Poet's Walk in Clevedon. A view of the North Somerset Coast and Severn Estuary.

Poet’s Walk in Clevedon takes you up and around Church Hill and Wain’s Hill on the south-west fringes of the town.  The walk gives fine views of the Somerset Coast and Severn Estuary.

Poet’s Walk takes its name from poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and other contemporary literary figures, who visited the town and were inspired by its coastal views.  Coleridge stayed in Clevedon for several months in 1795 after his marriage, in Bristol’s St. Mary Redcliffe Church, to Sarah Fricker.

Clevedon is easily reached by road from Junction 20 of the M5 and on arriving at the seafront parking is not too difficult.  One can usually park on the roadside by Salthouse Park but, if needed, there is a spacious pay and display car park at Salthouse Fields near Marine Lake and the starting point for the walk.

Setting off up the hillside path it is not far before “The Lookout” is reached.  The plaque explains all: “Erected circa 1835 by Ferdinand Beeston.  Said to have been used by the Finzel Family sugar importers in the mid nineteenth century to view sugar ships coming from the West Indies.”

From Church Hill one can see the Welsh coast and north east up the Severn Estuary as far as the Second Severn Crossing.

Nestling in a slight hollow between Church Hill and Wain’s Hill is the Church of St. Andrew.  Built on Anglo-Saxon foundations, parts of the 12th century church remain alongside later additions.  Of St. Andrew’s Church, in his Somerset (Great Western Railway Company) 1934, Maxwell Fraser writes: “The grey old church, noble in its rugged simplicity, dominates the whole town from its commanding position on a grassy hilltop, and looks seaward as though brooding over the lines of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”, which was written in memory of the poet’s friend Arthur Hallam, who is buried in the church with his father, Henry Hallam the historian.” 

In recent times this “brooding” church has featured as a location for the popular TV drama “Broadchurch”.

Clevedon's Church of St. Andrew nestling between Church Hill and Wain's Hill. 

The footpath curves around Wain’s Hill, the site of an Iron Age hillfort and also a little more recent fortification from the Second World War.  Looking beyond Blackstone Rocks and the mudflats, the rolling grasslands of Sand Point and Middle Hope are visible to the south west.  In the far distance the wooded Worlebury Hill can be seen as well as Steep Holm out in the Bristol Channel. 

Poet’s Walk is a little steep in places as it climbs through woodland but there are benches where one can take a breather - there is plenty of fresh air - and linger over the outstanding views of the Severn Estuary and Clevedon’s Victorian seafront and pier.

The Victorian seafront and pier at Clevedon viewed from Poet's Walk.  The Second Severn Crossing can just be seen, in the mist, on the horizon.