Circular walk, about 2 hours, over cultivated fields, grassland and woods
Starting at the public footpath at the back of St Lawrence Estate, follow the marked path over the cultivated field to the north. At the far end of the field turn right and follow the hedgerow around two sides of the field. Cross into the next field and follow the field edge, keeping the wood on your right.
At the signpost, turn right into Barn Moor Wood. This small wood is unusual in that it has wild (not planted) lime trees. Limes were part of the original tree cover of the forest of Arden, and not many of them are left. In the middle of the wood the path divides. Keep to the left fork and you will come out into a cultivated field.
Cross the field until you reach a kissing gate and footbridge over a stream. At the other side you are in a small pasture. Turn left, cross the corner of the field and enter the next pasture. Here you need to bear slightly to the right and cross the centre of the field. The following field is cultivated, but the path should be clear through the centre of it.
You leave the field on to a lane, near the ex-village of Hockley, of which almost nothing remains. Turn left and a few yards further up the lane you will see the yellow footpath signpost on your left, taking you back into the fields.
This field is a strange elongated shape. Keeping the hedge on your right, follow it to the far end. Then, keeping the wood on your left and the cultivated field on your right, you come out near Wood Barn Farm (marked Bull Barn Farm on the map). You can see Ansley Village Cricket ground to the north of you.
At the end of the wood you will see a building. Turn left in front of it, and the path continues just after it, on the right. It leads you over another cultivated field, to the main road from Ansley Common to Church End.
Here, a detour is highly recommended. Next to Ansley Cricket Club there is a derelict hermitage in a small wood, which probably dates from the eighteenth century, when Ansley Hall was a home to the gentry. To get to it, turn right along the main road and take the far entrance to Ansley Hall. Go straight ahead, with the hall buildings on your right, and follow the track to the cricket clubhouse. The entrance to the hermitage is a little way beyond the clubhouse.
To continue your walk, follow the main road in the direction of Church End. After Manor House Farm and before the beech wood, the path continues down a track on your left. A few yards down the track, take the path out over the field on your right. It takes you past a pond in the middle of the field. When you are level with the end of the line of trees on your right, the path comes to a crossroads. Take the left fork. It brings you to what was a field boundary (when this was pasture and not cultivated land) and the end of a track. At this point bear slightly to your right and follow the path to the footbridge over the stream. Then you are in the field you started out from.
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