Ramblings

Clare explores a rural route near the Worcestershire village of Guarlford. Storm Eunice has just left, Franklin is underway and the River Severn is up so this is a last-minute change to the planned walk. Originally Clare and her guest, poet Catherine Swire, had planned to hike the first stretch of the Monarch's Way which runs along the banks of the Rivers Teme and Severn in Worcester but flooding has pushed them a little further south. Catherine has recently published her first book of poetry, 'Soil', which takes the theme of historic trauma and explores how it is etched on our landscape. Worcester was the site of the first proper skirmish, and the last battle, of the English Civil War, something featured within Catherine's work. The Monarch's Way is a long distance path which traces the very indirect escape route - from Worcester to Suffolk - of Charles II after his loss at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Guarlford (not on the Monarch's Way) is about two miles east of Great Malvern, and a good mile a