Walking the Cotswold Way

[Pauline]

The Cotswold Way is a 102 mile long distance path (a National Trail) that runs along the Cotswold escarpment from Chipping Campden to Bath. Read more on Cotswolder. Steve and I walked the trail last June.

Most people do the trail by spending the night in B&Bs along the way, but since we live in the mid-point of the trail (our house is 125 steps from the Cotswold Way), we decided to drive out and back each day, spending the nights at home. This lets us take days off between segments (to avoid rain or if we get tired from walking), make our own meals and sleep in our own bed. You could easily do this approach from a vacation rental (holiday cottage).

Yesterday we decided to start the trail again and walked the first segment - 6 miles from Chipping Campden to Broadway. On the trail we met another couple where were walking just this one segment, but had done the whole trail (and many other long distance trails) a few years ago. They are Brits and have a motorhome and they used the same approach that we did! They did the entire South West Coast Trail this way (over several years - it is much longer and runs from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset).

The official guide book divides the trail into 15 segments but most people do it in 7 to 10 segments. We were lazy and did it in 14 segments - and would have done 15 but one day we missed a bus so just kept walking. This time we are going to try to do it in fewer segments but ... we'll see. I think we will leave more days between segments. Last year once we started walking, we did not do any other walking/hiking and completed the 14 days over a 21 day period.

I posted a photo from yesterday's walk as my Instagram photo of the day. You can see it on Facebook too. And you would see it here if my OneDrive sync was working (working now - photo below).

 

[Terry]

I recognize Broadway Tower. We did that hike one day from Chipping Campden. The view from the top was amazing. We could see the incoming storm approaching, and decided to bolt. Ended up getting caught in the storm in the middle of a field, so we didn't quite make it. Still, a beautiful hike, just the same.

 

[Pauline]

We walked more of the Cotswold Way yesterday.

For our first day, we drove from Painswick to Broadway (50min drive), parked in the Long Stay Car Park (£4) and took the 12:53 bus to Chipping Campden (£2.50 each). The bus runs 3 times per day - 9:53, 12:53 or 16:53. Then we walked the six miles from the start of the Cotswold Way in Chipping Campden to Broadway. We had a long lunch and talked to a few different groups of people along the way, so it took the whole afternoon.

Almost a week later, we did our second day. We drove to Winchcombe (40mins) and parked in their Long Stay Car Park (£1). We took the 10:21 bus (£2.80 each) to Broadway. The bus does not go the direct route and the schedule says it takes 27mins but we got there in 20mins. This bus runs 3 times a day also. We started walking at 11am and got into Winchcombe after 5pm. It is 12 miles, with two long climbs, and we were slow moving. Plus this is much longer than we usually walk.

I feel like a walking wimp since most people on the Cotswold Way do more than this each day and don't take several days or a week inbetween, but walk every day no matter the weather. Two guys passed us - a father and son - who were doing 24 miles that day, from Chipping Campden to Cleeve Hill.

I think the Broadway to Winchcombe stretch is the prettiest part of the Cotswold Way. We had very nice weather - sunny, with some clouds. The clouds kept it cool. From Broadway you do a long one hour climb, through fields, forest, more fields and up to the top of the escarpment. This area is all farms and they were haying (we were stuffed full of allergy medication - we are both reacting to things here).

Then you do this most beautiful gentle walk down to Stanton, through Stanton (stunningly beautiful with house prices to match - the only people out and about are the guys working on the houses) and across beautiful fields to Stanway. More fields to Wood Stanway, then a steep climb back up to the escarpment. You walk along more fields, more haying, and then down to Hailes Abbey. From there it is an easy hour through fields to Winchcombe.

We were both hurting everywhere last night and are taking a day off now to recover. I am hoping we will be back on the trail tomorrow.

The public transportation in this area sucks. Since there are so few buses, you feel compelled to get there well ahead of time, so we spent two hours getting to the start of the hike!

I will add some photos in a separate post.

 

[Pauline]

Day 2 photos. On the escarpment between Broadway and Stanton.

Stanway House, open Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We did not visit but later on the walk, from high up, we could see their high water fountain. No "Wolf Hall" filming as was mentioned in a recent newspaper article. That must be over.

 

[Kathy]

Enjoying following your walk Pauline! I agree with you about that part of the walk.

Last year we also saw the fountain from afar (we were walking south to north), and it happened to be the right day of the week AND the right timing as we passed by Stanway House on our CW walk. After years of driving by, we decided to visit and really enjoyed the house and seeing the fountain shoot off. The house was quite interesting and we saw the lord in his library.

Rest up so we can walk together next week!!

 

[Pauline]

Yesterday we did Day 3 - Winchcombe to Dowdeswell. Last year we did this in two days. It is a bit shorter than Day 2 - 11 miles. The weather forecast showed sun and cloud during the day with rain coming in the late afternoon, but that seems to be the pattern lately and sometimes the rain is just a short drizzle. We packed our hiking rain jackets.

We drove to Dowdeswell. We would end the trail in this area and the parking is at the Koloshi Indian Restaurant on the A40 east of Cheltenham, across from the Dowdeswell Reservoir. This is where we parked last year - they have a large parking area and don't mind walkers using it. The trail runs beside the parking lot.

We called a Cheltenham taxi and it took 10 minutes to arrive. He drove us to Winchcombe - 2o minute drive, £22. It turns out that the company I called, which we used last year, is not a taxi but a car service, where they don't use a meter but set the price for the trip. I remember last year that I called a couple of companies and only this one was interested in picking us up outside of Cheltenham. We could have taken a bus from somewhere nearby into Cheltenham and transferred to the bus that goes to Winchcombe, but it would have taken a lot longer.

We had a late start because we only decided after breakfast that the day looked good enough and we would do the hike. We started walking at Winchcombe at noon. The first hour is a climb, mostly gentle with some steep, up to Belas Knapp, the prehistoric burial mound. Then you walk back along the valley, then down to a river and up again. After two hours of walking you get to a view point of - Winchcombe!! - and you realize you have walked in a V. If you had walked straight from Winchcombe to this point, it would only have taken an hour.

This is how the Cotswold Way is designed - not as the shortest point to point, but instead on an interesting route.

We had our peanut butter and banana sandwiches sitting in a field. Another hour and we were at Cleeve Hill where we had a cup tea at the pub before pressing on.

Just before Cleeve Hill we walked around a beautiful old Manor house - Postlip Hall. They are a co-housing community and have a house for sale. The website describes them and it sounds very interesting. Not for us unfortunately, but I did give it a long think.

Last year this was the end of our day's walk, but today we were only half way through. Next was the climb up to the top of Cleeve Hill. Steve remembered it as very steep, I remember it as a dawdle. Steve's memory was correct. But what views over Cheltenham! The skies were darkening and we could see it was raining to the south and west of us. The wind was blowing too.

Once you leave the Cleeve Hill commons, you walk along a long hillside through woods and meadows. Part of it is a butterfly preserve. Then down through lovely woods to find our car waiting for us. We had a few sprinkles of rain during the last hour, but it did not really rain until much later that even. Another wonderful day of walking.

Today was just over 11 miles and took us six hours. We are walking slower than usual because I am not used to these longer distances. I still prefer a 5 - 7 mile walk, but my legs are getting stronger.

Photo - Walking out of Winchcombe, starting the climb up.

Photo - On the way up to Belas Knap, looking back at Winchcombe.

Photo - On Cleeve Hill Common looking at Cheltenham and the rain clouds.

 

[Lisa in Ottawa]

Pauline,
I love reading about your walks. We've been revising our planned itinerary and will post when we make our decisions about how we will spend those 3 months and a bit in the UK and elsewhere.

 

[Pauline]

It has been a week since we walked last. Today was Day 4 from Dowdeswell to Birdlip. We drove up to Birdlip and parked in a viewpoint parking area (Barrow View), then took a taxi to the Koloshi restaurant outside of Cheltenham near Dowdeswell Reservoir where Day 3 ended.

Yet again, we got a late start and were on the trail at noon. This was a nine mile walk - short than the last two days. It started with a long climb through very old forests, with Lime trees. I will post a photo of these trees, but it was taken on last year's walk. I took so many photos when we did this walk last June, that I have not felt like taking many this time.

After the climb we walked through woods and then out to a view point. Then down to an area near a busy road, but we were walking in a field of blue flax! From there back up to Leckhampton Hill with lovely views over Cheltenham. We met a nice American couple from the Detroit area who were doing the whole walk. We walked with them for a bit, then separated (hard to believe, but we were walking faster than them). We stopped for tea at Star Bistro in Leckhampton - they are in a college right beside the trail. Then we met up with the American couple again and walked the rest of the way with them. I gave them our number to call us tomorrow when they arrive in Painswick.

This day is the worst of the Cotswold Way because after Leckhampton Hill you climb Crickley Hill and then you go down again and have to cross a very, very busy road - the A417 at the Air Balloon roundabout. When the four of us arrived it was 5pm - Friday night rush hour. It was difficult to get across, but we made it. Then you have to walk for 10 minutes along the busy road. Yuck.

Our taxi driver told us that years ago (maybe 20?) when they put this highway in they wanted to put a tunnel through this part but all the local protested so they didn't. Instead we have an almost motorway (two lanes in each direction, built like a motorway but technically an A road) running from the M4 near Swindon, through a once lovely part of the Cotswolds, to a roundabout near Brimpsfield, where it turns into one lane. You can imagine the long traffic backups during busy times! In a few miles, at the Air Balloon roundabout it turns back into a motorway type road and goes to the M5 and Gloucester.

It is a very busy road and the Air Balloon round about is too busy. Everytime someone is killed in an accident here they say they are going to redo the road, but so far - nothing. They should put in lights for the Cotswold Way because it has to cross the busy road.

Walking back up to the escarpment near Birdlip where our car was parked, we came upon a couple from Belgium who the American couple had met the day before. They are geocachers!

Everyone walked on to Birdlip, where they were spending the night, and we got in our car and drove home.

Tomorrow, or the next time we walk, is only 9 miles and we walk from Birdlip to our village, Painswick!

Photo from 2013 of Lime Trees at Lineover Woods.

Photo from 2013 of Air Balloon roundabout.

 

[Pauline]

I forgot my weather report. 75 degrees!! When the sun was out it was hot. Cloud for half of the day. Very muggy.

 

[Terry]

but no rain!

 

[Kathy]

I remember crossing that big road by the Air Balloon... we were walking in the opposite direction (south to north), so we crossed here in the morning. We were lucky because it was Sunday morning and not much traffic.

I'm enjoying re-living our walk last summer!

 

[Pauline]

We walked today and made it to our village Painswick. We are at the half way point. Tomorrow is our village festival, Art Couture. Tonight we stood in the churchyard listening to live music and talking with the American couple we met on the trail yesterday.

 

[Pauline]

For Day 5, yesterday, we took a taxi from our house to Birdlip and walked back. The main Stroud taxi company just went out of business (!! 5 Star), so it took several calls but we eventually found one. We were on the trail by 11am.

This is a single leg - 9 miles, similar to what we walked the day before, but much easier with not as much climbing. I had remembered this portion as almost flat, but I was wrong, there are hills, just not as big as we have had on the other days.

The day was hot (75 F) and sunny, but most of the walk was in the woods. We had our picnic lunch at the top of Cooper's Hill where they cheese rolling contests in May. Officially everyone says they no longer have these because the crowds became too big, but in reality they still have them each year. Cooper's Hill is a very steep (almost a straight drop) but short hill. I have never been to the cheese rolling, but from what I read they roll those big cheese rounds down and run after them. I imagine much drink is involved.

These woods from Birdlip to Painswick are beautiful and a pleasure to walk through. We frequently do a circular walk from Cranham that follows much of the Cotswold Way that we walked, so the route was very familiar. By the time we were an hour from Painswick, near the Painswick Beacon, we were on very familiar territory. We walk out on that part of the Cotswold Way at least once a week.

We got back to Painswick around 3pm. It was a nice feeling to walk home!

I said to Steve that this is it for the Cotswold Way for a few weeks. We are half way through - 50 miles - and I want to go hiking somewhere else. But tonight I had the Cotswold Way book out and maybe tomorrow we will be back to it - because the weather looks good for most of next week.

Photo of the woods near Cranham.

 

[Pauline]

We walked the next leg, Day 6 Painswick to Kings Stanley, yesterday (Monday). This was a shorter walk - 7 miles. We thought we might combine it with the next leg, Kings Stanley to Dursley, for 14 miles, but I was not up to the longer walk.

The day was sunny at the start and we left from our house - which is so nice! We got a late start, 11:30, and finished by 3:30. It clouded over in the afternoon, but no rain. Much of the walk is in woods. We have done most of this walk many times, because we frequently walk out on the Cotswold Way from the house.

The Cotswold Way is a social place in the summer. We see lots of other walkers, many who are doing the Cotswold Way walk. Most are going in our direction, north to south, but sometimes groups are heading the other way. Today we spoke to an interesting couple from Holland. The man has been walking in England for the last 2 - 3 months. He took the boat from Holland to Hull, and started walking. He did most of the Coast to Coast trail and then headed south. His wife met him in Bath to do the Cotswold Way together.

He is walking between Quaker Houses! There are many of them in England. We have one in Painswick. There is one in Nailsworth where we lived before. He sleeps in the Quaker House or stays with one of the local members, or stays at a B&B. I loved the idea that he had been walking for months.

Last week when walking with Jonathan, Kathy and Charley, we met a woman on the way from Chipping Campden to Broad Campden and she was going to the Quaker house and let us in to see it (built in 1600s). The Americans that we met a few days ago also have links to the Quakers, so we took them to see the Quaker House in Painswick. I don't know much about the Quakers - need to do some research.

I just finished re-reading "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" because I chose it for our next book club meeting. It is the story of a man in Devon who has just retired and his life is a mess, so he starts walking to northern England. The book is about the walk and how it helps him understand his situation. He is not a "rambler" but walks on the roads (which annoyed me when I first read this - this country has the best walking trails in the world and he is walking on roads!). It is a lovely book with very good descriptions of the English countryside.

Anyway, we had a lovely walk - and I felt inspired after talking with the couple from Holland. We reached Ebley Road (where we could get a bus to Stroud) earlier than expected, so walked along the newly restored Cotswold Canal to the Ebley Mills and caught the bus there. The canal is beautiful! We have walked parts of it, but not this bit. Bus to Stroud, then bus to Painswick and home.

After a day of walking, at night my legs ache. And I get a heat rash on them each time we walk. And the day after a walk I am tired. But, the walking has been wonderful.

Photo of Steve at the half way marker near Painswick.

Photo from the hill above Edge looking back to the Painswick valley.

 

[Pauline]

On Thursday we did Day 7, Kings Stanley to Dursley. It was a hot day - the beginning of a two day heatwave (temps around 81F - yes, that is a British heatwave). We drove to a car park near Kings Stanley, and set out.

This is another lovely part of the Cotswold Way. You walk through fields along the edge of Kings Stanley, then into the woods where you climb up the escarpment. You stay in woods for a couple of hours, until you reach Coaley Hill park, which has amazing views south to Dursley and the River Severn. From here it is back in woods to Uley Bury.

The next section of the walk is one we do often on a circular hike so it is very familiar to us. You walk down to a lovely valley that has a few farms, then very steep up to the top of Cam Long Down, with more views to the villages below and the River Severn (and the M5 motorway). Then down from there to Dursley.

This was an 8 mile route, but we were walking slow. We had hoped to make the 3:30 bus in Dursley, but realized an hour earlier that we would not make it. The buses run hourly. It was getting very sunny and hot and the last hour and a half was not in woods.

We walked into Dursley right about the time of the bus (but were not really sure because Steve uses a very old windup watch which frequently is way off the correct time and I did not want to waste time opening my pack to get out my phone to check the time). As we were approaching the main street we saw the bus and ran for it. We made it but only because a couple with a baby buggy were getting on and it took them a long time, so the bus was still at the stop as we staggered up to it.

This is a 40 minute bus ride for something that would take 10 minutes in a car, but you get a good tour of all the nearby villages and it was a relief to sit down out of the sun.

If we manage to do long days for the next two days of walking, we have only three days of walking left before we reach Bath! We took a day away from the Cotswold Way on Friday and walked in the Wye Valley, and probably won't get back to the Cotswold Way until the end of this week.

Photo of view from Coaley Hill Park towards the valley we walked through after the photo. Cam Long Down is the small hill with trees on the top in the middle and Dursley is behind it.

 

[Pauline]

Yesterday (Wednesday) we did Day 8 - Dursley to Wotton-under-Edge to Hawksbury Upton. Last time we did this in two days. It is 14 miles but we cut off 2 miles by doing the shorter alternate route after Dursley (last year we did the extra 2 miles which takes you around a golf course on a plateau with good views, but ultimately not interesting).

We parked in the Long Stay Car Park in Dursley (free) and started at 11am. I knew there would be two good climbs in the Dursley to Wotton leg, but I had convinced myself that the second leg was mostly flat - wrong. It was a sunny and hot (80F) day - as it has been for the last week or more.

The first leg, Dursley to Wotton is lovely. We climbed up through woods to the golf course, quickly walked across, and then downhill through woods to a big valley. Just as you come into the valley you walk along a street with a few cottages. One has a small fridge beside their wall with a sign "Water for Walkers (50p)". It was there last year too. They run an electrical extension from the house, over the wall to the fridge. We got some water.

We walked across the valley to the village of North Nibley. Then the next climb, thankfully in woods, to the Tynedale Monument (something to do with the bible). We had our lunch on a bench there and then walked into Wotton. Many parts of this walk were in woods which was great because it was hot. 80F here is much hotter than in Santa Fe - because of the humidity.

We reached Wotton at 2pm and continued. The next part had a very steep climb out of Wotton (something to do with the -under-edge part of the town name), but it was an annoying climb. Much was on a paved lane and you walked forever back into the valley, then at the top you walked pretty much back the way you came (lovely views though), and then right back downhill. We missed a turn because a group of cows were hiding the trail marker, but only went 5 minutes in the wrong direction (downhill).

Usually I give silent thanks to the person/people who designed the Cotswold Way - thank you for making such a beautiful trail! Today I was not as happy with them - really, did we have to walk all the way up that hill and then down again, when I know there is a lovely valley connecting Wotton to Alderley!!

Alderley is about half way on this second leg. We almost rented a house there once - it is a folly that sits on the hill overlooking the town. There is a lot of lane walking - not my favorite - from Alderley to Hawkesbury. My energy gave out about an hour before the end of the walk. We dragged ourselves into Hawkesbury intending to call a taxi but a bus was due in 5 minutes (6:05pm) so we took that. It only took us to Wotton and there were no more buses to Dursley so we called a taxi.

What a long day! I was exhausted by the end. Most of it was a beautiful walk though. And my reward is that I booked a hotel for Friday night in Sidmouth - on the Devon coast near the Dorset border - so I am going swimming in the sea on the last few days of our heatwave.

Photo of the cows who had hidden the trail marker.

Photo of the trail to Alderley.

 

[Pauline]

Two more walking days left for the Cotswold Way. We will do them next week when we are back to normal temps - low 70s.

 

[jonathan]

"Something to do with the bible" rather underplays the importance of William Tyndale, born in the 1490s in North Nibley or Stinchcombe. His translation of the bible was the first English one to be printed, and while the "King James Version", the work of a committee of scholars, and published nearly a century later, is famous as a source of quotations, much of its content is a pretty exact copy of Tyndale's solo version.

So if towards the end of a walk, you've ever thought to yourself "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak", you've been quoting Tyndale...

Enjoy the seaside! (The sea at Marseille on Sunday was fabulous. Home now; not much cooler...)

 

[Pauline]

On Monday we did Day 9 - Hawkesbury Upton to Cold Ashton and now I hate the Cotswold Way.

July has been one of the hottest on record. You never think of England as being too hot, but we do get heatwaves here. Temps in the low 80s F are too hot for walking all day, unless you are in the woods or you deal well with heat (I don't). Even Steve who loves the heat did not do well.

We started too late because we only decided at 10am that we would walk that day. We drove to Hawkesbury Upton (about 35 minutes) and were on the trail at 11:30. We were going to park at the end, in Cold Ashton, and take a taxi to the start (this works best because it is easier to get a taxi in the morning) but we were not sure we would make the whole walk. It was 14.5 miles so I figured 8 hours. Yes, we only average 2 miles an hour and take 30 mins for lunch. There was not as much climbing on the route, so I thought we might be faster - but we weren't.

The walk from Hawkesbury is nice and mostly flat, through fields with big views towards Chipping Sodbury and the River Severn. Then you wind through woods to Horton, then fields, woods and some lanes to the Sodbury Fort, a prehistoric fort that you can see from the A46 when you drive by. All that remains, as in all the prehistoric promontory forts here, are the surrounding dirt walls.

We had lunch on a bench in the churchyard in Old Sodbury, with lovely views over the countryside. The next part of the trail is through Doddington Manor grounds, an estate now owned by Dyson (vacuum cleaners).

This is where the trail turns ugly. You are at the intersection of the A46, the main road from Bath to Stroud to Cheltenham, the road that goes through my village. It is only one lane in each direction but is a busy road. It crosses the M4 motorway in a huge roundabout. I guess they thought there would be a walker slaughter if they routed us through the roundabout, so instead you cross the A46, walk a mile to Todmarton (cute village), then cross the M4 on a small bridge, then walk a mile back through open fields. All with the roar of the M4 in your ears.

Cross the A46 again and go through an incredibly creepy parking area that is a g-a-y--p-i-c-k-u-p--s-p-o-t (will that trick the search engines?). Single men in parked cars. Single men walking out from the woods. There are THREE of these areas along the Cotswold Way (the parking area near Birdlip and the parking area off the A46 south of Coopers Hill).

We should have stopped walking in Todmarten. The leg from Todmarten to Cold Ashton is the worst on the Cotswold Way. There is one pretty bit after the parking area, where you walk into the village of Dyrham, behind the National Trust Dyrham estate. That was as far as we got. It was 5:30. Only two more miles to Cold Aston, mostly in open fields and crossing the A46 yet again, and we were both really feeling the heat. I called a taxi who said 20 minutes but took 40 minutes (delay on a previous job and then caught in traffic on the A46). I was happy to get back to the car and drive home.

I think we should not have walked. We had some hot days last week and it makes the walking harder. We were out in the sun for six hours.

So - - either we are not going to bother finishing (we did the whole walk last year, so we have done it once) or we will wait until the fall. At this point I would be happy to walk in the rain!

I don't think these longer days of walking are for me. I love a two - three hour walk. When we did the Cotswold Way last year we took 14 days and only once walked more than four hours. I liked that pace. Most people do the trial in 10 days (and many in 7 days), and I wanted to try that pace, but I ended up not liking the walk as much as I did last year. I don't know if it was the heat or the length of our walking days, but I am going back to two - three hour walks.

Photo, walking out of Hawkesbury Upton.

Photo, Sodbury Fort. We are inside it looking towards the northern outer wall.