27. Walk Round The Estate

We live near the National Trust's Buscot Park and often visit the garden, but we had never explored the countryside which surrounds it.



Buscot adjoins the Coleshill estate, a National Trust village within a large area of parkland, farmland, and woodland, all owned by the National Trust.



We were going to walk round the woods at Badbury Clump, but our walk was cut short by rain, so we went to the village tearoom instead for tea and cake!



Afterwards the sun came out so we did part of the short walk from the village instead.



It was lovely and we'll go back and do the rest another time. We may also try some of the other walks around the estate.



We'll return to Badbury Clump in May, when it will be full of bluebells.

20.Find A Village More Beautiful Than Bibury

Outskirts of Coln St Aldwyns

As I mentioned in this post, William Morris called Bibury "the most beautiful village in England". However, there are plenty of beautiful villages throughout England, and this area is especially famous for them. Lovely as Bibury is, I don't think it's even the most beautiful village in the Cotswolds.


View across the fields to Coln St Dennis


Coln St Dennis Church


Lane leading out of Coln St Dennis

If you are visiting the area, drive from Bibury down through Coln St Aldwyns and Hatherop and then turn East to Eastleach and Southerop, or drive up through Ablington and Winson to Coln St Dennis. Head a bit further south to the Cotswold water park and wander along the river path in Cerney Wick, or venture a bit further north and take the road from Shipton-under-Wychwood to Burford via Swinbrook. You will find a whole host of beautiful villages.


Outskirts of Ablington


Bridge at Ablington


River Coln at Ablington

Periodically we go for a drive around the countryside and then get out of the car and have a walk around one of these villages. I think my favourite - of the ones I've seen so far - is Coln Rogers. To my mind it's considerably more beautiful than Bibury, so I thought I'd take a camera to both places to try to prove it.


Views across the fields to Coln Rogers

Like Bibury, Coln Rogers has the river Coln running through it, and is surrounded by fields, trees, and rolling Cotswold hills.


Outskirts of Coln Rogers

Like Bibury, it has creamy-coloured Cotswold stone buildings and a Saxon church. (In fact, although the one at Bibury gets called a Saxon church, the current building dates from several different periods and just incorporates some remaining Saxon stonework; the one at Coln Rogers is more authentic.)


St Andrews Church, Coln Rogers

True, Coln Rogers is smaller than Bibury and has no shops or other facilities, but to my mind that's an advantage. Unlike Bibury it doesn't have tourists, which means that unlike Bibury it doesn't have a parking problem, which means that unlike Bibury it's not the site of an almost perpetual traffic jam.


Left: The river Coln at Bibury, showing a small percentage of its tourists; right: the river Coln at Coln Rogers showing all of its tourists

And unlike Bibury it doesn't have coaches or ice cream vans or big plastic rubbish bins or any of the other things which turn up whenever large numbers of people are gathered together.


Parking along the river at Bibury

Oh, and Bibury trout farm may look pretty from the front, but take the Ablington road out of Bibury and the back of it is not so picturesque.


Bibury trout farm

Don't get me wrong: I'm deliberately showing the ugly bits of Bibury. Overall it's a lovely place, and we've visited and joined the crowds of people walking round it ourselves. But it was much more enjoyable to drive round and discover other, less well-publicised villages to explore, and I can't think why more people don't do this. In Bibury, you have to share everything with thousands of other people: Coln Rogers we had all to ourselves, and everywhere I pointed my camera the views were completely unspoiled.


Views around Coln Rogers

14. Find A New Footpath

There are a lot of footpaths around this area, but normally when we go out for a walk we end up just walking to the nature reserve around the corner.



We wanted to explore a bit more of the countryside, so we went for a short drive in search of another footpath.





We drove around a few pretty Cotswolds villages and stopped at the hamlet of Fyfield, where we found a path leading across the river Leach and down to the village of Southerop.



It was a nice change, and we intend to explore a few more of the footpaths around the area in the future.


The observant among you may notice that this is post no. 14 and the previous post was no. 12 - thing to do no. 13 is missing! This has nothing to do with superstition, I just can't post it until I've done one of the other things on my list, at which point I'll post them both together.

10. Walk Through A Wildflower Meadow

We went to Chimney Meadows hoping to see a lot of wildflowers.



It was a bit disappointing though, as the flowers nearly all seemed to be common ones like buttercups and daisies.



And there weren't that many even of them - the meadows were mainly composed of grasses.



This may of course have been a result of the peculiar weather we had this spring.



There were a few flowers to be seen though ...



... even though most of them were fairly common ones which we could have seen in our garden!



And it was quite a nice place to go for a walk, even if not as bright and colourful as I'd envisaged.



There were a few little gems I didn't recognise.



And most importantly, given that it's a wildlife haven, the insects seemed to be happy!

8. Visit A Bluebell Wood

I grew up on the border of London and Kent, just a short drive away from a number of bluebells woods. But I haven't visited one now for many years, so I thought it would be a good thing to do this year.



I chose Foxholes, a Wildlife Trust wood which is fairly near where we live in the Cotswolds. The only problem was that it's quite a long walk from the limited parking spaces on the Bruern Road to the wood itself, and like many disabled people, I can only walk once I get somewhere if I don't also have to walk in order to get there. But there is a parking space in the hamlet of Foxholes itself, which is slightly closer, and a footpath through farmland to the wood from there.



It was a fairly level walk, and the fields on the way to the woods were dotted with bluebells, which was lovely.



When we finally got to the wood, we had it almost to ourselves (not surprisingly, as it's so far off the beaten track!). It's managed for wildlife, and full of birds and insects. I didn't take any photos of them, but there are bat boxes on a number of trees too.



Although the bluebells were at the end of their season the weekend we went, there were still carpets of them, with paths snaking through them. My photos don't do it justice.







It was definitely worth visiting, and know we know how to get there we will try to go again another year if I am up to it.





When we came out of the woods the view across the fields on the way back was worth seeing too.

1. Walk in the Cotswold Water Park

The Cotswold water park is a strange mixture: part industrial, part large and not terribly attractive lakes used for water-sports, and part beautiful rivers and streams running through pretty Cotswolds villages.



We've driven through it a lot as it's very near to where we live, but we've never stopped for a walk in any of the prettier bits, so it was an obvious thing to put on my list. We chose a stroll through the village of Cerney Wick, which has a mill, water meadows, and river walk, as an easy thing to do on my birthday as I wasn't well enough to travel much further that day.



Now we've found the footpaths, we will go back another day when it's warmer and I'm feeling healthier!