The Cotswolds Are Done

Friday 8 September 2017

Casual start to the day this morning and wandered down to brekky at around 8am. Sorted the hunger pangs and jumped into the trusty Vauxhall for a short drive to Moreton In Marsh to do a spot of laundry.  Must say the laundrette was the cleanest and tidiest we have ever been in. Forty five minutes later two placky bags of clean clothes were put in the boot and off we went on the day’s journey.

First stop was the Chedworth Roman Ruins which were very interesting. They were discovered by a lord’s game keeper in the 1850’s. His boss assembled some ‘willing’ helpers and they cleared the forest and found more ruins. By this stage the lord thought righto I had better preserve this for the future but I really want a hunting lodge. Well the hunting lodge obviously had priority over some old rocks so that was built but it doesn’t interfere too much with Roman rocks. He or his descendents eventually handed it over to the National Trust and they went about investigating the site. They knew there must have been some good stuff here but they couldn’t afford to really explore it. Some of it was unearthed and crikey did they find some good stuff. A heap of mosaic tiles laid in some very interesting pictures and an assortment of artefacts like jewellery, tools, pots etc was unearthed.

Well just as we entered the shooting lodge that the lord built and has been turned into a small museum it started to rain. It bucketed down and we had to make a run for the visitors centre before huge puddles appeared that we couldn’t jump across. Eventually we made it back and Larry trudged off down to the car in driving rain and brought it up to the front door so Lady Jenny could leave the visitors as elegantly as possible with only a few drops of water finding her coiffured hair.

Off we went down the very water logged country lanes that really could not cope with that much rain in a short period of time to the village of Bibury where Jenny reminisced about a lunch she partook in 20 years ago. We found the pub, the Catherine Wheel, and got out of the rain and an enjoyable lunch of soup and a sandwich was disposed of.

Next port of call was the other side of Bibury where the Arlington row of houses is located. Very busy but we found a park and the houses were in a row and looking fine.  We even spotted a trout in the stream which is the other thing Bibury is famous for.

Into the car again and off to Bourton-on-the-Water to check out the miniature town and other stuff. The town was small but there were a lot of interesting shops with a lot of humorous items. Picked up a couple of souvenirs and enjoyed the pretty little town. Very touristy so into the silver flash and off to the Slaughters for a look see.  We do like a spot of back road driving and we happened across some fabulous villages, houses and manor homes.  

We then decided to head to Hidcote Manor to look at the gardens hoping that we had seen the worst of the weather.  Obligingly it stayed sunny where we were but there were black thunder clouds all around.  Hidcote had also been well watered and you had to watch where you stepped in terms of puddles but it is quite remarkable what Larry the gardener (Lawrence Johnston) achieved, he obviously had a vision and a plan and he pretty much carried it out. Larry the tourist is no gardener but even he can appreciate what was achieved, the gardens are a sight to see. All this walking made us a bit hungry so we had a cuppa and some cake and our health was restored.

After a full day, time to steer the Insignia back to Chipping-Campden and rest up for an hour before wandering down the road to a pub for dinner.   Well, Larry lay on the bed but Jenny did a quick planning tour of the residential areas of Chipping Campden – maybe we can now claim the trip as a tax deduction!

Dinner was a Cotswold game casserole for Jenny and crumbed salmon for Larry washed down with a pint of Carlsberg and a red wine at the Noel Arms.