Worcestershire Way
Thirty-one miles down the length of Worcestershire, from Bewdley on the Severn to the Malvern Hills
Indicative — sampled from open terrain data along the simplified route.
The Worcestershire Way is a 31-mile route running north to south through the middle of Worcestershire, from Bewdley on the River Severn to Great Malvern. Most walkers take two or three days over it.
From the Georgian riverside town of Bewdley the path heads south through the woods above Ribbesford, then climbs to the wooded ridge of Abberley Hill and drops to the Teme valley, with views west towards the Welsh border. Beyond the Teme it goes up the steep pull of Walsgrove Hill, over Ankerdine Hill and along the Suckley Hills, before finishing under the north end of the Malvern Hills at Great Malvern. The walking is a succession of wooded hills and short sharp climbs rather than any sustained high ground, but the cumulative ascent is more than the modest distance implies.
The route is a compact one, well waymarked and easy to follow, and it makes a good first long walk. Its two ends give a neat contrast — the broad Severn at Bewdley and the abrupt ridge of the Malverns at Great Malvern — with quiet farming country and orchards in between.
The Worcestershire Way was launched in 1989, when it was longer and ran for a stretch into Herefordshire. It was revised in 2004 to a shorter line lying wholly within the county. Great Malvern has a railway station, and Bewdley is a terminus of the preserved Severn Valley Railway, so the two ends are both reachable without a car.
