The Cotswolds Way - June 2018

In the first few days of June we joined friends (Tim and Hilary Probert, Dave Vaughan and Angie Ott) for a few days of walking along the Cotswolds Way.  Our friends were actually walking the entire way (some 100 miles) but we only joined them for the last 60 or so miles, just 5 days of walking.

We had a nice AirBnB place in Chalford Hill near Stroud and our friends were staying in an adjacent village.  It was all very quaint and rural - lots of nice cottages and lots of narrow roads. The local Jurassic Oolitic Limestone which is used for nearly all of the buildings is very attractive.

Painswick at the start of our walk

The next morning we started our walk in Painswick, a nice town with a beautiful church.  It was very leisurely walking through beautiful countryside with the added bonus of glorious weather.  There was a fair bit of walking through woodlands (beach trees I imagine) on lovely shady trails. Then every now and then we would break out across open pastureland.

Stroudwater Canal at Ryeford

Near the village or Ryeford we joined the Stroudwater Canal and walked alongside it for a while.  We then headed across fields to the village of Selsey where there was a wonderful church, All Saints Selsey.  The church is not old for an English Church being built in 1862. It is of interest in its unusual tower design and in the fact that its stained glass windows were one of the first commissions of Morris and Co, with windows designed by William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rosetti among others.

All Saints, Selsey

After the church there was a climb up Selsey Common that provided wonderful views of the surrounding countryside.  We then walked on nice woodland trails to our destination for the day, the parking lot at Coaley Peak. The peak provides nice views down the edge to the valley below.  It also provides a launch site for paragliders. We had dinner in the evening at the Lamb Inn in Eastcombe.

Selsey Chirch from Selsey Common

The next morning we left our car at Coaley Peak and continued our walk.  After a couple of hours walking through countryside we entered the town of Dursley.  Dursley has a very nice town hall, a two story structure in the middle of town. It is also the home of the Lister Company, a company formed by R.A. Lister to manufacture agricultural equipment, primarily a cream separator, and later a very popular Diesel engine.  More walking in the afternoon with great views of the Severn Valley and the Severn Bridge in the far distance.

Town Hall, Dursley

Towards the end of the day we pass Tyndale’s Monument which sits on the hill above North Nibley.  We climbed up to the top. The monument was erected in 1866 and commemorates William Tyndale who grew up in the area (born in 1494).  Tyndale made the first translation of the New Testament into English and sadly this did not go down to well with the church. As a result of his translation he was burnt at the stake in present day Belgium in 1536.  You didn’t mess with the Catholic Church in those days.

Tyndale Monument, North Nibley

At the end of the day we walked into Wotton Under Edge where we had rooms at the Swan Hotel.  Wotton is a nice town that has not been spoiled by a large supermarket and so has lots of small shops.  We were joined by one more friend this evening, Dave Close from Austin, Texas.

The next morning, Monday, we left Wotton after purchasing a Lardy Cake from a local bakery.  The Lardy Cake is a south of England delicacy and as the name suggests there are lots of calories in a Lardy Cake (lard, flour, sugar and raisins being the main ingredients).  On the way out of town we visited the church in which two of our group, Tim and Hilary, were married so many, many years ago (they grew up and met in Wotton). Another nice church.

The Somerset Monument

Near the town of Hawkesbury Upton we passed by the Somerset Monument.  Another 100ft tower erected in 1846 to commemorate Robert Edward Henry Somerset, a General at the Battle of Waterloo.  I’m afraid we could not get access to this monument. We adjourned for lunch at a pub in nearby Hawkesbury.

A Folly built for the Swallows and Owls

In the afternoon we passed a very grand home and just below there was a small tower that looked like a folly attached to the old home but in fact was a more recent folly erected in 2000 as a nesting spot for swallows and owls.  A pretty impressive structure for birds and it was nice to see people care so much to so this.

We finished our walk for the day in Old Sodbury, another lovely village and that evening we were staying in The Black Horse in Nibley or more precisely North Nibley.  One would expect North Nibley and Nibley might be close, but they aren’t and an imprecise entry into Google Maps took us off in the wrong direction to Nibley. An hour’s diversion we didn’t need.  I won’t make that mistake again, if I am ever in one of the Nibleys.

Each morning and evening we did a car shuttle taking one car to the finish of the day’s walk in the morning and then driving back to the start and leaving a car there.  In the evening we did the reverse to pick up the car left at the start.

St John's Church, Old Sodbury

The next morning we started from Old Sodbury by walking through the church yard.  We looked inside what is St John the Baptist’s Church, Old Sodbury. A wonderful old church.  You could do a lot worse than spend a summer visiting English churches. It seems in the Cotswolds the churches are open to visitors unlike in my home town where the church is locked except when they are having services.  Vandals would probably invade the church in Staveley if it were open all hours - a shame.

A morning of more beautiful countryside, including passage by a fine estate with beautiful manicured grounds.  Though I didn’t know it at the time, this was Dodington Park, an estate built in the 18th century by a family who made their money in sugar in the West Indies.  The grounds we laid out by none other than Capability Brown. One wonders what inequities they turned their eye from making money in the West Indian sugar business.  The current owner of the house is James Dyson of vacuum cleaner fame.

At lunch time we enter the village of Tormarton just in time for the The Major’s Retreat pub to open.  While our shoes were not muddy at all, the landlord made us tie plastic bags around our feet to save the interior of his pub.  An eccentric landlord to say the least - he talked a lot but was quite inefficient in serving drinks.

Boot Protection in Tormarton

In the afternoon we walked through cornfields separated by beautiful new drystone walls.  These were quite a wonder to behold and we could not figure out why they would be rebuilt to such a high standard.  There were no grazing animals to keep out, just fields of wheat. We eventually came across a couple of stone masons building the walls and they revealed that it was still Dyson’s estate and that he was funding the very expensive program to rebuild old walls.  I believe they said they could each do 2 meters of wall a day and that they had a contract for 6 or 7 kilometers of wall.

Beautiful New Stone Walls

Later on that afternoon we walked by the back gates of Dyrham Hall.   Another fine stately home owned by the National Trust. We didn’t go in but the gardens and exterior looked very fine.

We finished the day’s walk in Cold Ashton and headed off to our lodging for the night at nearby Toghill Farm.  This was a farm that is still active but also now includes and series of modifications and extensions to the barns to provide bed and breakfast accommodations.

On our last day we were finishing in Bath.  Too big a town to park the car in for the day so we parked one car in a Park and Ride outside the town.  We walked through a Civil War battleground where there was much bloodshed in the day. The Battle of Lansdown in 1643.

The Crescent, Bath

We eventually came in sight of Bath and walked through the suburbs along a variety of trails and paths.  The route passed beneath the Georgian Crescent and into the town center, finishing in front of the Abbey.  

The Abbey, Bath

The crowds of people in Bath were a little too much for us so we didn't stay around too long.  A beautiful city but too crowded with tourists at this time of year.

There are some more photos here.