Across the Cotswolds

Imagine lamb twins bleating as you walk by; buttercups and low white flowers strewn across the green fields; trees with white blossoms within each hedgerow; blue, purple and tall white flowers along each path, and fluffy white clouds against brilliant blue skies.  Well, we were there. 

The second loop walk from Stow-on-the-Wold took us across open fields, along stone walls, through very small towns with a stone buildings, and on small roads.  As someone said to us this morning, “It took a lot of rain to make it this green.”  But we were not here for the rain, and reaped all the pleasure of 3 days of sunshine.

Broadwell received its charter in 708 from Coenred, king of Mercia who granted the manor and its “appurtenances” to the Abbey of Evesham.  It was located along the Roman Fosse Way.  The stone church from Anglo-Saxon times was replaced after the Norman Conquest. When Henry VIII disbanded the Roman Catholic church in 1539, the Abbey of Evesham was disbanded, but the church building has been kept up over the years.  In the cemetery are graves marked by sarcophagus shaped like the bales of wool that generated the wealth for the deceased. 

We passed the Donnington Brewery – not open for visits, but supplying their 15 pubs scattered around the region as well as other pubs.  We also passed the spa cottages where they attempted to establish a spa culture hundreds of years ago.  Otherwise, there was the usual assortment of mills, former forges, bakeries, and farms.