SOME GOOD LEVEL STRETCHES WITH A DESCENT TO MAIDEN NEWTON GIVE WAY TO UNDULATING COUNTRY WITH MORE CLIMB THAN FALL LATER IN THE STAGE. MORE ROAD ON THIS LEG THAN MOST WITH TRACKS AND COUNTRY SCARCELY MORE THAN HALF THIS LEG. THE RADIO MASTS ARE TANTALISING: YOU CAN SEE THEM FOR MILES BUT THEY NEVER GET ANY CLOSER. THE LEG MEANDERS ALL THE WAY TO THEM.

  1. The changeover is on the west side of the A37. The marshal will hand a baton to the departing runner. Go straight down the lane which turns into a stony farm road after reaching some barns on the right. It curves slightly left and passes through a gate. At the third gate, turn right into a lane which drops steeply and passes under a bridge.

  2. At the end of the lane, turn left into the main road; but cross to the right-hand side. Ignore all side roads until you reach the war memorial.
    3. The road turns left but you turn right to pass the front of the churchyard. Just before entering the farmyard/couryard
    go over a stile on the left.

  3. Turn right round the back of the barn. At the end of the little field fork left down to the river bank. Cross the river by the footbridge, (beware, can be very slippery) turning right to resume your line on the far bank. Follow the path beside the stream under a railway bridge with a gate and across one stile.

  4. Approaching the gate ahead, do not go through but turn left along the fence. Go on to cross a stile in the fence ahead. Skirt the next field to the right and leave over a bar across a hidden gap in the right-hand hedge.

  5. Go straight across 2 fields to Chilfrome church. Follow the lane out to a road and turn left along it for 350 yards to a cross roads. Turn right up the lane signed 'Grove Stall Farm'. After another 350 yards, once this has curved until the bank on the left ends, turn left into a narrow track (marked by a fingerpost).

  6. This emerges onto a minor road, carry on to the right along the road until it ends at a t-junction in a mile and a quarter. Much of this section is a climb to Chilfrome Hill barn.

  7. At the t-junction, turn left along the road for 200 yards keeping to the left-hand verge before crossing. Turn right through a gate into a field. Turn half right and head for a gap in the hedge 50 yds to the left of a mound. Once you have reached the crest you will see a small gate ahead. Go through this and cross another field a little right of the same line to find a narrow path and a gate in the hedge. The path emerges into a field. Kink right onto a ridge and descend on this to a gap in the hedge. Once through this slant half left to cut the corner to a gate in the bottom fence rather than taking the obvious path ahead.

  8. Once through the gate, stay on the same slant down the big field as much as the hedge on the left allows. Go down past a single tree to a gate by a barn. Go through, turn right then left and almost immediately right along a track. Turn right on reaching a tarmac lane.

  9. When this veers left, go straight on along a track. Follow this for about half a mile. (don't be confused into leaving the main lane by markers on side fences.) Go through a gate into a field, bear very slightly left across the field to a gate and take a path through a plantation. Emerging, follow the valley through the field to another small gate and then continue across the field up the valley to a large gate. Turn right onto the road and run up to the changeover point at the next corner.

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