Tinkley Gate and Woodchester Park walk access in Nympsfield

I am standing at the top of a long path that links Tinkley Gate café, just outside the village of Nympsfield, to Woodchester Park. Below me, swathes of trees descend into the valley; the scale of the park and its famous chain of lakes hidden from view. The landscape here is evolving; access to the park is increasing, the path I’m standing on has recently been resurfaced and, alongside several other improvements on the site, the National Trust is working hard to increase access for everyone into the wild spaces of the Cotswolds.

I’m here to find out more about this access work and speak to staff members that have spearheaded the project, alongside volunteers and the local community, to open the Tinkley Gate site and Woodchester Park to people of all access abilities. There’s every reason everyone should be able to access Woodchester Park, too; it’s a haven for wildlife and natural beauty, offering hidden landscapes, diverse wildlife and a sense of tranquillity and wildness that draws visitors year-round. But like much of the Cotswold landscape, the valleys here are steep and the paths sometimes rough and uneven. Access for those with mobility challenges, parents with pushchairs or anyone who requires more user-friendly pathways and facilities have until now found it difficult to enjoy all aspects of the site.

The smooth path has a top layer of stone that ensures it stays in keeping with the rest of the landscape. Photo: Jacob Little/NTI Images ‘In 2022, we met with a number of partners to discuss access into nature, and it felt like it was the first time we all had the opportunity to do this,’ says Max Biddlestone, visitor operations and experience manager for the Cotswold Countryside Portfolio. ‘We had the chance to meet with several people whose experience of access issues comes from a lived experience, and this was really important when it came to working with different organisations and coming up with real, effective solutions.’

Max tells me that it was an inspiring process to be able to see Woodchester Park from a different perspective, and off the back of this consultation with partners, a programme of work was devised to improve access to the park. ‘A lot of this work was accelerated by the National Trust acquisition of the Tinkley Gate site in 2023,’ Max continues. The Tinkley Gate site, sitting on Nympsfield Lane on the way to Nailsworth, is a safe environment for all age groups, and with flat trails around an orchard and plenty of green space for picnics, it’s the perfect gateway to the greater Woodchester Park area.

Tinkley Gate café, just outside the village of Nympsfield. Photo: Jacob Little/NTI Images ‘From levelling ground, removing obstacles and smoothing out steep paths to resurfacing work, installing disabled car parking spaces and powered doors, the work we’ve carried out at Tinkley Gate ranges from small to large scale, but it all contributes to improving visitor experience for everyone,’ he explains. Indeed, one of the larger projects undertaken at the site and perhaps its showcase one, is a new zig-zag trail from Tinkley Gate to Woodchester Park that replaces a steep, often muddy and slippery slope. It’s clear that this is the jewel in the crown of the National Trust’s access work here, and it’s a piece of work that has been requested by the community. ‘We have listened to visitor feedback, and we know that this path has been requested and will be able to be enjoyed by all our visitors,’ Max says.

The resin surface that lays before me looks inviting – it’s a smooth path with a top layer of stone that ensures it stays in keeping with the rest of the landscape. A beautiful wooden fence and handrail lines the path and stretches its whole length, winding down an otherwise impassable hill. Linking landscapes and creating paths that are all wide, smooth and more obvious for people to follow really helps with accessibility, but improving access in a sensitive way to the landscape is at the heart of this project and it’s a continual, iterative process.

A beautiful wooden fence and handrail lines the path and stretches its whole length. Photo: Jo Stubbs/NTI Images ‘Designing for improved access needs to carried out with people, not for people,’ Max explains, and that having a disability or a need doesn’t mean that one person can speak for everyone. ‘We’ve picked up on this requirement to consider the whole experience – it’s not just the changes we’ve made to infrastructure; it’s about getting to the site and the whole visitor experience while you’re here,’ he continues. There are plans to improve pre-visit information digitally, and to provide more information to people with access needs and hidden disabilities before they arrive.

With the early spring sunshine glinting off the trees, I take a walk on some of the new paths to a lookout that stretches across Woodchester Park and on to the Stroud Commons across the valley. It’s easy to see why opening these spaces up so everyone can enjoy them is such an obvious thing to do; they are shared spaces for the community, and the new work that I’ve seen today will benefit everyone, not just those with access needs. With several new events in 2025 and family-friendly activities, there’s also an opportunity for everyone to get involved and see the improvements up close.

For more information on Tinkley Gate and Woodchester Park, visit the National Trust website or follow them @NTCotswolds on Facebook and Instagram.

There’s plenty of green space for picnics. Photo: Jacob Little/NTI Images