Day 95 - Northleach to Bourton on the Water

After yesterday's first snow of the season in the Cotswolds, we were promised by BBC Weather a day of unending, bright sun. So, of course, as you will have now gathered if you have been reading our blog diligently (shout out to you, Amanda Cullen) that means a long hike is in order. Today we took the bus to Northleach, about a 45-minute journey south of Morton in Marsh, with the goal of walking over hill and wold to Bourton-on-the-Water.

Turns out, the sun had other ideas and kept itself firmly fixed behind a low layer of clouds just thick enough to cast a dull shadow on the world. The weather is so mild here generally that it is easy to forget that at this point we are sitting at about 52 degrees north. That's about in line with Saskatoon, so the sun really get up just high enough to look as though its following the horizon as closely as possible for a few hours. The result is a silvery glow to the sky, even on the sunniest day.

The lack of sun actually proved a bit of a bonus , as today we had to cross several fields. Without the sun beating on them, they stayed just icy enough for us to cross without getting too muddy.

Northleach sits just aside where two Roman roads cross, and is an interesting blend of Tudor  and Cotswold stone buildings. It doesn't look like much has changed here in centuries. We stopped at a shop called Fruit Cakes to pick up a couple of freshly made sandwiches for later on our walk.

At the edge of town sits The Old Prison. It was built in the 1790s, and was considered a model prison used to inspire better care and rehabilitation of prisoners throughout Britain and further afield. Looking at it, however, it seemed a foreboding place. We could only imagine how desolate it would have appeared to those arriving in a carriage on a cold, foggy night.

It was later used as a police station, and today serves as the home of the Cotswolds Discovery Centre, the visitor centre for the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). It also has a lovely cafe (as you find at most UK attractions) and although not at all busy, three young people were working behind the counter. We ordered two hot chocolates to go and as they made them we learned that they had all grown up in Northleach. One had moved five times in here life, but all to a different Northleach house, although "with a better view" each time. Like teens everywhere, they felt that life would be much more exciting elsewhere.

Beautiful door to a building in
 the village of Hampnett.

Do you think he appreciates
just what a great view he has?

We walked behind the Centre and climbed a gentle hill as we crossed several fields before entering the village of Hampnett. Like many of the villages in this area, you get a sense that time has stood still. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it had 25 tenants. Not sure how many live here now, but it was pretty quiet when we walked through.

As we crested the top of the first of several hills we would climb on today's walk, we were greeted with the most glorious view. You could see for miles in almost every direction.

We were soon making our way down a rather steep and very long winding road covered in most places with a thin layer of snow and sometimes ice. We could see from the spinning tire tracks that someone had struggled up this hill in a vehicle earlier in the day.

At the bottom of the hill lay the village of Turkdean. It's first recording as a village comes from about 800 BC. It's claim to fame in recent years is that it was mentioned by Indiana Jones in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford's character mentions the neolithic barrow at Turkdean, near Hazleton, during a lecture. We walked around the village, taking a pinhead turn in the road to head back up hill to where the town continued. Here you find the church and the manor house.

We continued up and down hills through narrow lanes and bridleways, until we stopped to have our sandwiches at the top of one hill as we leaned against an old stone wall. The view was breathtaking. We could hear the occasional sound of gun fire from hunters nearby and barking dogs.

The Plough Inn in Cold Aston.

The next village we came to was called Cold Aston. The name Aston comes from East - ton (farm), with some claiming the Cold was added because of the village's hillside exposure to the cold. Other claim it has to do with a Roman settlement that was there. We'll probably never know. It had a lovely pub, but we had to push on as the sun sets at 3:30 here at this time of year.

As we had entered the village, we suddenly heard a lot of yelping coming from the direction we had heard the gunshots. With his far superior eyesight, Phil spotted a large pack of hounds racing across fields with two hunters or scouts following. Not sure what they were hunting, but the dogs did seem awfully excited.

From Cold Aston we descended down hill into the Windrush Valley. Partway down the hill, an elderly man appeared next to his Land Rover. He greeted us by raising his cap, and then asked if we had seen a man on a white horse as we walked. We hadn't, but it seemed a wonderful question to be asked as we wandered the world seemingly alone.

The Windrush took us back to Bourton on the Water where we had an hour to kill before our bus back to Moreton. This gave us a chance to do a little window shopping and we watched as the beautiful lights came on.