Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Ellen Winter reflects on a month of activity in and around the Stroud Valleys.

AS I ambled up Frome Bank nature reserve it occurred to me that many people don’t know the wildness they have on their doorstep in Stroud. I’m sure you know the skies of the commons - the views, cattle and kites – but the valleys hold their secrets closer.

The mosaic of lanes, woods and pastures on the valley sides rewards exploration. Ancient footpaths creep through wild garlic, alongside streams, blink into sunlight as you cross a meadow, before disappearing back into branches.

Water-carved into the Cotswold plateau, the twists and pitches can be a challenge to explore. You may have to negotiate with the land – if I step here will I slide? But for every close-to-cropper moment there are many more cowslip slopes, blossom banks, inquisitive dragonflies and song thrush reveries.

After decades spent meandering along the brooks carrying tribute to our Frome, finding springheads and winterbournes, flushes and pools, I love that in the far crumples of the Stroud Valleys there is always a new lily-of-the-valley waft, a blue butterfly, a cuckooflower and primrose tapestry, or a tawny concerto to appreciate.

With 17 nature reserves around Stroud, including some of the rarest species and best views for miles, you are spoilt for choice with GWT reserves but some of the fun is walking the footpaths between them and finding the unexpected. Here are so many patches of old grassland glowing with wildflowers, too steep to be economic even in the last century but precious remnants of a former landscape in this.

One of my favourite routes is around Far Oakridge into the Chalford valley and back up though our Strawberry Banks reserve. The route winds its way along lanes and footpaths and across modern monoculture meadows golden.

Find inspiration for your walks at gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk