Poetry, Produce and Perambulations In The Cotswolds

Another weekend, another good forecast, and another in what is rapidly becoming a series of walks-we-have-done-before-but-in-other-seasons.

This time we headed for the Cotswolds, and a spin round the villages of Daylesford, Lower Oddington, Adlestrop and Chastleton. We had first done this circuit last November, on a crisp, frosty morning bathed in bright sunshine, and had enjoyed it so much that it immediately joined our roster of “regular” walks, ie: those that you can go and have a great time doing anytime of the year, whatever the weather, with great views and plenty of points of interest along the way. A “classic”, if you will.

With route finding honed and the rough edges now polished, the circuit comes in at 8.75 miles, with little other than gentle ascent and descent involved. Details of the original attempt can be found:

HERE

Today’s weather was much more of the late summer/early autumn variety: bright blue skies filled with white fluffy cloud predominated, with the temperature settling somewhere around the mid-teens of Centigrade. It was nigh on perfect, and far too good an opportunity to miss.

In the grounds of Daylesford Hall

We set off across the grounds of Daylesford Hall to the accompaniment of a helicopter landing somewhere close by. As mentioned in the last report, the farms hereabouts are not your usual scruffy muck-holes. It’s often said, “Where there’s muck there’s brass”. In these parts the muck comes from horses, and instead of covering the farmyard it’s on the fields fertilising the crops. Horses and organics: looks like there’s plenty of brass in that!

Huge "horses head" sculpture. Because they can, I suppose ...

Leaving the estate, we passed the Daylesford Organics farm shop, and picked up a route past St Nicholas Church towards the twin villages of Upper and Lower Oddington. 

Looking back over the Daylesford estate

St Nicholas Church

A spell of road walking followed, but in these quintessentially Cotswold, chocolate-boxy villages there is much to look at and enjoy. And, if your timing is right and you are thusly inclined, there are two pubs offering drinks and lunches to take advantage of.

Approaching Adlestrop

We approached Adlestrop across the estate grounds, and climbed gently into the village via a tree-lined track. We stopped at the church for lunch and a good look round. Of course, Adlestrop is immortalised in Edward Thomas’ poem of the same name (see previous report), but it is the name, the (now defunct) station and the surrounding countryside that is remembered, rather than the village – which is a shame, as it’s a fine village, typical of the area, and with some fine houses.

Adlestrop churchyard: dark clouds brewing

Crossing the fields towards Chastleton, we stopped to pick blackberries. This year we’ve found brambles weighed down with fruit, but much of it seems destined not to ripen. So we took advantage where we could, and filled our empty sandwich box to brimming.

All through the morning the cloud had been building. Whilst ahead of us the blue sky/white cloud combo suggested waterproofs might not be required, behind us dark skies told a different story.

By the time we reached Chastleton, it was time to don jackets. The last mile or so was a wet affair, but it didn’t dampen our spirits. Whether this weekend marks the last throes of summer or signals the fledgling days of autumn, it doesn’t matter – in truth, we were just happy to be out.

After the walk, we popped in to Daylesford Organics for a bit of food shopping. Make no mistake: this is not your average farm shop. Besides the usual organic fare – meats, vegetables, etc, - there are a variety of organic drinks (including beer and cider) plus a range of breads and cheeses too. Expensive it may be, but is it worth it? One bite of Adlestrop cheese on Spelt Sourdough bread tells me it is!

Like with this walk, sometimes simple and uncomplicated things are the best.

Daylesford, The Oddingtons, Adlestrop & Chastleton – approx 9.16 miles

Sunday November 18th 2012

Map: OS Explorer OL45 – The Cotswolds

A436 Parking – Diamond Way (S) – Daylesford Hall Farm – Daylesford – Upper Oddington – Lower Oddington – A436 – Adlestrop – Macmillan Way (N) – Chastleton – Adlestrop Hill – A436 Parking

As mid-November mornings go, they don’t get much better than this. A damp and drizzly Saturday afternoon had given way to a clear, cold night, followed by a bright, lightly frosted Sunday morning. Parking on the verge beside the busy A436, it was already clear that today could be something rather special ….

Such reward was, of course, entirely justified. Around this time of year it is our practice book a weekend away with the aim of mixing a bit of shopping (for you-know-what: the festival that dare not speak it’s name – at least until December) with a bit of walking (as a kind of emotional ballast).

Last year we chose Ludlow in Shropshire, and mitigated the purgatory with walks over Harley's Mountain and the Long Mynd. This year, by way of a change, we opted for the Cotswolds – only about 90 minutes away – basing ourselves in Stow-On-The-Wold, that pretty paragon of particularly pointless present purchasing possibilities so perfect for you-know-what. No, I’m not taking the pee: it’s actually quite a good place to find all those nick-knacks, house wares and crafty-type things of little real value and no actual use deemed so essential at this time of year.

Leaving the road, we took the Diamond Way into the estate of Daylesford House, heading first southeast before turning southwest at Daylesford Hall Farm. A “farm” it maybe, but – as you can see – it’s a million miles away from the rotting machinery and six-inches-of-shit found at your typical Pennine hillside hacienda. As we passed through the estate, we were glad to be offered this helpful advice: just think, we could’ve made a costly error had we not opted to use the car this weekend.

Continuing on the Diamond Way, we soon passed the Daylesford Organics farm shop. The estate produces a lot of it’s own high quality, organic meat, dairy produce, fruit and vegetables, sold via the farm shop and restaurant, and there are also lots of crafts and gifts as well. It’s very nice, but doesn’t really cater for walkers, muddy or otherwise.

So we trundled on, leaving the Diamond Way to follow a mix of tracks and field paths towards Upper Oddington. In the glorious sunshine, it was hard to imagine that only yesterday we had walked a gloomy, drizzle-soaked 6-mile circuit from Stow (taking in the villages of Upper Swell, Lower Swell and Maugersbury) and banished the evening cold with a couple of leisurely drinks beside an open fire.

On a narrow lane just outside the villages of Upper and Lower Oddington the church of St. Nicholas sits amongst mature trees. It’s quite an impressive structure – as are many of the buildings in these parts – but is hard to photograph. So we passed by and picked up the Macmillan Way into Upper Oddington, past a horse with an underdeveloped sense of personal space, before back tracking slightly to reach Lower Oddington. Both are quintessentially Cotswold villages, and both have a pub. Unfortunately for us, we were way too early for lunch.

Across the A436 we entered Adlestrop Park. A gentle rise through well laid out grounds soon brought us to the village. Sitting on a bench beside the church of St. Mary Magdalene, we were taking a coffee break when we got chatting to a man who, every Sunday, tends to the church bells, and who let us in for a look round. It’s quite a big church for a small village, with some nice stained glass and a bit of history as well.

Adlestrop, it turns out, is immortalised by Edward Thomas’s wonderful poem of the same name (reproduced below).

Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop --

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop – only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Edward Thomas 1878 - 1917

It’s easy to form a picture of the hot, still afternoon and the quiet waiting disturbed only by the collective bird song, a perfect pastoral moment. More poignant still, the journey described was undertaken just before the outbreak of WW1, during which Thomas would be killed in action, aged just 39. With our visit being only a week after Remembrance Sunday it was doubly moving. The station may be long gone (falling to Dr. Beeching’s axe) but the memory – through the poem – lives on.

In thoughtful mood, we picked up the path heading northwards along the flanks of Adlestrop Hill. It was a glorious afternoon, with clear blue skies and a little warmth from the sun seeping through.

We passed this unusual tree: I’ve no idea what type it is, but in the sunlight the strong colour stood out.

At the brow of the hill, views opened up to the hills and vales of the main block of the Cotswold Hills. These villages lie on the north-eastern fringe of the area, with the majority of the AONB spreading away to the west and south.

We were now approaching the fifth village of the day, Chastleton: another small agglomeration of fine houses, topiary hedges and rarefied atmosphere. One of the houses – Chastleton House – is a National Trust property, open to the public (but only in the summer months).

A second coffee stop beckoned, so we sat on a bench overlooking the house and grounds whilst enjoying a warm drink.

Soon, it was time to move on. A short spell of road walking was followed by a cut through woodland to join a field path for the last three-quarters-of-a-mile back to the road. Despite the sunshine, shaded areas were still carrying traces of frost – ideal for the cleaning up of dirty boots.

The Cotswolds is a much-maligned walking area, being considered too twee, too “posh” and rather tame by some. It has a not-entirely unjustified reputation for unfriendliness towards walkers and parts can be very muddy, especially in the winter. And true, you are more likely to find walks for the area described in Country Walking than in Trek & Mountain.

But it is still an undeniably beautiful part of the country, if a bit snooty and chocolate-box-y in places. There is plenty of good walking to be found, and we shall definitely do this circuit again.

A Wet Wolds Wander (12/8/12)

A photo-lite trip report this time – I forgot to take my camera!

Like millions of other Brits, we have spent much of the last couple of weeks mesmerised by the goings-on at London 2012. Although we had been grumpily underwhelmed by the prospect in the weeks, months and years prior to the opening ceremony, come the day we caved in and got hooked by stories emanating from the Olympic Park and elsewhere.

But despite the obvious success of Team GB, by last weekend it seemed the time had come to get out and do a bit of exercise again for ourselves, having contented ourselves with most local potters in recent weeks.

So, with a decent forecast predicted, we packed lunch and a minimum of gear into the car and headed for the Cotswolds. It had been a fair while since our previous visit, so we were happy to settle for an old favourite circuit from the pretty village of Guiting Power.

Now I know many people consider the Cotswolds to be little more than a countryside theme park of chocolate-box villages for the minor aristocracy, “get-off-my-land” media-types, and writers of middle class angst novels; the air rich with the pervasive whiff of money, privilege and horseshit. But despite these obvious attractions, look carefully and there is still an undeniably beautiful landscape of wooded hillsides, long ridges and clear streams waiting to be explored.

Although perhaps less suited to the hill-walker or backpacker, the Cotswolds is an area buzzing with opportunities for the day walker and LDP-er. Besides the eponymous Cotswold Way, within a 3-mile radius of Stow-on-the-Wold alone there are no fewer than 9 other waymarked LDPs with a huge variety of length, difficulty and theme on offer – the Wardens Way, the Windrush Way, The Diamond Way, the Gloucestershire Way, the Gustav Holst Way, the Oxfordshire Way, the Monarch’s Way, the Macmillan Way and the Heart Of England Way – let alone the web of interconnecting paths yet to be “Way-ified”. Phew!

Anyhow: with our circuit chosen and our rucksacks packed, we headed off under a disconcertingly grey sky. Despite a reasonable spell of weather and an encouraging forecast, the promised early morning sunshine had faded, and before we had crossed more than a couple of fields, spots of rain began to fall. Weather forecasting appears to have much in common with the investment industry: past performance being no guarantee of future outcomes.

Over the next half an hour, a steady drizzle set in, and we took an early lunch in case conditions worsened. Which they did, and for the next 90 minutes we trudged along – happily enough, immersed in our own thoughts – through full-on rain, occasionally distracting ourselves from soggy discomfort by discussing the performance or otherwise of our current crop of summer gear (of which more in a future post!).

In the end we decided to cut down our planned 13-mile route, taking a shortcut along metalled lanes to lop off around 3 miles of walking. Of course, at this point, the rain relented slightly – but not altogether, as a final soaking just before getting back to the car demonstrated.

So, not quite the sunny ramble we had envisaged. However, in spite of the soaking we had enjoyed our outing, although it was a relief to shed our sodden rucksacks, jackets and boots when we got back to the car.

One important lesson we did learn, though: being out in the rain can be quite enjoyable – but it helps if you have a bit of decent gear to keep the elements at bay!