The Cotswolds: Winchcombe

This B&B was so nice! And it dawned a lovely day, cool and somewhat overcast. Today's trek was 6.6 miles from Bourton on the Water to Guiting Power and then 5.9 miles to Winchcombe. We modified- after we took an unintentional detour all through Naunton, taking about 4 hours to Guiting Power and walking nearly 9 miles. Knowing we still had nearly half the prescribed walk ahead of us, and with lunch at the pub taking more than an hour, once again we'd be cutting it close to make our reservation window at the next lodging. Since we also wanted to see the Castle, with the same time constraints as the previous day, we opted to seek a taxi after lunch and go directly to Sudeley Castle, walking into Winchcombe from there. 

 Yes, the famed telephone booths do still exist. In the cities, like London, they are being converted to other uses, such as wifi hubs. But this one in Bourton was still a phone.

The trail markers we were following for much of this day. 

This was so therapeutic, walking these trails. 

Grassy verges, brambly hedges, and following tracks through fields to gateways and other fields. This day we even got a really nice trek through some woods. I liked this kind of field. We did see some cows, and these had horns, but thankfully they were on the other side of the fence from us so I didn't cause us a crisis. We had learned the difference between kissing gates and stiles and gates with their multitudes of different latches.

In the village of Naunton we took a wrong turn and had a detour completely through this beautiful area. We did it all backwards, but even managed to find the dovecote, something I hadn't seen before but which used to be common. Given that it was Saturday, there were also large numbers of walkers on the trails- apparently organized weekend walks are very common. And there was some kind of race too as a number of folks had number bibs. But this also meant that as we got lost (twice this morning) we had plenty of nice people to ask who were glad to help point us in the right direction. Once we got to Guiting Power, we visited St. Michael's and All Angels Church, a Saxon church renowned for this Norman arch. Guiting is an old term for a stream.  

After a really good lunch at the Hollow Bottom pub in Guiting Power, the pub gave us a lift down to the Castle. And how amazing it was! Sudeley Castle & Gardens are definitely worth the detour. It is a residence still, so isn't always open to the public, and it's also a mausoleum, where Queen Katherine Parr, King Henry VIII's sixth wife, is buried. 

Through the gatehouse to the gardens... 

And looking at the remains of King Richard III's (yes, him again) banquet hall. He didn't use it much or for long but was given this place while the Duke of Gloucester by his brother, Edward IV, and used it as his base for the battle of Tewkesbury.

Stunning. 

Some nice interpretation inside for kids in discussing the battles and attempts to take the castle. These stairwells are really narrow, and fighting in armor would have been very tough.

It's a nice self-guided tour as well, giving a good history of the English succession, the people who lived here (including Queen Anne, King Henry VIII, and Lady Jane Grey), textiles of the time (such as lace-making), and the history of the property over time. This knot garden contains hundreds of box hedges and a Moorish fountain at the center.

Yes, of course a cool door! 

And the Queens gardens, named because four queens (Anne Boleyn, Catherine Parr, Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I) visited here. There are actually nine gardens on the grounds. 

There's an herb walk which highlights medicinal plants used over the years, and even a Pheasantry, with sixteen rare and endangered birds that are part of a conservation and breeding program. Seriously. I also realized that I'd really never seen a pheasant before (this is a peacock). Apparently there's also an adventure playground with an assault course for the kids.

After, we cut through some more fields on our way into town. Winchcombe (that's winch-come) means bend in the valley. And it was our least favorite of all the towns we saw. It was larger and more commercial, but that wasn't it. Our lodging was a B&B, an old Georgian home that wasn't en suite as we'd been promised and had a lot of family staying there, but that wasn't it either. It just didn't have the same feel, the same quality that so far had characterized the other Cotswolds towns. 

But we went out to explore and have dinner. We opted for the Lion Inn where a large party cancellation worked to our advantage and we had a spectacular meal. This is where I tried sticky toffee pudding for the first time and realized two things: 1. It's actually a cake, and 2. It's amazingly good.

We did 12 miles again this day and again wondered how it's possible to do the whole walk and see anything along the way. The hills and fields of the Cotswolds were taking us about 30 minutes a mile, nearly double our usual walking mile times. Well, the next day we wanted to see Hailes Abbey and maybe visit the famed Winchcombe Pottery studio, so we figured we'd see how it played out.