There and Back

The 'Broadway Folly` was the brainchild of Capability Brown and designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Barbara, Countess of Coventry in 1798–1799. The tower was built on a beacon hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester — about 22 miles (35 km) away — and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. Indeed, the beacon could be seen clearly! Nowadays the tower is a great tourist attraction for the area. The view from the ground level near the tower. From the top it must be magnificent but having to book, and pay a small fortune, puts us off from going to the top. Mind you, the number of steps might have swayed us as well! On to the small village of Stanton and a look at its church of course. A view of the main street in Stanton and an individual house near the edge of the village. I just love these quaint and sleepy villages, this one being...

Chipping Campden High Street is one of the most beautiful in the Cotswolds. With a wealth of history and architecture mostly built in Cotswold stone, the High Street is riddled with history, heritage, and intrigue. It was laid out in this format by Hugh De Gondeville, a close friend of King Henry II, so that is around mid 12C. De Gondeville quickly realised that the town needed a market to improve revenues for the King. So having been granted the Charter by the King, he set about laying out the street in the burgage style you see today. ( A burgage was a town ("borough" or "burgh") rental property (to use modern terms), owned by a king or lord. The property usually, and distinctly, consisted of houses on a long and narrow plot of land) The word “Chipping” is derived from the anglo-saxon word “Chepping” meaning “market”. Hence, we find Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury etc. This was also the derivation for “Cheapside” the big market in London. Sir Baptist Hicks (1550...

With royal connections spanning a thousand years, Sudeley Castle has played a significant role in the turbulent and changing times of England’s past. Today Sudeley Castle remains the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within the grounds - Queen Katherine Parr, the last and surviving wife of King Henry VIII – who lived and died in the castle. Henry himself, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth I and Richard III have all played a part in Sudeley’s story. King Charles I found refuge here during the Civil War, when his nephew Prince Rupert established headquarters at the Castle. Following its ‘slighting’ on Cromwell’s orders at the end of the Civil War, Sudeley lay neglected and derelict for nearly 200 years. Then in 1837, Sudeley was rescued by the wealthy Worcester glove-makers, brothers John and William Dent, who began an ambitious restoration programme, which was continued by their nephew, John Coucher Dent, when he inherited the castle in 1855. His wife, Emm...

The three villages to visit today were in close proximity and just required judicial parking, and some walking - no problem, we thought! We aimed for Lower Slaughter, which was not a huge distance from Stow on the Wold, as our starting point. The village is built on both banks of the River Eye, a slow-moving stream crossed by two footbridges, which also flows through Upper Slaughter. There is a ford where the river widens in the village and several small stone footbridges join the two sides of the community. While the mill is built of red brick most of the 16th and 17th century homes in the village use Cotswold limestone and are adorned with mullioned windows and often with other embellishments such as projecting gables. The water fountain in the heart of the village The river Eye At the west end of the village there is a 19th-century  water mill  with an undershot  waterwheel  and a chimney for additional steam power. From here we headed across a field to Upper...