Children in growing Somerset village can enjoy car-free route to school
New Cheddar cycle path extension eases school congestion and improves safety for residents
Children and young people in a growing Somerset village can now enjoy a safer route to school thanks to the latest extension of a long-distance cycle route.
The Strawberry Line multi-user path currently runs uninterrupted from Yatton railway station to Cheddar, and will eventually reach all the way to Collett Park in Shepton Mallet.
Local contractors and dozens of willing volunteers have been working since early-April to construct a new extension in Cheddar, skirting around the Kings Academy playing fields and crossing the Cheddar Yeo via a new bridge.
After months of hard work, this new section is now open to the public, providing a safer route between the centre of the village and the residential developments at its southern edge.
Strawberry Line Society chairman Mick Fletcher gave the Local Democracy Reporting Service a guided tour of the newest section on Saturday morning (November 22), one week after a well-attended ceremony which officially opened the route to pedestrians and cyclists.
He said: “The Strawberry Line developed rather rapidly in North Somerset, but unfortunately in our part of Somerset the local councils took a different view and the land on which the old railway track stood was sold off.
“It’s been rather a slow process in piecing it back together again, but we’re making great progress and this is the latest piece in that jigsaw.
“It provides a nice link for people within Cheddar, and for those wanting to take a longer ride, it’s a route through Cheddar without having to tangle with the traffic and the narrow bridge over the Cheddar Yeo – a very attractive, nice little section of path.”
The newest section begins at the entrance to Cheddar Leisure Centre off Station Road – a few hundred yards from the previous terminus near the village’s Travis Perkins outlet and its household waste recycling centre.
From there the path skirts around the western edge of the school’s playing fields, with green mesh security fencing separating path users from young people and visiting teams using the rugby and football pitches.
Mr Fletcher said: “One advantages of this scheme for the school was to have a proper security fence all around their estate for the first time.
“It was all put in by volunteers – we put it in over two weeks during the Easter holidays, and it was pretty hard graft. We had volunteers coming down from as far afield as Shepton Mallet, Congresbury and Sandford.
“Once we’d concluded it, that means we could work safely on our side of the fence and the school didn’t have to worry about safeguarding and trespass onto its grounds.”
Much of the heavy engineering work (including the drainage and foundations of the path) was carried out by MP & KM Golding Ltd., a construction company based in the neighbouring village of Rodney Stoke which has also lent its expertise to the Windsor Hill Greenway project and the recent improvements to the Willow Walk in Glastonbury.
But before a single fence post could be dug in, the Strawberry Line had to negotiate the use of the land with the Wessex multi-academy trust, the school governors, the leisure centre and other local landowners – a process which took around 18 months.
Mr Fletcher said: “It’s a win for all of them. The leisure centre’s got a problem with its car park, so the more people who can come on bicycles or on foot, the better.
“The school would like their pupils to come this way for the same reason, and this is a safe route for all the pupils coming from the south and east of Cheddar.
“We don’t get as much resistance these days, and we do point out that there are wins here for motorists. If you reduce the number of cars trying to get into the school in the morning, you’re reducing congestion for everybody who needs to get to work.”
Wherever possible, the path meanders around the existing trees on the edge of the playing field – an approach which necessitated additional land being secured from the owners of a smallholding next door to the school.
Mr Fletcher explained: “They had just acquired the property when we rocked up and said: ‘can we borrow or lease a corner of your field?’.
“One of our worries was that if we were hard on the edge of the rugby pitch, some heavy second row forward would come barrelling through the fencing. We even talked at one stage about putting mattresses on it for that purpose.
“They were very generous neighbours – they allowed us to take a slice off the corner, which makes the path a much more attractive route.”
Like the Willow Walk or Windsor Hill projects, the surface of the Strawberry Line is designed to blend in more effectively with the rural landscape, utilising ground up local stone rather than slapping Tarmac down on large swathes of Somerset countryside.
This latest section benefited from the generously of two local contractors, Holcim UK and Heidelberg Materials UK (with the latter being the main company responsible for Somerset Council’s highways resurfacing programme).
The companies between them donated more than 1,200 tonnes of aggregate for the project, worth around £25,000.
Mr Fletcher said: “We’ve got a very successful partnership going here. Our volunteers try to open the doors and do a lot of the labour; Greenways design and engineer the path to make sure it doesn’t fall down or flood.
“This bridge comes as a kit – the two big beams are lifted into position and then everything else is screwed together by volunteers.”
In a fitting gesture to the volunteers’ hard work, numerous names involved with the project have been etched into the concrete abutments holding the bridge up.
Much of the recent progress on the Strawberry Line has been funded through grants, with money being set aside by Mendip District Council shortly before it was abolished in April 2023.
Since then, Somerset Council has been working to support the Strawberry Line Society in delivering new sections, providing expertise along with any remaining financial contributions.
The last 18 months have seen significant new sections of the Strawberry Line delivered – including a new bridge connecting two part of the route in Shepton Mallet and a short addition in Wells (delivered alongside the city’s new Lidl supermarket).
Mr Fletcher said that discussions with landowners were ongoing in their efforts to close the remaining gaps, but said he was confident further progress would be made in 2026.
He said: “Between Cheddar and Wells there are quite a large number of landowners involved – many of whom are positive, one or two of whom need a bit more persuasion, and those conversations are ongoing.
“We will definitely have something new in the next 18 months.”
Jules Sayer, owner of Petruth Paddocks, added: “What we hope to do is to build a proper cycle hub on our campsite for when the route goes on further, which will be fantastic.
“The new section is going to give our customers a much easier route into the village. We’re really excited for the future – these guys have done an amazing job.”
People wishing to get involved in the ongoing work of the Strawberry Line Society should visit www.thestrawberryline.org.uk.