Tetbury and Ashley

The Tetbury and Ashley walk is a 6.5-mile (10.5km) circular walk from the Goods Shed car park in Tetbury, out along the old railway line to the village of Ashley and back on the Monarch's Way. It is moderate, with stiles, and takes about three hours. The Trouble House pub is just off the route on the way out.

It is one of the Cotswolds National Landscape's Cotswold Gateway walks, and on the way back Tetbury's spire gives you something to aim at near the end. The leaflet allows three hours; the route page says three to three and a half, on unsurfaced paths needing basic fitness.

The old railway

The first 45 minutes or so follow the old railway line north-east out of Tetbury, the Tetbury Trail you come back on at the end. The Tetbury Rail Lands Trust looks after it, and in July 2025 it began laying crushed limestone on the earthy stretch from Preston Park to Newnton Hill, which used to turn to thick mud when wet. The leaflet says it has a good all-weather surface for some distance, and it runs along a sheltered, tree-lined valley; the leaflet's only instruction is to stay on it, straight through any stiles or gates. After about half an hour it climbs to cross the road at Newnton Hill and carries on as a cinder track beside the main road.

Where a gate finally bars the line, near the A433, you turn off over a stile and into the fields. The path climbs gently past a barn and along a farm track lined with young trees, with Cotswold Airport in view ahead.

Ashley and St James

Ashley's church of St James, listed Grade II*, is a short detour along the lane into the village, and the leaflet suggests it. It is a Norman foundation, with a south aisle rebuilt in about 1200 and the chancel rebuilt in 1848. The Norman south doorway has dogtooth and horseshoe patterns cut into its lintel and tympanum, and the upper stage of the tower is fifteenth century, with gargoyles. Inside are an Early English arcade of three bays and several fine stone tablets, mostly of the eighteenth century.

Ashley Manor, also Grade II*, probably has a fifteenth-century core, enlarged in the early seventeenth century, with a great chimney stack carrying a plaque dated 1712.

The Monarch's Way and the spire

The way back follows the Monarch's Way, the long-distance path, all the way from the lane west of Ashley to Tetbury. It is field-edge walking, along hedges and the side of a wood, past a brick pillbox on the left, then across a road and over a stile into the field where the spire of St Mary the Virgin lines up ahead. The last part goes between the buildings of a farm, along a concrete track and down steps to the B4014.

The church you have been aiming at is listed Grade I. It was built in 1781 by Francis Hiorn of Warwick as a large Gothic Revival hall church with box pews, on the site of the medieval church, and its medieval tower was rebuilt in 1890 and 1891.

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Food and drink

The only pub on the way is the Trouble House; the rest are in Tetbury, which has several hotels, pubs and cafés. Out on the walk, where you leave the railway path, the Trouble House stands on the London Road just off the route: a family and dog-friendly bar, restaurant and B&B that says it has served since 1754. Check its hours, as it closes on Mondays and Tuesdays.

On the Market Place, the Snooty Fox is a hotel, restaurant and bar that welcomes dogs; the Royal Oak on Cirencester Road is a late eighteenth-century free house with rooms, restored and reopened in 2013; the Priory Inn on London Road is an Arkell's pub; and the Gilbertine Kitchen on Long Street serves breakfast and lunch from Wednesday to Sunday. For a night or two, see our places to stay in Tetbury.

Parking, buses and toilets

The walk starts from the Old Railway Yard car park (GL8 8EY), which is free and has 72 spaces. From Cirencester, turn left before the town at the sign for the industrial estate and follow the road downhill for half a mile; from the town centre, take Chipping Lane downhill opposite the Market House and turn right. The council's public toilets are in West Street car park (50p, with disabled facilities); the route page calls it Warn's Court car park.

Buses come from Gloucester, Cirencester and Kemble station on the Stagecoach 882, about five times a day Monday to Saturday, and from Stroud and Bath on the Stagecoach 620, about six or seven times a day Monday to Saturday. There are no Sunday buses.

Stiles, gates, roads and dogs

There are stiles all round, including a stone stile near the end, as well as gates, gaps and a kissing gate. You cross the road at Newnton Hill and another road on the way back, walk a short way along the road through Ashley, and finish down steps and along the pavement of the B4014.

The leaflet says nothing about dogs or livestock. Most of the way is on field edges, so keep a dog close where there is stock, and expect to lift it over the stiles.

More near Tetbury

For a shorter walk, the Tetbury town walk is a 1.7-mile loop from the same car park, past the Market House and two old bridges. The start's address is on Gumstool Hill, the 1 in 4 slope up and down which the Tetbury Woolsack Races are run, carrying sacks of wool, and our guide to when to visit the Cotswolds has them in the calendar. Westonbirt, the National Arboretum, is about 3 miles away by road, with a walk of its own through the trees.