A small section of an historic former Somerset railway line has been enhanced for pedestrians and cyclists through central government funding.

The Willow Walk lies on the outskirts of Glastonbury, meandering over the Somerset Levels and closely following the trackbed of the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

Nicknamed variously the 'Slow and Dirty' (due to its smoky locomotives), the 'Slow and Doubtful' (due to its often unreliable services) or the 'Serene and Delightful' (due to its picturesque nature), the line was a casualty of the infamous Beeching cuts of the mid-1960s which saw Somerset lose huge swathes of its railway stations and services.

The Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (WWCT – formerly known as Sustrans) has been looking after the Willow Walk section since the 1980s, maintaining it as part of National Cycle Network (NCN) route 3, which runs over the Levels to Bridgwater before moving down onto the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal.

Now this picturesque walking route has been significantly enhanced through £147,000 from the government-backed Glastonbury town deal – with the entire route being resurfaced and new benches being installed where visitors can relax and admire the views.

The Willow Walk upgrade forms part of the Robert Richards initiative within the town deal – a series of walking and cycling improvements named after the original chairman of the Glastonbury town deal board.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the then-Conservative government provided £500,000 of 'accelerator funding' to kick-start several of the projects – which included £45,000 for upgrades to the Glastonbury Way, a seven-mile circular route around the town which includes Glastonbury Tor, Wearyall Hall and the Willow Walk.

Volunteers from the Mid Somerset branch of WWCT have been working to delivery the Willow Walk improvements alongside Greenway and Cycle Routes – the charity which has lent its considerable expertise to delivering new sections of the Strawberry Line and most recently an extension of the Windsor Hill Greenway near Shepton Mallet.

Volunteers Geoff Bell and David Thomas accompanied the Local Democracy Reporting Service on a tour of the enhanced Willow Walk on October 27, shortly after the resurfacing work had been completed.

Mr Thomas said: "This route has needed some work doing on it for a number of years now – it floods periodically and it became very muddy and rough.

"The Glastonbury town deal saw the need to improve it for health, active travel and leisure activities, and they got Greenways and Cycle Routes involved to do the job.

"It's two-and-a-half to three metres wide, which allows cyclists to pass one another and plenty of room for people coming through in wheelchairs."

The Willow Walk begins at Middle Drove, not far from the new regenerative farming centre which is being created under a separate town deal project.

At the eastern entrance lies Amy's Picnic Area, a number of benches put in place by the family of local resident Amy Thomas, who passed away in 2017 aged just 14.

From there, the path meanders over the Levels for nearly one kilometre, providing stunning views of Glastonbury Tor and the surrounding countryside before crossing the River Brue and ending at Back River Drove.

The path has been significantly raised in places to move it out of the floodplain, meaning residents can still access it for both work and leisure even during the wettest winter.

Mr Bell said: "In the past, I've cycled through here and the water has come up past the crank pedals on my bike – so no matter where you put your feet, they were in the water.

"The path has been raised considerably, so if there any further flooding, it will only be a few inches deep, not a few feet."

Much of the work has been carried out by MP & KM Golding Ltd., a construction company based in Rodney Stoke (near Cheddar) which has also lent its expertise to the Strawberry Line and Windsor Hill Greenway projects.

Mr Thomas said: "They've opened the route up and made it safer for people to come down here to walk and run as they please.

"If you've got someone coming down on an electric bike at 15mph, you need to see them coming.

"The path has been angled so that any water that does come onto the path will drain away quite quickly."

At several stages along the route, like side areas have been left aside where benches can be installed at a later date, allowing people to enjoy the views at their leisure.

Around 100 trees have been removed along the length of the Willow Walk, with numerous others being pollarded – something Mr Thomas said was essential to protect the healthier trees and keep the path unobstructed.

He explained: "Many of these willows were nearly 30 metres tall and were destroying themselves with the wind.

"They were pollarded around three years ago, and now they have been refreshed – it saves the trees from being blown out of the ground."

"Some areas of the path have got low overgrowth, and selectively opening areas allows other things to grow. It'll be interesting to see what will be there next spring."

Mr Bell added: "In the central section, the path had become very narrow with the trees – so we decided to go around it.

"Otherwise, we would have had to take more trees out, and they were good trees.

"Some of the trees we removed were diseased; even though they looked good, you could catch hold of them and see that the roots had gone.

"Because of the wet ground and the type of soil, when the trees grow tall and you get high winds, the roots just slip through the soil and the trees go over.

"Hopefully everything we've done will be helpful to the Willow Walk, and allow a lot of the other trees to develop and grow properly."

Two 'sentinel trees' have been left in place at the western end of the route, with others being planted along the nearest section of the path which can replace the existing trees if needed in the years ahead.

Near these two trees, visitors can take a rest on a newly restored bench marking the Glastonbury Way – a bench which was originally on a steep slope.

Mr Thomas joked: "We called it the love bench, because if you didn't like the person who was sat there with you, by the end of your time sitting there you would, because you'd all be sat at the same end.

"We've moved it down and levelled it up to give a view through the trees to the Mendip Hills. We feel that's an improvement."

Opposite the bench lies a distinctive red and blue sculpture, similar to one you will find on the Lock's Way cycle route between Bawdrip and Cossington – another former section of this old railway, and another current section of NCN route 3.

These markers were among 1,000 'millennium posts' put in place by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the year 2000 – with Mr Bell and others giving it a new coat of paint as part of the project, reflecting the original railway's livery.

The bridge over the River Brue has been painstakingly restored, with the path being raised up over the existing ironworks to provide a smoother journey for visitors.

Mr Bell said: "Prior to this refurbishment, the path across the bridge was getting in a precarious position – a lot of the planks were cracking and it was getting flooded.

"The original ramp up to the bridge was quite steep, so our contractor put tonnes of work into it to make the slope as gradual as possible.

"It was good fun doing this project, and the people who were involved were really good for giving their time."

Mr Thomas added: "The path originally came up steeply to the height of the riverbank, and then dropped to the level of the bridge, then came up the other side and then down the steep slope.

"In the process of doing this, we've made the whole thing level and take it above the flood level."

From Back River Drove, explorers can continue along NCN route 3 to the west, following the route of the former Glastonbury Canal and entering the Avalon Marshes nature reserve.

Mr Thomas said he was hopeful that local residents would come forward in the months and years ahead to help with the maintenance of the path, building on the work that he and others had done to date.

For information about volunteering, visit www.facebook.com/WalkWheelCycleTrustMidSomerset.

He added: "From Glastonbury now, it's an easy safe route to Sharpham and Shapwick Heath – it opens up this whole area of natural beauty, opening up a route that a lot of people didn't know about.

"We're hoping that word will spread and signage will be improved to encourage people to find it.

"The path was well used by local people, and my hope is that now it will be linked into people coming here for holidays, and will be used as a way to get out onto the Levels and Moors to enjoy the environment."

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