WILLIAM Wordsworth's sister Dorothy would walk six miles into Hereford for a thimble.

The Poet Laureate was no stranger at the moated manor home of Brinsop Court, where she lived with her husband.

On one visit he was moved to compose the sonnet “Wait, prithee, wait”. It treats of the fate of a dove pounced upon by a kite “of ruthless beak”.

In neighbouring Burghill, Wordsworth dallied in St Mary’s churchyard and he is thought to have sheltered in the hollow of an ancient yew with fellow poets Robert Southey and Samuel Coleridge.

One afternoon in 1906, Sir Edward Elgar reached the church on his bicycle, sketched the Norman font and wrote about it to one of his musical friends.

At about the same time the Hereford County and City Lunatic Asylum a mile away was being enlarged due to overcrowding.

Verandahs were added for patients with tuberculosis and its name was changed to Burghill Mental Hospital.

For some two thousand inmates who died there, a final journey to the churchyard was conducted without ceremony.

Many were carted off for anonymous burial on a wheeled bier donated in 1911 by Mrs Elinor Woodhouse of Burghill Court. Now called Rookwood and Court End, it is visible from just beyond Stretton Nursing Home on our route.

It was here in 1926 the benefactress’s two unmarried daughters were murdered by Charles Houghton, the inebriate butler. For their funeral at the church there were over one thousand people in attendance.

On August 18, 1944, a B-24H Liberator Bomber was engaged on a leaflet dropping training mission.

Seen trailing smoke from below the level of Credenhill Hill, one of its wings hit a chimney stack at the Mental Hospital and crashed in flames into the grounds.

The chimney collapsed through the roof of the hospital into a ward, and whilst none of the patients was injured, all 10 of the American air crewmen were killed. The cause of the crash was probably engine failure.

In 2011 a memorial plaque to the illfated air crew was unveiled in the churchyard above the Twelve Apostles: yew trees which were planted in 1964 to replace the ones which lined the path to the main porch in Wordsworth’s day.

At the highly manicured St Mary’s Park, which surrounds the largely demolished hospital, a stone tablet now marks the crash site.

A plaque has been placed latterly in the northern part of Burghill churchyard “In memory of the patients of St Mary’s Hospital who lie buried here”.

As a former place of contemplation for poets and a regal composer, the church of St Mary the Virgin might be expected to be a haven of calm and tradition.

But in recent times a Burghill vicar has preached his own ideas about conventions.

He argues that the church is out of touch with ordinary people unless its clergy become “streetwise” and use earthy language; and parishioners should indulge in more swearing, he suggests.

The fairways which now adjoin our route through the parish no doubt provoke the odd curse, but Wordsworth expressed his thoughts about the sport in steadfastly lyrical fashion.

“Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness”, he says.

Whims ancient and modern Burghill and Tillington Five-and-a-half miles, mostly bridlepaths and country lanes.

Three stiles.

Sites ancient and modern. Can be joined in Tow Tree Lane from Roman Road, Hereford.

Map: OS Explorer 202, Leominster and Bromyard .

Buses 437 and 477.

THE ROUTE 1. St. Mary’s Church, Burghill.

Park with due deference to churchgoers on the east side of Burghill Church. With the east entrance behind you on L, proceed up the wide bridle path towards and beyond mast.

Pass bungalow (L) and start to descend. At slight right bend, TL into field along signed bridle path.

2. Go through bridle gate. The public right-of-way goes ahead over a slight crest and bears L down to a bridle gate in the fence which you join on your L.

(But if it makes more sense, take L perimeter of crop field to gain fence with gate below you). TL through the gate and go across the field laid to grass in July 2012 – probably along the mown top L edge. Find bridle gate in hedge (L) and go through it across top edge of enclosure below mountain board slopes. Go out through gateway on to wide drive and go ahead through Tillington Court buildings to follow more surfaced drive at Court Cottage. Reach country lane beyond “Beech Grove” and TL to the pool opposite Tillington Business Park.

3. Tillington Pool. Go (carefully) straight across road along country lane past The Paddocks. Go half a mile, past Tillington Fruit Farm, to junction with gap into golf course ahead. TL to end of Crowmoor Lane. Go straight across road ahead up the bridleway for Stretton Nursing Home. At gated driveway, keep to the left up the grassy ride between trees and hedge. At upper end of Home go ahead through bridle gate and down the left edge of the wide, grassy path. Keep walking ahead for three-quarters of a mile through gate, gate (L), bear R between crop and plantation, gate, hedged avenue, surfaced lane and gate to minor lane junction.

4. Tow Tree Lane. TL, slightly upwards for half a mile along lane. Pass Tow Tree House and reach Hereford to Burghill road.

Cross to pavement at Willow House and TR for 115m.TL into St Mary’s Lane 175m to Chestnut Lane. TR to memorial tablet unveiled on August 18, 2011, the 67th anniversary of the crash in which 10 United States servicemen and flying crew lost their lives. Return to crossroads at Willow House.

5.Willow House.TR down lane to pool and TL off lane along pebble path at Little Burlton.

Cross stile into field, L of The Old Byre. Go slightly R and cross stile in far R corner.

Follow R edge of crop field, and where trees end, go slightly further R (or around R field perimeter) to find and cross stile in offset R corner. Go ahead along surfaced lane to Lower Orchards T junction. TL to Grange Cottages. TL for church southern entrance opposite Corner House.

6. “Twelve Apostles”. Go up churchyard between yew trees.

Plaque to airmen is by Memorial Cross. TR to exit just above “Wordsworth’s” ancient yew. Plaque to St Mary’s dead is in northern churchyard.