conkwell

The walk

This is a short lane walk. The lanes are quiet – no vehicles passed us on the winter weekday we did it (except the main road and final section to farm shop). It starts and ends at the Hartley Farm Shop – which has plenty of parking and a café.  If you like, you can lengthen the walk a bit by substituting the blue dot route as shown above. You need to drop down into Conkwell to find the footpath start (cloeup map here). That will take you through Conkwell Woods, to join Blueberry Lane as shown on the map above.  You will need to cross two fields  2/3 rds of the way down this detour to rejoin the red dot route and back to farm shop.  Just beyond this field parth junction is Conkwell Grange.  Sadly its not visible from the lane – but it’s a fine Edwardian building with an intriguing history.

Conkwell

This hamlet on a slope was originally a set of miner’s cottages for the families that worked the Conkwell quarry. The quarry was opened in 1800  and involved a double track tramroad that shifted stone down to a wharf on the Kennet and Avon canal, situated at the end of the Dundas aqueduct. (Another detour is possible if you fancy it – by taking a footpath at the bottom of the village and then down a 1:5 slope to the canal). Roman coins (AD 142-152) were found in this area.

James Byfield a Bath stone merchant was taking stone from Conkwell for 7 years at £20 per annum. But it seems the stone was not of high quality and the quarry may have closed around 1812 when the parts of the rail link were being sold off. More detail about this quarry and the tramroad are at this link.