Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2006
Edit Blog Post
Ed:
After spending the last 3 weeks without travelling anywhere (care of KPMG keeping Matt extremely busy and stressed), a driving trip to Cotswolds for the weekend seemed like the perfect escape. For those who don’t know, the Cotswolds are quintessential England - one of the most picturesque regions, full of rolling hills and charming villages full of golden stone cottages. It’s the perfect romantic getaway.
So with an early start on Saturday, we headed out west of London, with map in one hand and a Lonely Planet guide on the other. Now, the Cotswolds covers quite a large area, so after making a rough itinerary we selected a few villages and decided on Lechlade-on-Thames as our first stop.
As we drove along, Matt noticed a White Horse symbol on the map, which he described as the English version of the Nazca lines, and single handedly determined our first detour. So after driving over a couple of pheasants (those birds are pretty but really, really stupid!) and trekking a vacant field in freezing winds, we get to this crappy chalk outline of what was supposed to be a white horse. This was no Nazca lines… it wasn’t even
White Horse
Supposedly there is an outline of a white horse behind me... a horse. It was some white stick figure that Matt assures me looks like a horse from the sky. Matt quickly relinquished any further detour rights!
Further on we finally got to Lechlade-on-Thames. Here I discovered Matt’s fascination with cobblestone bridges with ‘bubbling’ streams underneath. So ignoring St Lawrence’s church or Kelmscott Manor (once home to William Morris), I found myself staring at the trickle of the Thames and the bird-flu carrying ducks that were trained to scavenge tourist for a feed. Nonetheless, the town was a nice intro to the Cotswolds.
Next town was Burford, which was on a hill and the main road was squashed with antique stores and the occasional clothes boutique. For a cold day the town was really busy and we had to park practically on the outskirts of the town (near a cobblestone bridge with a stream, much to Matt’s delight). We ventured around and found a church with a towering steeple and a number of tombs scattered on the grounds. We also went to an antique bazaar (which we had to pay 50p to get in so I was not impressed… considering we just wanted to browse around).
Further on,
Lechlade-on-Thames
First of many bridges... we headed to Lower and Upper Slaughter. I know the name is a little gruesome, but this was in fact one of the most endearing little towns. It was like something out of Wind in the Willows. There was a flour mill with a rotating water wheel (lots of bubbling water for Matt there), and little stone cottages with thatched roofs, side walks along small canals and green pastures everywhere. It was just gorgeous; I could have spent the rest of the day there. All that was missing was a good book and picnic rug.
After being dragged away, we headed on to Bledington for lunch. We went to the Kings Head, a 16th century inn just outside Stow-on the-Wold. The food here was traditional English, so I had a beef pie and Matt had sausages and mash. Then on the advice of a local, we then headed on to Broad Camden and Chipping Camden. Again, more cute little towns with tiny chapels and terraced houses.
After further road kill (rabbits and yet more pheasants) we arrived at Broadway. This town was one of the biggest in Cotswolds. Our trusty guide suggested we check out the Church and
Burford
Matt on a bridge... then Broadway Tower on the hill. There was supposed to be a signposted walk from the church to the tower. However, we started off at the wrong church. Optimistic and adventurous Matt, who could see the Tower in the distance (and by distance I’m talking miles and mountains away) suggested we could make our own way and find the trail. So, much like Frodo and that other midget, we hiked across the countryside, facing cold winds, muddy meadows, angry cattle, smelly sheep and lots and lots of steep hills. After like what seem hours (Matt assures me we were only walking for 40 minutes) we arrived at Broadway Tower - an 18th century Gothic building that sat kinda awkward on the top of this hill. To our luck (insert sarcasm here), the entrance closed 10 minutes before we arrived. Oh well, it was pretty on the outside… and the hike back to the car was a lot quicker (was practically sliding into a massive ditch).
We then tried to beat sunset and headed to Painswick, which was described as a ‘Queen of the Cotswolds’. Luckily we got there with about 20 minutes of sunlight left and discovered it was
Burford
Edley sized door... actually unlike the other villages we had explored earlier in the day. The houses were still made of stone, but they were darker rock and the style was different (and no, it wasn’t because there was less light!). We checked out St Mary’s church, which is littered with yew trees (100 to be exact) which make it look like something out of Alice in Wonderland. It quickly got dark after that so we were not able to make it the rococo gardens (which are Loney Planet guide described as ‘stunning’ - Damn!).
We ended the evening in Lacock and spent the night in a 13th century Rectory (which was formally a vicarage). The décor was full of English antiques (including a really creaky bed!). After dinner at King Georges, we had an early night exhausted after all the walking and climbing.
The next morning we rose to a bright and sunny day. Turns out Lacock was established in 1232 and has maintained its pre industrial charm, and it’s been used as the setting for Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter! So that morning we explored the town, and the abbey and the local breadshops and inns.
From
Lower Slaughter
Cute(the canals) then on we headed south and after been advised to completely avoid Southampton we headed out towards Portsmouth via Salisbury. We passed by the New Forest (no ponies in sight), then we passed through Stonehenge, although having been there on our last trip we didn’t bother to stop. Before we got to Salisbury we stopped at Old Sarum, which are the ruins of an old castle and abbey which were taken down after a fight between the church and the state, and the stone was then used to build Salisbury Cathedral.
When we got to Portsmouth I’d wished someone had warned us to avoid it too. I guess after seeing so many cute villages, the port town looked like a cement city, very sterile and unwelcoming. We went straight to the port, and checked out a few of the war ships. We pretty much left as soon as we had arrived.
On the way back to London, Matt decided to make that pilgrimage all children make at some stage in their lives - to visit their parent’s fist home. So after waking up his mother at some ungodly hour for the address, we headed towards 61 Daux Lane,
Billingshurst. After an hour’s drive, and speaking to a few townsfolk, we found the street. So we walked up, Matt looked at it pensively for about 2 minutes, took a couple of photos, and then made our way back home.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0358s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
N & G
non-member comment
A Trip To Our Old Baronia Home ( 61)
Wow! another of your trips that would have taken at least a week condensed into just two days. It would have been beautifull in the summer, but it must have been great anyway. Where to next? The lighter evenings will soon arrive making touring much better. Thanks for the well written journal Ed.