Tag Archives: Cotswolds

July 7, 2017 · 5:11 am

Stanton (the Mount), Laverton, Buckland, Sezincote – The Cotswolds

THe Mount

It was surprisingly hot and sunny today as we set off on a three mile hike (found in an excellent guidebook “50 walks in the Cotswolds” lent to me by my friend Francine). Walk #8 goes through three perfect little villages, across fields and pastures between each, stepping over turnstiles and through kissing gates. After the hike, we had lunch at a picnic table at The Mount, a pub high on a hill overlooking the village of Stanton and the valley beyond and the hills. Good food and glorious landscape and free wifi which I needed, sadly, for an emergency with my dog back home. (We think she’s okay.)

Later we drove to a footpath near the bizarre country home Sezincote, which has Indian architectural touches including minarets and a big onion dome.

Looked like a cross between the Taj Mahal and Downton Abbey. Sort of. We also drove through Chipping Norton which was too big for our tastes and next time I’d like to check out the nearby village of Kingham (home to the posh pub, The wild rabbit).

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Broadway Tower, Lions Inn/Winchcombe, Guiting Power, Slaughters, Boulton-on-the-water – Cotswolds Day Two

More driving and strolling and talking and eating with my old friends from London, here in the Cotswolds. We have been on some tiny narrow roads, seen glorious views, visited charming villages and eaten good pub grub. We have also been lucky with the weather, which has been dry, cool, sunny in spells, lower 70s.

We encountered tourists in some of the bigger towns (Boulton-on-the-water) and attractions (Broadway Tower, a folly tower with great views of 16 counties) but most of the time we have been happily surprised by the lack of tourists, maybe because it’s a weekday and before kids’ school holidays. In Winchecombe, we had a lovely lunch in the garden behind the Lions Inn (a ploughmans although no one seems to call it that any more…now it’s a “cheese board”; creamy cauliflower soup) and walked along the bridal path in Lower Slaughter (a sentimental favorite of mine… first visited in the early 1980s and last visited with my kids in 2004 when I insisted we get out of the car and walk a little so we could “feel the Cotswolds.”); did more strolling in Bourton (with ice cream in hand). I prefer the less touristed, quieter villages like Guiting Power.

Old Sheepcoate cottage, Broadway, Russell’s – The Cotswolds!

We are all happily ensconced in a spacious cottage outside of the classic northern cotswolds village of Broadway, after a lovely day that began for me when I met Marion at Paddington station. We took a two hour train ride to Evesham. Merida came running towards us with outstretched arms on the platform and whisked us off in a spacious car driven by her husband Chip, who is unexpectedly joining our girls weekend which is just fine. He’s an Anglophile like us and good company and a good driver. Our original plan not to have a car was not wise. Tonight we drove on narrow lanes lined with trees or dry stone walls into one gorgeous little village after another with creamy yellow limestone homes with thatched roofs and lavender, roses, and hollyhocks climbing up the walls. (Stanton, Buckland, Snowshill!) I forgot how completely charming the English countryside is. In Broadway, we ate outside on a picnic table at a lovely place called Russell’s, eating fish and chips and drinking cider. Chip and I wandered around the famous Lygon Arms Hotel which dates back to the 1400s, with old timber beamed ceilings, dark stone floors, beveled glass in casement windows.

At one point, we pulled off a dirt road by a farm and parked beside a pasture where sheep were grazing, high above a valley with the sun setting over gentle hills and we just stood silent listening to the sheep and the birds and the wind and I felt incredibly lucky to be alive and to have England and these friends as a near constant for the past 35 years.