Relaxing in the Cotswolds

Contents

Manchester
Stanton
Cotswold Towns
Castles and Manor Houses
Walks in the Countryside

Last year Gordon and his friend Alan completed the 100 mile walk along the Cotswold Way (opens in a new window), and remarked on how beautiful the area was. JoAnn, when she saw the photographs, said, "I want to spend some time there". So we did.

Since we were flying into Manchester airport, we decided to first spend three days visiting Manchester. We booked a room at the Rampant Lion hotel. It was a pleasant enough hotel, but unfortunately we did not have a relaxing time (a story for another time). Of course, when a hotel called "Rampant Lion" features lions by its front door that are not rampant but sejant, what do you expect?

Suiting our mood at the time, the first thing we encountered in the city centre was a sculpture called "Adrift", by John Cassidy. Cassidy provided the following description: " Humanity adrift on the sea of life, depicting sorrows and dangers, hopes and fears ". That, we thought, was us.

Things looked up a little the day we visited the Museum of Science and Industry. The large museum is a source of fascinating information about the history of Manchester. It is housed in converted industrial buildings, including this early iron building. By way of contrast, the complex is situated almost next door to a very modernistic building.

Early aviation was represented by the Avro plane. An entire building was devoted to early steam engines, and daily demonstrations of their operation are presented.

One very informative demonstration involved a cotton mill of the kind that built the wealth of Manchester - for the owners that is. The mill rules from that time give a sense for how workers were treated. Just a slight hint of the working conditions, the noise and the toxic atmosphere, were provided by the machines that were demonstrated.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we left this depressing reminder of Manchester's early history, and finally managed to relax outside a pleasant pub in the Gay Village. Appropriately, the village is situated across the canal from a memorial to Alan Turing.

Gordon and Alan had remarked after their walk that one of the most beautiful villages in a region of beautiful towns and villages was Stanton. We found a cottage to rent there, the Old Cider Press, and that was where we spent the next two weeks.

The houses in Stanton are classic "chocolate box" cottages (as Gordon's sister Bunty calls them). On weekdays many seem to be unoccupied, and the streets are quite empty. Whatever traffic passes by is mostly horses. During rush hour there might be two horses. On weekends, Stanton fills up and the streets are full of cars, but there is still no such thing as hustle or bustle.

At each end of the main street is a small green. Along the street one finds elegant houses, some of them thatched (once a sign of poverty, now a sign of affluence). Some of the houses seemed to hide interesting histories, like this one with piles of old manuscripts in the window.

Here was a place where we could relax and recover from the stress of our Manchester trip. From the street, our cottage looked like a barn, which was what it had been originally. The barn had been converted, though, into three lovely cottages, each with its own entrance and garden.

Half way along the main street is the war memorial. From here a narrow lane leads to St Michael's church. It is a small, simple church dating to the 9th century, although the oldest part of the present building is Norman, from the 12th centruy.

As befits the bucolic setting, one evening a cricket match took place involving local teams, and we stopped by for a while to observe the action.

The only pub in Stanton is The Mount. It has stood just outside the village for 400 years, and fortunately is an excellent pub with a fine restaurant. We ate dinner there a number of times, and enjoyed the view over the village and the Vale of Evesham beyond.

There was one other highlight of our stay in Stanton. Last year Gordon and Alan had failed in their search for the Cotswold Lion, a rare breed of sheep that can be found in a few places. We discovered that the family that sold eggs in the village raised Cotswold Lions, so we were able to make close acquaintance with them.

Stanton is a very small village (only one street, about 600 yards long). Almost the only way to spend money there is to buy eggs at the farm where the Cotswold Lions are raised, or buy food or drink at The Mount. The closest place of any size where one can do shopping is Broadway, which is either a small town or large village.

Broadway is a delightful place to explore. Several shops are clustered around the Broadway green. Others are spread out along the main street. Even on a rainy day, one has a pleasant view from the windows of the Broadway Deli, a combined shop and restaurant.

Outside one elegant Broadway hotel, the Lygon Arms, was an equally elegant hare. It turned out to be one of several distributed through the Cotswolds as part of the Cirencester March Hare Festival.

Chipping Campden is a larger town not far away. We spent one day there and visited St James church. The church was a site for part of the Chipping Campden music festival. There was no concert scheduled for the time we were there, but a piano tuner was preparing for it.

A town that is often featured as one of the top sights in the Cotswolds is Bourton-on-the-Water (perhaps the more words there are in the name, the more attractive a town is assumed to be). Together with Gordon's sister Bunty, who was staying with us for a few days, we visited Bourton, but found it suffered from excess popularity - too many tourists. We did, though, enjoy exploring one of its best known attractions, the model village, a realistic copy of the town centre featuring beautifully crafted realistic models.

There was a model of the Old New Inn - oops, no, that's the real thing; this is the model of the Old New Inn. And, of course, there was a model of the building where the model village is displayed (yellow arrow), with a model of the model village itself. The model of the model included a model of the model of the building housing the model (blue arrow), and a model of the model of the model of the model as part of that (red arrow), and so on. Dizzying!

Stowe-on-the-Wold is another Cotswold town with a four-part name. We visited briefly to check out the horse fair, where "travellers" (gypsies) showed off their horses. It was something a little different.

Two towns that we found very attractive were the Slaughters, a name that derives from the old English "slohtre", meaning swamp or muddy place.

Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter are situated beside a beautiful stream. The origin of the names became clear when we followed a group of hikers along that stream. Even so, we found the towns to be well worth exploring, and we enjoyed the mill building in Lower Slaughter.

We spent one day in the major city of Gloucester. We visited the old harbour, but the primary attraction for us was Gloucester cathedral, which has an unusual history.

The cathedral began as an abbey founded in the 7th century. It remained as an abbey until the time of Henry VIII who, rather than destroying it as he did almost all other abbeys, turned it into a cathedral. The interior is built around a massive Norman nave. Especially noteworthy is the roof of the cloisters, the earliest, and still one of the finest examples of fan vaulting.

Scattered throughout the Cotswolds are numerous castles, manor houses, and stately homes. We visited two that we thought well worth seeing.

Snowshill is a small village a few miles from Stanton. We spent one afternoon at Snowshill Manor, a large house just outside the village. The manor includes very attractive gardens, but it is the interior that is unique.

Snowshill Manor was owned for many years by Charles Wade, an eccentric artist and collector who filled the house with an astonishing collection of more than 22,000 beautiful and strange objects. He filled the house this way, and chose to live in a small gardner's cottage.

Wade wanted his collection to celebrate excellence in craftsmanship. Many of the objects came from the far east, including a collection of armor worn by Japanese troops.

Leaving the rooms contaning treasures from the east, one might visit the music room, filled with interesting instruments. These included a couple of serpents (descended from the cornett, and distantly related to the tuba). Although made mostly of wood, with holes rather than valves, the serpent is usually considered to be a member of the brass. It is rarely used these days, perhaps for reasons suggested by Gerard Hoffnung.

In the attic is a large collection of old bicycles, including a dozen or so penny farthings. In the next room is a vertical pendulum clock, time indicated by a weight that drops beside the scale of hours.

Rather less exotic than Snowshill Manor, but with its own charms, was Sudeley Castle. Some parts of the castle are over 1,000 years old. In that time the castle has witnessed much of English history. The Queen's Gardens, for example, have been enjoyed by four queens of England, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Parr, Lady Jane Grey and Elizabeth I. Katherine Parr is buried on the castle grounds.

One unusual attraction of the castle is the pheasantry, located in the castle grounds, which contains a large collection of colorful pheasants from all over the world.

A network of public rights-of-way makes the Cotswolds ideal walking country. Unfortunately, JoAnn was plagued by a bad ankle, and her walking was very limited.

She did manage to take a few walks that took advantage of the most beautiful scenery. Cleeve Common is an extensive stretch of common land not far from Stanton. It sits astride the Cotswold hills and offers expansive views of the countryside.

Once or twice Gordon took a longer walk. One was a circular route from Stanton to Stanway to Snowshill to Broadway and back to Stanton. The first mile or so of the trail passed through fields containing magnificent trees and old barns.

The route led past Snowshill Manor to Snowshill, a charming village, and near Snowshill was a patch of woods where the wild flowers were in full bloom. Further along, the trail passes through hawthorne bushes that were blooming profusely.

Along the way there were several geocaches hidden beside the trail. Only one problem arose on the walk. Trails in the Cotswolds are generally well sign posted, but at one intersection the signs were most confusing. Of course, Gordon went the wrong way for a while.

May is peak lambing time for the local farms, and young lambs had a penchant for adopting photogenic poses. Later in the day seemed to be supper time. With hedge rows in full bloom, a walk provided endless delightful scenes.

In one field there were a number of more unusual sheep, like these chocolate colored ones. And sheep were not the only livestock along the way. Horses too were grazing in meadows full of buttercups.

Where the trail passes above Broadway it affords beautiful views of the Vale of Evesham, before returning the Stanton through fields beyond St. Michael's church.

By the end of our stay we were sufficiently rested to head back home (in JoAnn's case), or join Alan for another long walk for Gordon (opens in a new window).

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