I live down in cheltenham and after a lovely ride yesterday i was wondering if anyone knew of secret ways down off the hill back into cheltenham/prestbury?
The three that I know of end up in either muddy quagmires or muddy ditches – at almost any time of the year.
I don't want to go all the way back down on the road either!

Mill Lane.

which three routes do you know.

Mill lane tends to stay dry in most of the variations, there is a track parallel to mill lane that does get wet, Noverton lane gets wet but not muddy and is far harder, there is a track through the woods parallel to Noverton lane which gets muddy. Queens wood move along you don't want to do it, there is the track from the rising sun behind the houses which isn't too bad. There are more unusual routes off but they tend to head away from Cheltenham before turning to road for the final few miles.

Ok I mean 4 really as I count mill lane as road. If its more than 50% height loss on the road then that's what it is.

1) mill lane – largely road – 215m drop – ~120m on road
2) noverton lane – stream
3) other way from mill lane brings you down onto queenswood grove – muddy at the moment ok summer time
4) queens wood – I've heard its yuck and have only done it in the bone dry. from what I've heard I don't want to do it any other time!

Its not that I mind the mud – wore xc helmet and goggles yesterday as I knew I'd come across it. Its just the amount it slows you down by!

I was looking on the OS map at the bridleways down into gotherington? what is that hill like?

I presume its against the law to improve the condition of these by-ways yourself?

Are you refering to Nottingham Hill?
Track that splits left part way down, not bad, but
can be very bummpy, come out at Manor Farm.

Carrying straight on and comeing out near the railway station,
mud city or what.

Queens wood much better than it used to be. Still my favorite as it's offroad the whole way down= maximum MTB time. Canny line choice can mean you come home not too covered. Or a little bit of cheeky on the footpath through the field and you stay dry- but a little naughty.. 😆

Mill lane has 20seconds of fun followed by boring road run down.

Always interested to hear of new routes of the hill. The one behinds the houses is fun Watch out for dogs and nettles in the summer!

algore – behind the houses? what do you mean by that? you fancy showing me the best way down queenswood sometime? sounds like you know it well?

Yes Graham – I do mean Nottingham hill, sounds like I might try it one day but not in a rush.

Excuse the nerdy next bit.
I always thought the bridleway that lead to queenswood grove road had the greatest height drop but using the highly accurate mapmyride.com I've vaguely come up with:

Tree on cleeve* through queens wood – 1.65km travelled – 206m descent
Tree on cleeve* to queenswood grove – 1.75km – 195m descent
4×4/mx quarry to noverton lane – 1.4km – 185m descent
The top road near the radio masts to mill lane – 0.5km – 100m descent (but oh man is the top section full on!)

*Tree on cleeve is the one north east of the fort and has benches in a circle round it. As you can get a good bit of fun down from there I've added it in.

Think MrMo seems to knows Cleeve much better than me, he describes the path that comes back down behind the houses in his comments above.
Haven't ridden it since summer but it's a cheeky path which start near rising sun and essentially follows road the whole way down behind all the houses.
Queens wood- it's all about plenty of speed!

I am certainly no expert, and being scared of dogs, I don't experiment quite as much I would like. Always nervous that path/track will lead into farm with loose guard dogs! Silly but true! So new routes always happen when I can trick a friend into coming riding with me!

follows the road from the rising sun eh… google maps isn't giving many clues either.
maybe i'll give queenswood another go soon. no problem with getting speed for me. hitting noverton lane as fast as my bike can handle is all good for me.