Gloucestershire Way, Wysis Way, Three Choirs Way – Beginnings
The walks arose from the resurgence of public interest in countryside walking in the early 1980s and more particularly in response to the Countryside Commission (forerunners of Natural England) urging Highway Authorities to promote suitable well signed walks in the countryside. There was an emphasis on the provision of long-distance regional walks and establishing them on OS maps.
Other than the Definitive Map which came into being circa 1950, the two factors which really started to open the countryside for walking, was the provision of signposts indicating where rights of way left roads and showing the routes on OS mapping.
At that time, I happened to be in the pleasant position as a Rights of Way Officer employed in a rapidly developing PRoW section of the county council’s highway division. I was also a founder member of both Cleeve Ramblers and Tewkesbury Walking Club a couple of years earlier and whose considerable memberships were helpful pioneers of all three routes, and later in carrying out the initial waymarking.
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Gloucestershire Way |
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Wysis Way |
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Three Choirs Way |
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The Gloucestershire Way is the County Council’s premier long-distance path and its creation was formally adopted, and applauded, by the Council. The PRoW Manager of the day, Mark Parker, was successful in obtaining a Millennium Heritage Award of £40,000, a considerable amount at the time, for initial signposting and publicity and with particular emphasis on providing access for less able walkers. (The grant was welcome, but paltry compared with the huge sums, £400,000, later made available for the Cotswold Way). Gloucestershire Area Ramblers chose to walk the route as a Millennium Heritage walk over four weekends. The walk involved many parishes some of whose councillors accompanied the walkers at various times. The walking groups also received blessings as they passed though from the Bishops of Gloucester and Tewkesbury and from several parish vicars. The County Tourism Officer had organised a competition for Gloucester school children in the design of a Millennium kissing gate which was duly unveiled at the finish of the Ramblers walk by the Mayor of Gloucester accompanied by county councillors and other dignitaries including the County Lord Lieutenant. The Gloucestershire Way is very much a county long distance path and a recognised and promoted walk by the County Council. |
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Similarly, in response to the Countryside Commission’s demand for regional walks, the GCC Public Rights of Way Manager (with one full time and one part time officer) had proposed a route which Tony Drake, the Ramblers Footpath Secretary denounced as being far too bland and trivial to adequately display the Ramblers landscape in Gloucestershire. When I appeared on the scene Tony immediately directed me to locate a dusty file in the PRoW office which contained the outline and maps of a route he had partly devised between Monmouth and Thameshead. In due course this became the Wysis Way, the name being chosen, after strong debate, from a long list submitted by Group members. Although only half the length of the Gloucestershire Way it is an equally pleasant route across the grain of the county, linking, not only three of England’s major rivers, but also three National Trails from Offa’s to the Thames Path. With this background the Wysis Way is very much a Ramblers route currently maintained occasionally, by Cirencester Footpath Team. |
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The Three Choirs Way is also a fine walker’s route being pioneered initially through long walks by members of Tewkesbury Walking Club, many of whom also being Ramblers members.
The TCW was the earliest of the trio as it was the musical weekend and visit to Gloucester Cathedral, which led to the publishing of the Gloucestershire Way with themes of both Ivor Gurney’s and Will Harvey’s poetry and musical themes of ‘Forest Vale and High Blue Hill’ and ‘Song of Gloucester’. |
My hope is that this brief background will convince Ramblers, and walkers generally, that the three routes, representative of the pleasant countryside they pass through, are worth sustaining for a long time to come. Gerry Stewart, 12 May 2023