Back from Cirencester

I caught the bus to Stratton Post Office, just North of Cirencester this morning, with the aim of walking back home from there. In the end, I cheated somehat, by descending from Crickley Hill Country Park to Little Shurdington, and catching the bus back from there. But it was still a reasonable workout in preparation for Spain - 14 miles/22.5 kms. Even though I carried very little, I'm exhausted this evening! Am I mad, planning to walk this distance every day for three weeks? Probably.

It couldn't have been a better day for a long walk - sunshine and practically no wind. The first half was much the more beautiful: I visited five wonderful Cotswold churches as I walked up the Duntisbourne valley - dedicated to St Peter, Holy Rood, St Michael, St Peter again and St Bartholomew. Though there's no church in Middle Duntisbourne, this picture of the hamlet with its lake seems to me to capture the spirit of today's walk.

Until I reached the doggy domain of the Country Park, I saw not a single other walker. And spoke to just two men - almost the only people I saw in the Duntisbourne valley: one was a 74-year-old, working on his allotment, the other, 78, scooted up on his electric power-assisted bike whilst I was eating my sandwiches, to clear out the area round a spring, till 1954 (he told me) that village's water supply.

Winter walking

Fed up with staying inside to assuage my sinusitis, I accepted a lift to near Ullenwood this morning, and walked the couple of miles home. The Today programme had reports of an early Spring, but it wasn't much in evidence on Crickley Hill, above the snow line.

Over this short distance, there is an interesting variety of trees and terrain. Old beeches stand in amongst the new planting in the Country Park, and in the National Trust land along the Cotswold edge. Then, as you approach Greenway Lane, there's a large stand of fir trees. And crossing over to The Crippets, former home of the ill-fated scientist Edward Wilson, you enter a world of oak (and Jacob sheep), before coming in amongst rather sad old orchard land near Leckhampton Church. Only in the last quarter mile did I hit tarmac.

The Gloucestershire Way

Yesterday, I set out to fulfil a New Year's Resolution: to walk the Gloucestershire Way. I shall leave the more remote bits till later in the year. It was easiest to start near home, from Crickley Hill.

The photograph was taken looking back North-Westwards at the Hill, across the A417. It must be the most hazardous crossing on all the 100-mile route: three lanes of traffic without any central reservation. But walk for five minutes up and away from the road and - noise apart - you are in the most glorious landscape: on a day like yesterday especially.

You couldn't find a better example of Cotswold walling than here at Coberley, supporting the garden of the former Rectory, a couple of miles down the Gloucestershire Way from Crickley Hill.

The church is certainly in need of a signpost: you can't see it at all from the village road. You approach it through a gate in a house wall, leading to a garden path. It's what Pevsner calls "the shadow of an outer courtyard of Coberley Court (demolished 1790)." The church contains some handsome 14th Century memorials, but was more or less entirely rebuilt 500 years later. Apart from its situation, it's not one of my favourite buildings though it feels much loved and cared for.



Pevsner seems to have missed the rather mysterious face in the farmhouse wall high above the entrance to the church from the road.

Sight but sore ears

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This morning, with the mist clearing, I went with Caroline (and Rosie) up to Crickley Hill. Having parked the car, we walked South: this photograph was taken at the Park's noisiest extremity, with traffic on the A417(T) roaring away below us; and yet it is the most peaceful of scenes. For the deaf, Crickley must be a haven!

After our cold and stormy spell last week, it was warm enough for shirt sleeves, though the oak and beech are already beginning to turn in the huge old wood above the cricket field. Gloucester Cathedral stood out clearly from the hill fort, as did the C&G head office at Barnwood: there will be many working there today, who are nervous about their future job prospects: Lloyds TSB surely won't want to keep two large building societies in parallel.