Heritage Trail

The museum created a Thornbury Heritage Trail to mark the new millennium.

• The Heritage Trail follows an easy pedestrian route around the historic town centre, with an optional return along country footpaths.
• The way-marked route starts outside the Town Hall in the High Street. A bronze relief sculpture of the centre of Thornbury, The Spirit of Thornbury, is located there too.
• Additional historic sites bear a bronze plaque.
• The route follows a way-marked figure-of-eight path in two sections. You can follow the two sections on different occasions if you like.
• At intervals, the volunteer staff of the museum update and upgrade the Heritage Trail information boards and the Trail Guide, in order to incorporate changes to the town since the Trail was established.
• The Heritage Trail Guide can be accessed and downloaded from this page. Scroll down to the image of the Trail Guide below.
• Alternatively, for £2 you can buy a copy of the Trail Guide from the museum or from Horders in the High St.

The trail consists of three main elements:

A Trail with direction signs and plaques

The Trail is defined on the ground by bronze plaques incorporating a Trail Logo. These are set in the pavement and show the direction to follow. Along country footpaths they are set into wooden posts.

Please note: While the High Street is under reconstruction, some of the pavement plaques might not be available.

Until they are reinstated, please refer to the map to determine their approximate location and orientation.

The Trail Guide

The Heritage Trail Guide booklet gives detailed information about every stage of the Trail.

Key Sites Features

Selected key sites are enhanced by landscape features, designed to illustrate specific aspects of the town’s history. A bronze relief map of Thornbury was the last feature to be installed, in the High Street, and contains the Millennium time capsules, prepared by the schools of Thornbury in 2000.

We hope you enjoy the trail.

A 28-page Guide to the Thornbury Heritage Trail (updated for 2023)

Click here for the downloadable Heritage Trail Guide.

It’s packed with information  and we think you’ll  find something you didn’t know about Thornbury on almost every page.

Here is a map of the Trail route:

Click here to obtain a pdf version of the Trail Map, which you can print off at A4 size to accompany the Trail Guide.