Читать книгу The Cotswold Way - Kev Reynolds - Страница 12

STAGE 1

Chipping Campden to Stanton

Start	Chipping Campden
Finish	Stanton
Distance	10 miles (16km)
Approximate time	4–5hr
Maps	Harvey’s Cotswold Way 1:40,000, OS Landranger 151 Stratford-upon-Avon & Surrounding Area, and 150 Worcester, the Malverns & Surrounding Area 1:50,000. OS Explorer OL45 The Cotswolds 1:25,000.
Refreshments	Broadway and Stanton
Accommodation	Chipping Campden, Dover’s Hill (2 miles/3km), Broadway (6 miles/9.5km) and Stanton

On this initial stage of the walk you will experience the very essence of the Cotswolds, the mellow glory of its buildings and the enchantment of the breezy wolds with their extensive panoramas. Chipping Campden is surely the loveliest of all Cotswold market towns but even on this first stage there will be other places, other villages, similarly designed to slow the pace and distract with delights – Broadway is one, Stanton is another.

As soon as Campden’s streets are left behind, the route climbs onto the escarpment where Dover’s Hill rewards with a long view across the Vale of Evesham to the distant Malvern Hills. Breaking away from the scarp edge the way continues along what is known as the Mile Drive, over fields and across the A44 on Fish Hill to the base of Broadway Tower and more fine views. Broadway lies below the tower with field paths leading directly to it, thus allowing an opportunity to walk its famous street before returning to the hills again above Buckland. The continuing route takes you along the scarp edge on a clear track for a while, but on reaching Shenberrow Hill you leave the uplands once more and wander down through lush green meadows to the manicured perfection that is Stanton.

The walk begins or ends at the Parish Church of St James

The official start to the walk is by the Market Hall in Chipping Campden High Street, but it would be more satisfactory to begin at the Parish Church of St James, which is found at the north-eastern end of the town (grid ref: 155 395).

Leaving the church, and the gateway to the long-destroyed Campden House next to it, walk along Church Street passing a row of 17th-century almshouses on your right and a cart wash on the left. On reaching the High Street bear left, pausing as you walk along it to admire the numerous attractive features which make Campden such a delightful place.

BUILDINGS OF CHIPPING CAMPDEN

The elegance of Chipping Campden stems from the wool trade, for many of the finest buildings owe their existence directly to it. The open-sided Market Hall, built in 1627, is an eye-catching feature. Nearby is the 14th-century Woolstaplers’ Hall, which houses the town’s museum; opposite stands Grevel House, dating from 1380. William Grevel, whose home it was, has a large memorial brass in the parish church – reckoned to be one of the best examples of a Cotswold ‘wool church’.

Next to it stand the fanciful gateway and onion-topped lodges that mark the entrance to one-time Campden House, built by Sir Baptist Hicks for an unbelievable £29,000 in 1615. Thirty years later it was burned down by Royalist troops during the Civil War. Alongside Church Street, on a raised pavement, stands a row of attractive almshouses, also built by Hicks, at a cost of £1000, to house 12 of the local poor.

Passing Sheep Street, which breaks away to the left, continue ahead along Lower High Street, but leave this to take the first road on the right by St Catherine’s Roman Catholic Church. The road soon bears right, with Birdcage Walk and Hoo Lane branching left by a thatched cottage. Walk along Hoo Lane, and when the surfaced lane ends a farm track continues ahead, rising easily uphill. This is soon accompanied by a footpath, which begins by some barns and eventually brings you to Kincomb Lane. Bear left for about 100 metres, to find a signpost directing you across the road and between fields on an enclosed footpath.

The path leads to a kissing gate, through which you then turn left along the edge of the escarpment with views extending across the Vale of Evesham – the first of many fine panoramas to be enjoyed along the Cotswold Way. Some seats have been placed here, to make the most of the view, and one of these is found by a topograph marking Dover’s Hill. From here it is said that on a clear day you can see 60 miles (96km) across the Worcestershire Plain towards Wales. Nearby, in the corner of the meadow by a gate leading into a car park, there’s a memorial stone dedicated to Captain Robert Dover.

Owned by the National Trust, at 755ft (230m) Dover’s Hill is one of many fine vantage points along the Cotswold escarpment. It was named after Captain Robert Dover (1582–1652), a wealthy and somewhat eccentric lawyer who organised his first ‘Olympick Games’ there in 1612. The games included leapfrog, wrestling, skittles and ‘shin-kicking’, and apart from an interruption during the Civil War, the games continued annually until 1852. Dover’s Olympics were revived in 1951, and now take place each spring bank holiday.

Pass through the gate and cross the National Trust car park to a path which runs parallel with a country lane where you bear left, then wander downhill, passing through several gates, to a small crossroads. (Weston Park Farm B&B is a short distance to the west. Tel: 01386 840835 jane_whitehouse@hotmail.com) Now head to the right, once again following Kingcomb Lane towards Willersey and Broadway. (The left-hand grass verge is the safest place to walk here.) Along this stretch, half-hidden on the right on the edge of Weston Park Wood, is the Kiftsgate Stone, which marks the site of a Saxon meeting place. After about 400 metres leave the lane by way of a stone stile on the left next to a field gate. A few paces later bear right through a gap in a stone wall on the edge of a spinney. This brings you to the Mile Drive.

The Mile Drive is a broad, grassy avenue with views now to the left (south-east) into Tilbury Hollow. Halfway along it you cross a farm drive and continue ahead. At the far end go through a gap in a drystone wall on the right, then half-left across a field corner to a second wall. Continue in the same direction until you come to Buckle Street. Across the road the footpath maintains direction to reach a picnic area with a topograph just above the A44 on Fish Hill. At this point you leave Gloucestershire and briefly enter the county of Hereford and Worcester.

Turn left and descend through the picnic site to a car park. Keep ahead to a toilet block where you bear right, go through a gap in a stone wall and cross the A44 with care. Turn right along a tarmac road to pass a quarry, continue beyond a house on a track, and when this ends a footpath takes you into woodland. Emerge to meadowland gruffed with curious humps and hollows, which may be explained by the fact that the site was used as an Anglo-Saxon burial ground – in 1954 a number of human bones were exposed by a mechanical digger. Soon after bear half-left through a shallow cleave, or dry valley, with Broadway Tower seen rising ahead (grid ref: 114 362). Shortly before reaching the tower, you will gain a first view down to Broadway. Go through a gate and immediately turn right.

The top of Broadway Tower is said to be the highest point in the Cotswolds, at 1089ft (332m), although Cleeve Common claims the highest ground. Occupying a grassy knoll, it commands a tremendous panoramic view over the Vale of Evesham, with chequered fields below and the scarp edge folding away in a series of spurs and coombes as far as the eye can see.

Designed by James Wyatt in 1798 for the sixth Earl of Coventry, the tower is a Norman-style keep with three rounded turrets. Around it lies part of the Broadway Tower Country Park; the Tower Barn is about 150 years old, while Rookery Barn houses an information centre and restaurant.

At first enclosed by fences, the way then descends along the right-hand edge of a grassy slope, and through meadows linked by kissing gates, so to reach Broadway. As you come to the village bear left and walk along the main street heading west. In the heart of the village the street is flanked by red-flowering chestnut trees, and lined with shops, tearooms, hotels and houses of mellow stone. On coming to the village green, turn left into Church Street and wander past the Crown and Trumpet and the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels.

BROADWAY

A quintessential Cotswold village, with a wide street lined with handsome shops, houses and hotels – hence ‘broad way’. It is said to have been ‘discovered’ by William Morris, in whose wake came a number of Victorian artists to extend its fame. The village has a long history, but during the era of the stagecoach it grew in importance, providing accommodation and a change of horses in readiness for the steep haul up Fish Hill. Nowadays horses have been replaced by horsepower, and Broadway is at times a snarl of traffic amid a clutter of commerce.

Without traffic the village is a gem: wisteria-clad cottages, 17th-century almshouses, an avenue of red-flowering chestnut trees, a village green and two churches. The oldest of these is St Eadburgh’s, which dates from the 12th century, and the other is the Victorian church of St Michael and All Angels, passed on the way out.

Broadway has a wide range of shops, pubs, tea rooms and accommodation. Tourist information: Cotswold Court, The Green, Broadway 01386 852937.

Soon after passing the church turn right onto a track, then go beyond a few houses into the meadowland ahead. The path takes you over a footbridge and across another meadow to West End Lane, across which you have a choice of paths. The right-hand option leads to Buckland, but directly ahead the Cotswold Way goes through a gate and up an enclosed path into a sloping meadow. At the head of the slope enter Broadway Coppice, a woodland mixture of hazel, oak, birch and ash. The path winds on before emerging at a hilltop field. Now bear left along the field edge, and at the end go round the back of a stable-cum-barn, then right to join a track heading left. At this point you re-enter Gloucestershire.

The farm track takes you almost due south towards more wooded hills, before entering an untidy farmyard area. Bear right to follow a rough track going along the right-hand edge of a field, rising steadily and with tree-screened views soon showing into the valley off to your right, with Buckland nestling at the foot of the slope.

Continue on the track, passing through a field gate with a crown of trees half-left ahead, and walk below a lovely line of beeches to gain the crest of a ridge. Views open once more. To the left stands a handsome farm and a few barns. The ridge narrows considerably, green and rabbit-shorn, with grey drystone walls criss-crossing, the slopes bearing a mixture of scrub and grassland habitats.

In their season cowslips and early purple orchids paint the hillside with a flush of colour. Bullfinch and yellow hammer flit to and fro while jackdaws circle lazily over the topmost woods.

The track takes you past a region of hollows on the left; these are one-time quarries. About 200 metres later, immediately after a junction of tracks, bear right over a cattle grid and walk along a cart track which curves through a long meadowland, keeping near the scarp edge with the mixed woods of Long Hill Plantation on your right.

Coming to Shenberrow Hill (grid ref: 080 335) pass to the right of a farm, go through a field gate and descend to the right through a tight cleave (or dry valley) among trees.

Shenberrow Hill above Stanton is the site of an Iron Age hill fort of about 2½ acres (1 hectare). When it was excavated in 1935, various artefacts were revealed, among them pieces of pottery, a bronze bracelet and two bone needles.

Be warned that this ‘dry valley’ can be rather muddy in inclement weather. At the bottom of the cleave veer left, cross a stile, then descend along the right-hand side of meadowland. Before long bear right over a stile into an adjacent meadow and continue downhill towards a pond seen in a hollow. This is Stanton Reservoir, a pleasant corner giving a dazzle of light amidst the trees. Keep above the pond to the right, go through a gate and bear left to pass below its northern end. A track now leads down to Stanton (accommodation, refreshments), a glorious little village with almost-perfect cottages lining an almost-perfect street (grid ref: 070 342).

Stanton is recognised as ‘the perfect Cotswold village’ (photo: Lesley Williams)

STANTON

It has been called the perfect Cotswold village, and not without good reason. It is, in truth, almost too perfect, like a Hollywood director’s idea of a ‘quaint’ English village. In these days of bland architecture, insensitive development and myopic planning, Stanton very nearly jars with a sense of unreality! Its origins are simple. The village was basically a group of 16th-century cottages and farmhouses (Stanton, or Stan Tun, meaning ‘stony farm’) built from local stone in such a sympathetic manner that they seem to have grown straight out of the ground.

When Sir Philip Stott came to Stanton Court in 1906 he found the village rather neglected, and from then until his death in 1937 he spent much money and architectural talent on restoring it to the splendour we see today. Unlike Broadway, Stanton has not been overrun by the motor car, or by advertisements. As such one wanders through in a dream of past centuries.

For refreshments at the Mount Inn (food available 12–2pm), turn right when you reach the main street. B&B may be found at The Old Post House, Shenberrow Hill, Stanton Guildhouse and The Vine.

STAGE 2

Stanton to Winchcombe

Start	Stanton
Finish	Winchcombe
Distance	8 miles (12.5km)
Approximate time	3½–4hr
Maps	Harvey’s Cotswold Way 1:40,000, OS Landranger 150 Worcester, The Malverns & Surrounding Area 1:50,000, OS Explorer OL45 The Cotswolds 1:25,000.
Refreshments	Hailes and Winchcombe
Accommodation	Wood Stanway (2½ miles/4km), North Farmcote nr Hailes (6 miles/9.5km) and Winchcombe

Apart from the steep climb above Wood Stanway, this is an easy, gentle stage. It wanders through peaceful countryside with soft views to enjoy, not only from the scarp edge, but also from the foot of the slope, where you gaze off to isolated hills (outliers) such as Alderton Hill near Toddington, and Oxenton Hill north-west of Winchcombe.

A series of field paths leads the continuing way out of Stanton to Stanway, then along the foot of the slope to reach Wood Stanway from where a steep ascent is made to Stumps Cross. The only real climb on this part of the walk, it’s followed by an easy track (the ancient Campden Lane) to Beckbury Camp and Cromwell’s Clump, from where it is said Thomas Cromwell watched as Hailes Abbey was dismantled. Field paths take you to a narrow lane that leads beside orchards to the remains of Hailes Abbey (worth a visit), then across more fields to Winchcombe.

On entering the village street in Stanton, turn left and wander between honey-coloured cottages (note the medieval village cross halfway through), and bear left where the road forks shortly after passing the church. When it curves to the right, go straight ahead on a farm drive, and after about 80 metres pass a red, corrugated-iron Dutch barn, then bear right through a gate. The continuing footpath skirts the base of the hills, while off to your right spread the lowlands of the Vale of Evesham, broken here and there by groups of individual hills and distant green ridges topped by woodlands, a soft, gentle landscape to admire.

The Cotswold Way enters Stanway through Stanway Park

This is a fine, easy stretch of the walk, the path leading alongside meadows and finally bringing you to the parkland of Stanway House, where long avenues of stately oaks and chestnut trees throw welcome shade on a hot summer’s day. Across the parkland, guided by oak marker posts, come to a country lane (note the thatched cricket pavilion perched on staddle stones opposite). Bear left and walk into the hamlet of Stanway, noting on the way the huge tithe barn in the ground of Stanway House behind the church.

Stanway, or Church Stanway as it is also known, is even smaller than Stanton – a clutch of buildings in the shadow, so to speak, of the Jacobean manor, Stanway House. The village has an air of feudalism about it – the church, the houses, even the trees, appear to come under manorial patronage. In almost 1300 years’ ownership the manor has changed hands only once (except by inheritance), so perhaps it is not surprising that the community should appear so closely knit.

As well as the manor and 12th-century Church of St Peter (with much Victorian reconstruction), note the massive tithe barn, the three-storey Jacobean gatehouse with gables adorned with scallop-shell finials, and the 13th-century watermill that once belonged to the abbots of Tewkesbury.

The lane winds in front of the church and past the fanciful south gatehouse of Stanway House (grid ref: 061 323). A few paces beyond this you leave the lane by a large yew tree and turn left. A narrow footpath takes you left of a blacksmith’s workshop and the remains of a watermill, crosses a small meadow and brings you onto the B4077. Go left for about 40 metres, then head to the right on a continuation of the Cotswold Way along a path enclosed by a hedge and a fence containing a plantation.

This path soon entices across low-lying fields towards the hamlet of Wood Stanway. (Stanway, which you have just left, is sometimes known as Church Stanway to avoid confusion.) Behind and above the hamlet runs the Cotswold skyline on which you can see a line of individual trees. The route eventually angles up to the left-hand end of these.