FRANCIS Wigley Greswolde Greswolde- Williams was a man of many parts as well as many names.

In 1898 he purchased Bredenbury Court from W H Barneby who had received Bredenbury as a wedding present. Barneby had already transformed the upland village three miles west of Bromyard to cater for the court household and estate. When Greswolde moved in, he added a ballroom, a vaulted dining-room and built some impressive stables which were thought to be modelled on those at Sandringham.

A steward at Worcester races, Greswolde was a daring horseman and kept his own pack of hounds. The deputy lieutenant and popular employer provided a reading room to support his wife’s plan of keeping the men in the village away from the New Inn. In the 1920s he divided his time between England and Kenya where he owned some of the most coveted big game country in Africa.

But there was a darker side to this JP and godfather of Barbara Cartland.

Greswolde is known as chief supplier of cocaine to the notorious Happy Valley set. This dissolute group of colonials included Lord Delamere who was accused of murdering his wife Lady Diana Broughton’s lover, the 22nd Earl of Erroll.

Royalty visited the set’s chief watering-hole at the Muthaiga Club in Nairobi in the shape of Prince George and the Duke of Windsor, later Edward VIII.

In 1928 Greswolde found himself sitting next to the heir to the throne and had the temerity to offer him cocaine in between dinner courses.

According to a Martley contemporary, he next found himself going through a plate glass window.

Greswolde built a back drive from Bredenbury Court (now St Richard’s School) to give easier access to the Worcester, Bromyard and Leominster Railway at Rowden Mill.

He often commandeered the train and every year a coach was put at his disposal in the sidings ready for the family to go shooting in Scotland.

The B&LR branch does seem to have provided a very personal service. In its early days a party of regulars had forgotten their playing cards. When boarding at Leominster, one of them had a quiet word with the guard; somewhere between Steens Bridge and Fencote, the obliging official proceeded to stop the train. From there, he dashed across a couple of fields to an isolated cottage and duly returned with a gleaming pack of cards.

Beyond Rowden Mill at Wicton farm, it was not unknown for the driver himself to nip out and pick up a couple of dozen eggs.

The line closed in September 1952 due to lack of traffic. Fencote, only 2½ miles higher up than Rowden, still took nine minutes to reach because of the stiff gradient. At 685 feet it was one of the highest stations on the Great Western Railway and because it was the passing point between Bromyard and Leominster, it had two platforms and a signalbox.

Now restored to its former glory in the GWR livery, with occasional open days, it is privately owned and can be seen from point four on the walk.

There was a steep incline each side of the station and a coal wagon with a defective parking brake once broke away from Fencote and hurtled towards Leominster at about 60 mph. Fortunately the staff there had been forewarned, and the train was pointed straight through the yard and engine shed to shatter in a field behind.

Passing through delightful and unpopulated countryside, the line in those not exactly HS2 days was probably always doomed to failure.

In the same vein our fine ramble also pays a visit to the somnolent churchyard at Grendon Bishop.

THE ROUTE

1. Bredenbury Primary School. Start just beyond school on road to Edwin Ralph. Walk towards Edwin Ralph about 240m, T sharp L off road across stile. Follow R edge of wood, cross stile, go through gate and half R in small pasture (old Reading Room over to L) through gate on to pavement. TR to just past Barneby Inn. (Old New Inn).

2 Wacton Road. TR and follow quiet lane downhill for ¾ mile. Bend L at Wacton Grange off surfaced path and keep ahead on same line through a gate. Follow R edge to marker post and TL down large pasture towards and through metal gate. Go through “tunnel” under old B & L railway, ahead across crop field and down through wooden gate in offset corner. Cross stream, go through small metal gate, beyond pretty gardens (L) out on to road by gates at Butterley Brook and Orchard Place.

3 Butterley. Go straight across road on to wide bridle path. Rise up to a crest, (with Bromyard Downs directly behind you), and follow fine path ¾ mile through 5 gaps with hedge L, then R in last field. At two gates, TR along tree-lined avenue, L of bungalow, down and up past The Clerks Croft to crest before bungalow above R. TL through gate into plantation. Wind L and through gateway in R corner, along R edge of 2 fields and through a gate behind ”Fencote Station”.

4 “Fencote Station.” Bear R up to road.

(Remember Fencote is private). TL for view to station from bridge. Now carry on up road for 1¼ miles. (3 cars passed me on a Sunday).

Go straight across very busy A44, but with good sighting, up No through road signed The Day House to cattle grid.

5 Conifer Mast. TL around mast, down L edge/hedge, through gate in L corner, L of poultry houses and through small wooden gate by t/pole. Jump down, TL, immediately TR across Grendon Manor drive, through gate beyond cider mill by wall. Follow R edge down through gate into Grendon Bishop churchyard. (It’s a solitary place). Exit via lower gate. TR along R edge/hedge past pond and across stile. Bear L across crop field and across stile in fence. Now (careful) head down the big field on a line from Grendon Manor (behind) through the 2 trees in the middle to find and cross a stile below.

Go through scrub and over the f/bridge.

6. In Front of Gate in Fence. Immediately after f/bridge, TL to put fence on your R. Ford stream (if I can, you can!) and go up through gate. Climb steeply up bank, past waymarked t/pole, through gate, up gravel drive (past Brockington Grange) to regain the A44 at Bredenbury.

7. Bredenbury. Cross road to opposite pavement.

TL along narrow pavement beyond St Richard’s Prep. School drive (R) back to primary school.

Other waymarked routes in the walkerfriendly Bromyard area can be found in the booklet Walks Around Bromyard, available from Food for All or The Bromyard Centre.