Since Angela and I were tied up all day Thursday working and the forecast for today was to be sunny, we decided to make the most of it by walking the Heart of England Way to Blockley. This village is about a 3.5-mile walk northwest of Moreton in Marsh. The reason today's blog has the title it does is because Blockley is where the BBC films its television series, Father Brown. Set in the typical English village during World War II, Father Brown is the Parish Priest who solves mysteries including murder. It stars Mark Williams, better known as the father of Harry Potter's best friend, Ron Weasley.
Ironically, when we were first told about the flat we're in, we found out that it had been occupied by someone from the BBC prior to our arrival. We later found out from our landlord that in fact one of the stars of Father Brown, Sorcha Cusack, lived in this flat while she was filming the latest series of the show. Ms Cusack plays the role of Mrs. McCarthy and she is also the sister-in-law of Jeremy Irons.
The Heart of England Way (HoEW) is a 100 mile walk that starts in Bourton-on-the-Water and winds its way northward through the Cotswolds to Milford. A short walk along the Monarch Way westerly out of MiM took us back toward Bourton-on-the-Hill (not to be confused with Bourton-on-the Water) where it meets up with the HoEW. At this point one has a wonderful view of Bourton's church which on a day like today shone vivid through the surrounding green countryside. The walk itself requires traversing up this same hill to its highest point (250 meters above sea level), although at that point on the trail you are into the woods that runs adjacent to the Batsford Estate (more on that later). Eventually we emerged on the other side of the hill and were able to look down upon the village of Blockley.
Blockley was once home for a number of wool mills, but with the decline of that industry many of the mills converted into silk mills to provide silk for ribbons manufactured in Coventry. The silk mills no longer exist, but one company that remains in the village is a manufacturer of custom motorcycle side-cars and their claim to fame is that they built a number of them for use in the Harry Potter film, Deathly Hollows-Part 1.
It has become quite the tourist location and when we walked into the village you can tell that it not only caters to tourists (some nice inns and pubs, and a local store and cafe that were pretty nice for a village this size), but that locals with money have chosen to make this village their home. The houses date back to the 1800s or earlier with the classic Cotswold stone and they are all very well taken care of. Again the British sense of humour emerges (see pic) and I remain confounded as to why I never knew that my brother's kids had once been here.
We eventually came to the church, St. Peter and St. Paul, where we took a packed-snack break and wondered about how we would walk back. A decision made, we chose to take an alternative route back that would have us climb up the same hill along a combined bridle way and footpath that would provide views to the north that were not available to us on the walk here.
While climbing up the same elevation was not ideal, we were not disappointed once we arrived back on top. You could see for miles and given the nice weather it made my day.
As we made our way downwards we arrived again upon the Batsford Estate. Home of the private Village of Batsford, the Batsford Manor House, the Batsford Arboretum, and the Batsford Stud, one immediately is impressed by the enormity of the estate.
It was like the TV series, Downton Abbey, with the village of Batsford lying within the estate for those who I imagine were invited to live in the village and surrounding fields of crops being farmed on lands leased from the estate, and a horse stud farm with acres and acres of pasture land, some exclusively for horses and other land with grazing sheep. I could hear Robin Leach (you might need to be of a certain generation to get that name) in my head...."Lifestyles of the rich and famous".
There is even a deer farm with herds of deer lying placidly among scattered trees. Fortunately the right of way for the foot path took us through parts of the estate, so we had a great view of the manor house and the deer park. The foot path also ran us back to the Monarch Way near the Arboretum. Given it was now well into the afternoon, and that there was a cafe at the Arboretum, a quick stop there for a sandwich and soft drink was in order before heading back along the Monarch Way into MiM.
Ale of the Day: Hooky Gold, Hooky Norton Brewery, Banbury
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