14 of us met at the Bath Hill car park to share transport to Willsbridge Mill, trying to avoid a roaming cow we encountered in the middle of the road. From the car park we descended through the wood into the valley and made our way to the coffee Mill café where we enjoyed teas and coffees before starting our walk proper. We learned some of the history of the area – Willsbridge was a Saxon hamlet and the Romans built a road: the Via Julia through Willsbridge to connect Aqua Sulis (Bath) to the port of Abonae (Sea Mills). We made our way up the pretty valley beside the Siston Brook to the site of the Dramway offshoot that served the California coal pit. Whilst some rested here, most continued along to St. Anne’s church and a photo stop on the old stone bridge across the brook. The flood level earlier this year reached up to the bridge handrail!
After crossing this footbridge, we made our way to the road bridge further upstream, where we started the return walk back to the California Dramway where we re-joined the others. Descending the slope to the bridge high over the brook, we followed the line of the main Dramway back to Willsbridge Mill. The Dramway ran from Coalpit Heath to the River Avon, transporting coal from around a dozen pits to be loaded on barges and carried down to Bristol. This was the first railway authorised by Act of Parliament; it had iron rails and the coal trucks (drams) were horse-drawn. By the time it opened, it was made obsolete by the invention of steam locomotion. We passed the fenced-off entrance to the Willsbridge Tunnel, which carried the Dramway down to the river at Keynsham and later to nearby Londonderry Wharf. This was used as an air raid shelter in WW II. Just before the Mill we took in the lovely wild life pond and another photo opportunity.
The café had reserved a large table to seat us all, where we had a most pleasant lunch with lots of chatting. We spent a few minutes exploring the Mill before returning up through the wood to the car park. Originally an iron mill but converted to a flour mill, it operated until 1968 when a devastating flood caused the millpond dam to collapse, releasing a deluge onto Willsbridge, causing 7 deaths and destroying many properties. Olive was closely involved in the rescue operation that followed and added many personal insights into the tragedy. It was very nice weather: sunny but not too hot, and it was a most enjoyable and interesting walk through the Willsbridge nature reserve, which several of us had never visited before, even though it is so close by.