The best gravel rides around Dunchurch

It’s a really nice place to get to and have a café ride. It’s nice to just ride around the reservoir. 

Bridleway that starts on a private lane then a gravel track through the woods followed by open fields before returning back onto quiet country roads between Eathorpe and Wappenbury.

Local pub with a tex mex twist. Opening hours: Tuesday 5–10pm Wednesday 5–10pm Thursday 5–10pm Friday 5–10pm Saturday 4–10:30pm Sunday 4–10pm Monday Closed

Good quality single-track with grass and hard pack.

Bit muddy and slippery in places in October

You get on here at bottom of the hill going towards Draycote.

This reserve is a large semi-natural ancient woodland. It is rich in plants, butterflies and birds.  Mentioned in the Domesday Book, records show that Richard of Wappenbury was given modest rights over the woods. By the end of the 15th Century, the wood was known by its present name and provided a source of fuel, building materials and hunting opportunities for the local community.   Medieval ridge and furrow plough markings found to the north of the woods, ancient bank boundaries, and the age-old pathway known as Nunwood Lane all provide further evidence of the woods’ age. Nearly clear-felled twice in the 1940s and 1950s, the wood was left to regenerate naturally, helping to increase diversity and contributing to its ecological excellence today.

The church of ST. ESPRIT is situated on the west side of the Southam-Coventry road at the junction of the River Leam with the Itchen and stands in a small churchyard near the centre of the village. It was almost entirely rebuilt in the gothic style in 1871 and all that remains of the earlier church is the lower stage of the tower and the south arcade, both of the mid-14th century, together with an early-13th-century south doorway. The present church consists of a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, west tower, organ-chamber, and south porch. It is built of squared and coursed limestone with sandstone dressings and all the roofs are tiled. The lower part of the east wall of the chancel still retains some of the earlier walling of roughly coursed rubble with red sandstone dressings. It is lighted on the east by a pointed tracery window of three ogee trefoil lights and by a two-light on the south, both with hood-moulds. The east wall of the south aisle has a single trefoil light; the south side a three-light and a single light with trefoil heads; the west a similar window, but with two lights. The porch has a pointed entrance arch, the mouldings continued down to splayed stops. The 13th-century doorway has a pointed arch of two orders, the inner a splay and the outer a large roll-moulding, supported on detached shafts with moulded capitals and splayed impost, the outer jamb is chamfered, with a moulded stop below the impost moulding. The tower is in three stages without buttresses and it diminishes with a splayed offset to the second stage. From half way up the second stage it has been entirely rebuilt in a light-coloured sandstone ashlar. The original walls are built of coursed limestone rubble with red sandstone dressings and, except on the north side, bands of red sandstone in the middle of the first stage and again at the base of the second stage. The west face has a narrow trefoil ogee-headed window in the first stage, and in the second a narrow lancet to the ringing-chamber. The belfry has windows with pointed arches on each face, of two trefoil lights, labels with head-stops, and a string-course at the sill level. Above is a plain battlemented parapet on a moulded string-course. A modern lobby has been built at the junction of the tower with the south aisle to give an external entrance to the tower. The chancel (18 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft.) has a tiled floor, a collar-beam roof, plastered walls, and two steps to the altar. The east window has a pointed moulded rear-arch supported on shafts with moulded capitals and bases and a hood-mould with foliated stops. On the north side there is an arched opening into the organchamber. The nave (31 ft. 7 in. by 19 ft. 6 in.) has a hammerbeam roof and a tiled floor. The 14th-century arcade has two bays of pointed arches of two splayed orders supported on octagonal pillars with moulded capitals and bases, the responds repeat the arch splays and have similar moulded capitals and bases. The north arcade is a copy of the south but with more elaborately moulded capitals. Above the apex of each arch there is a pointed two-light clearstory window with widely splayed jambs and sills. The tower arch has been replaced with a modern low segmental one of two splayed orders. The chancel arch is pointed, of three splayed orders supported on three attached shafts with foliated capitals and splayed bases. The north and south aisles (31 ft. 10 in. by 8 ft. 6 in.) have lean-to roofs, tiled floors, and windows with reararches of three trefoils supported on shafts with moulded capitals and bases. At the eastern end of the south wall a badly mutilated 14th-century piscina has been built in. The tower (10 ft. 9 in. by 7 ft.) has been strengthened by increasing the thickness of the north and south walls and carrying over a segmental vault. The pulpit, placed on the south side of the chancel arch, is octagonal, of stone and coloured marble with open traceried panels. The font is also of stone with an octagonal basin, sunk trefoil panels, and stands on an octagonal coloured marble stem moulded at the base. The communion plate is modern except for one large and one small silver paten with hall mark 1773. There are three bells (fn. 47) by Hugh Watts, dated 1616, 1623, and 1624. The registers begin in 1660.