RoutesMountain biking trailsUnited KingdomEnglandWest Midlands RegionWarwickshireStratford-On-AvonWellesbourne CP
Charlecote Park – Stone Bridge at Compton Verney loop from Wellesbourne
RoutesMountain biking trailsUnited KingdomEnglandWest Midlands RegionWarwickshireStratford-On-AvonWellesbourne CP
Charlecote Park – Stone Bridge at Compton Verney loop from Wellesbourne
Moderate
5.0
(1)
7
riders
Charlecote Park – Stone Bridge at Compton Verney loop from Wellesbourne
02:06
32.1km
250m
Mountain biking
Moderate mountain bike ride. Good fitness required. Suitable for all skill levels. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.
Last updated: May 6, 2026
Tips
Includes a segment in which cycling is not permitted
After 7.14 km for 119 m
Waypoints
A
Start point
Bus stop
Get Directions
1
2.52 km
Charlecote Park
Highlight • Historical Site
The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.
From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.
In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).
Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from whose extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.
From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.
From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.
In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).
Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from whose extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.
From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.
Tip by
2
3.68 km
Charlecote Mill
Highlight • Historical Site
Useful information on the website
charlecotemill.co.uk
charlecotemill.co.uk
Tip by
3
5.73 km
St John the Baptist Church
Highlight • Historical Site
Parish church. 1843 by Sir G G Scott, adapted from church of 1736. Red sandstone with plain tile roofs. The chancel, south aisle, bell-turret, and all the windows are by Scott. Early English/Decorated style. Comprising nave, chancel, south aisle,south vestry and north porch. Octagonal lead-clad timber bell-turret over west end with short spire. C19 timber-framed north porch containing early C16 glass. Decorated style traceried windows. Interior: Early English style three-bay south arcade. Crown-post nave and aisle roofs with crenellated tie-beams. Angel corbels in chancel. Screen by Scott dated 1845 in circa 1300 style. Pulpit of circa 1600. Communion rail of early C18 in wrought iron. East window by Hardman to designs of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.
Tip by
4
11.4 km
Oakley Wood Bridleway
Highlight (Segment) • Forest
5
22.0 km
Farm Track to Compton Pools
Highlight • Trail
6
23.1 km
Stone Bridge at Compton Verney
Highlight • Bridge
7
25.0 km
Compton Pools
Highlight • Structure
There are great views of 'Compton Pools' from many vantage points along this route. The pools are really lakes as they were turned into a single expanse of water by Lancelot Capability Brown circa 1769. The hills, the house and the bridges provide a beautiful backdrop to the lakes.
Tip by
8
25.6 km
St Mary and St Margaret Church, Combrook
Highlight • Religious Site
The site of The Church of St Mary and St Margaret, a Medieval chapel which was largely rebuilt as a parish church in the 19th century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1831 and the nave in 1866. It stands in Combrook.
Church. 1866. By John Gibson, incorporating chancel of 1831 with alterations. MATERIALS: coursed limestone rubble with ironstone dressings; steeply pitched old and renewed tile roof. PLAN: 2-bay chancel and 5-bay nave with lean-to aisles and bellcote. c1300 style. Coped gables. EXTERIOR: chancel has a 3-light traceried east window; north and south sides have straight-headed 2-light windows. Aisles have diagonal buttresses and 2-light windows with head stops to hood moulds in gabled half-dormers. West entrance has elaborate open-work cusped gable on shafts with foliated capitals and large angel corbels; rose window above. Gable has bellcote with spire and weather-vane; angels to angles. INTERIOR: flower-pot shaped font is possibly medieval. STAINED GLASS: east window by Willement c1866; good glass to west window.
Church. 1866. By John Gibson, incorporating chancel of 1831 with alterations. MATERIALS: coursed limestone rubble with ironstone dressings; steeply pitched old and renewed tile roof. PLAN: 2-bay chancel and 5-bay nave with lean-to aisles and bellcote. c1300 style. Coped gables. EXTERIOR: chancel has a 3-light traceried east window; north and south sides have straight-headed 2-light windows. Aisles have diagonal buttresses and 2-light windows with head stops to hood moulds in gabled half-dormers. West entrance has elaborate open-work cusped gable on shafts with foliated capitals and large angel corbels; rose window above. Gable has bellcote with spire and weather-vane; angels to angles. INTERIOR: flower-pot shaped font is possibly medieval. STAINED GLASS: east window by Willement c1866; good glass to west window.
Tip by
B
32.1 km
End point
Bus stop
Way Types & Surfaces
Way Types
21.1 km
8.04 km
1.83 km
693 m
281 m
186 m
Surfaces
12.6 km
11.0 km
4.56 km
2.94 km
980 m
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Elevation
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Highest point (120 m)
Lowest point (40 m)
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Weather
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Wednesday 22 July
27°C
13°C
0 %
Additional weather tips
Max wind speed: 10.0 km/h
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Our route recommendations are based on thousands of hikes, rides, and runs completed by other people on komoot.
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