Hornblotton Church
Some sgraffito is visible inside the porch
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Scorpio
Scorpio, a much larger effigy than Libra, sprawls across the Fosse Way. Its claws are at Lottisham and Parbrook - I use Mary Caine's version of this figure - and the curled stinging tail upon West Lydford. Hornblotton Church is a strange little place, worth a visit to view the rare sgraffito plasterwork and read the story of the amazing clock.
The Old Tower ruins at Hornblotton
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It would be a challenging hike to cover this whole sign, so this time I walked along the base of the tail, following the River Brue to the ruined church at East Lydford. The Pilgrim's at Lovington has a large car park as well as a most enticing menu. If you turn left out of here, the footpath is clearly signed across the fields to the right, just past the inn.
Winter is hardening its grip on the land in this sign. Everything seems utterly still, outlined in white. Impossibly delicate ice sculptures line the path; a few rigid, twisted scraps of leaf cling to suddenly bare trees. Tiny birds hop among the frozen clumps of grass, searching for food.
A watery sun peers through thin grey clouds, reflected in the deep, cold river. The water is coffee coloured with the earth washed into it. As I watch, a small section of the bank gently slides into the flow; a brief commotion, and the waters close smoothly over again.
I won't spoil your fun by telling you how to find the ruined church; only that if you arrive at the Fosseway, you have gone too far! If you choose to cross the neat little footbridge and return along the other bank, the footpath is very grudgingly signposted around the new "equestrian centre", but will bring you out on the road back to the inn.
But beware of the treacherous and deceptive path that leads through the woods!
Sagittarius
Sagittarius is the largest effigy, stretching from Catsham in the south to Steanbow in the north east. This Zodiac interprets the figure not as a centaur, but as the dying Sun Hero falling from his horse after being stung by the Scorpion.
This walk begins at Baltonsborough, said to be the birthplace of St Dunstan. The church, set among magnificent yew trees, still retains the original Sanctuary Ring on the door. Once grasped, the fugitive was safe within the bounds of the church for 40 days.
The Old Gate House on the road to Wallyer's Bridge
The view from Wallyer's Bridge
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Go out through the arched gate and follow the Mill Stream down to the road which you follow left as far as Wallyer's Bridge, where you turn left along the River Brue and so to Baltonsborough Flights, on the forehead of the falling man.
The land is cold and wet; the flat fields stroked with thin lines of water. Bare hedges merge into a haze in the distance, with the occasional rugged oak or willow standing out darkly against the pale blue sky. A small family of ducks sail down the powerful flow of the swollen river. On the bank, moles have been busy, their mounds the only fresh colour in the washed-out landscape.
The weir at the Flights has become a raging torrent, sweeping away the debris that usually idles in the spaces between currents. The pool has risen to lap the feet of its surrounding trees.
Here, you turn left back along the Mill Stream, dug on the orders of Dunstan in Saxon times, tracing the face of the Hero. Was there a stream here before that? For the Zodiac is said to be much older. It is also said, however, that the monks of Glastonbury Abbey were privy to the secrets of the Zodiac and kept it maintained. After all this time, who can say for sure?
Willow trees fringe this stream as it winds its way back to the church. Some are like dryads waving long graceful fingers; others crouch like whiskery old men. A tiny stone bridge brings you into an orchard. The trees are festooned with huge greeny-gold balls of mistletoe, gleaming in the late afternoon sun.
Well kept villages gardens appear across the water, and soon you are back in the churchyard again.
Capricorn
I find Capricorn the most elusive of all the signs. Using the Precessed Zodiac, the Sun is moving through the stars of the Goat from late January to mid-February (Aquarius in the Tropical Zodiac), so the weather is often discouraging for long walks.
And a long walk is what you will have. As befits its nature, Capricorn is very remote - not easy to achieve in this crowded part of the world! The effigy lies in the marshlands to the north of the A361. Turn off the main road on to any of the tiny lanes, and you may find that they narrow, begin to crumble into the deep, forbidding ditches on either side, and finally stop in a farmyard - or even the middle of nowhere.
Like a maze, only one of the paths will take you to dry land, and it would be a long way back round to where you had to leave your transport. There are no short cuts across country either, criss-crossed as it is by the ever-present rhines. Capricorn is a serious day's walk through a landscape very little touched by time.
A lighter, but still challenging, view of the effigy comes from visiting Ponter's Ball, the earthwork which forms the horn. The main road cuts through this at Havyatt; there is a plaque in the wall to mark its place. Thick tangles of thorn hedge and barbed wire guard any way through to the long ridge behind; instead, follow the footpath from Glastonbury, by Cinnamon Lane, east across the fields.
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