Wednesday 17 August 2016

Up in the Cotswalds

The last day we spent in Cornwall we headed over the border into Devon to see the Lydford Gorge, apparently the deepest gorge in southern England.  It is a very pleasant area with a stream that varies from a torrent through a narrow rock gut and circular bowls card intoe the rock to a series of placid ools in nice oak woodlands.  We took the short route which zigzagged down to the stream then followed it up to the series of falls and whirlpools.  At this point the path became a narrow ledge on the rockface and the branch to the innermost cavern becam a series of slick rock steps with no exterior handrail - a head for heights was required.  We were ging to follow this with a visit to the White Lady waterfall ar the other end of the gorge, but realised the walk would have been a bit much. Still a pleasant dsy out.

The next day we left the cottage and decided to drive across Exmoor on the way to Cheltenham on the western edge of the Cotswalds. Leaving Cornwall it was interesting how the countryside changed.  By comparison Cornwall had been slightly bleak with stone walls and a bit of rock in the hills and lower growing trees.  By the time we were in Somerset the contours were flatter and there were more lush woodlands.  Each county seems to have its own character even though iots hard to put your finger on the difference.  Once again we were frustrated by the English habit of hiding the countryside from the road so that the views are visible only in short bursts.. We stopped at a pub in the middle of Exmoor for lunch.  The moor itself, while a national park, is mostly farmed but I assume that there are wilder areas accessible by walking.. We passed a hunt in progress and the pub we stopped at was obviously firmly in the hunting stable with signs saying "Ban prejudice, keep on hunting.".

In Cheltenham we are in a small apartment (more a room with en-suite) over the garage of a very exclusive house, surrounded by cricket and other sporting fields. The owners are currently in Portugal so we are dealing with the housekeeper.

On the Sunday we visited the local preservation railway that runs from Toddington to Cheltenham.  They started the group in the 1980's after the line had been closed and lifted and it is impressive what they achieved since then with a run of around 30 miles, 5 stations, 3 complete rakes of carriages, 4 operational steam engins, a number of diesels and railcars and a huge collection of other rolling stock waiting restoration.  They have a staff of 900, all of whom apart from 3 are volunteers.

The next couple of days we started the round of some of the Cotswald villages, all of them a picture of warm honey coloured stone houses with the occasional thatched roof in  beautiful gentle rolling countryside.  At Tewkesbury we tourded a mediaeval house that is now the information centre and an exhibit of building restoration and local history.  We found that this had been the site of decisive battles in both the War of the Roses and the Civil War.  In one the then Prince of Wales was killed and ended up buried in the adjacent abbey.  The abbey church was sold to the town when Henry VIII abolished the abbey and it has been the parish church since them, apparently the largest in England.  It is certainly large with massive circular columns on either side of the nave.

Today we drove down to Cirencester which claims to be the capital of the Cotswalds.  The town is quite small and seems to have a fairly random layout, even though the Romans laid their town out in a rectangular grid.  After the Romans left the town seems to have been pretty deserted until the Normans established an abbey around 1100.  Again the abbey was demolished by Henry VIII but the church remained as the parish church. There is an excellent museum here covering the history of the area.  One of the outstanding features of the town is the patronage of the local earl who has donated his collection of historical artifacts to the museum which he supported and has opened the park of his manor (3,000 acres) as a public park for the townsfolk - the central avenue alone is over a mile long.

We have another 2 days in the Cotswalds before moving down to Kent.


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