods, to Blockley Brook and the old mills. Blockley was a detached part of Worcestershire until 1931, and its first silk mill was built by Henry Whatcot, who died in 1718. By 1780 five were working. The trade later disappeared, and several of the mill buildings along the brook are now houses.

Walking up the High Street you pass several of them. Malvern Mill is eighteenth century, disused since 1923 and converted to a house, its wheel-house altered to form an extension. Bankside, the Silk Mill and the Granary is a remodelling of about 1800 of seventeenth-century houses. Above the road runs a raised walkway of the middle of the nineteenth century, up to about 3.4m high, past the Russell Spring, a small gabled niche with a water spout inscribed Water from the Living Rock, God's Precious Gift to Man. The Crown Inn building dates from about 1700. All four are listed Grade II. Blockley's church plays St Mary's, Kembleford, in the BBC's Father Brown, as our story on Cotswold film and TV locations explains.

What walkers report

Walkers describe a gentle walk with one longer climb after leaving the village, mostly through airy woods. The paths are muddy in the woods from autumn to spring, and walkers have found fallen trees and branches across the path that they had to climb over or round. Most found the route easy to follow, and some had to steer round a herd of cows and calves near the start.

Dogs are the main question. Walkers report pheasants in the woods for much of the way, electric fencing along some paths and cattle in the fields, so most kept their dogs on a lead for nearly all of it. Our guide to the Cotswolds with a dog sets out the rules around livestock and nesting birds.

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Parking, buses and food

Park on the street, because Blockley has no council car park; walkers report free street parking. Stagecoach buses 1, 1A, 2 and 2A link the village with Moreton-in-Marsh station and Chipping Campden, about four journeys a day each way between them on weekdays in late October 2026, so check the timetable before relying on the bus back.

Walkers recommend the café on Bell Lane, Blockley Café, which the route passes; it is the community-owned village shop and post office too. The Great Western Arms, a Hook Norton pub on Station Road, is about 250m from the line, and our guide to Cotswold pubs has more on the brewery.

Nearby walks

Blockley has a longer loop to the east, and the long Chipping Campden to Blockley circuit passes through. Blockley and Batsford Park climbs east over the hill to the Batsford estate and its arboretum, and near Campden, the mostly level Broad Campden loop is a gentle 3.3 miles.