The Cotswolds

On Wednesday I drove myself around the Cotswolds, visiting the villages of Stow-on-the-Wold (don't you just love that name?) and Chipping Camden. I think that this was my favorite day of this trip,tooling around pretty country roads in my little Vauxhall compact. The towns were so picturesque and the scenery breathtaking, especially when the sun came out.

Stow-on-the-Wold center square, the steepled building in back is the town hall and library.

 

They still have these darling red phone booths!

This is a victorian fountain. I know that because it says so on the plaque.

I saw this picture on the net while researching for my trip, and I was determined to find it and have my picture taken in front of it. This is St. Edwards church in Stow. It is supposed to be pretty interesting inside but was closed for a funeral.

Viola! Bad picture, bad lighting but at least I got it.

More St. Edwards.

 

After taking shots of the church, it looked like it was about to pour rain and so I ducked into an antique shop across the street. There I found a couple of treasures to bring home with me. An Edwardian tablecover with hand crocheted lace 7” deep (be still my beating heart!) and a little piece of hand carved wood work that appears to be a fragment from some larger decoration.

Close up of lace work.

The quarter is for size comparison. The wood appears to be quite old and is very dusty and dirty right now, I plan on cleaning it up a bit. Gently, of course. Then I will probably hang it on the wall.






 

Picture from Huffkins web page.

I then walked around a bit (it never did rain), looking into shops and walking down some picturesque alleyways. A lot of the shops were second-hand charity stores, up-scale silver and crystal shops were closed because there were gypsies in the area, the town hall was closed, too. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more to look at, but I was warned by Lady Mander that it was very touristy. I decided it was time for a little something to eat before going on to more sight-seeing and went into this tea-room.

I ordered hot chocolate and scones. The scones came out on this wonderful little rack with jam and clotted cream. The hot chocolate was about the best I've ever tasted, and clotted cream is to die for. It's like butter and whipped cream put together. English scones are what we call biscuits, but with things like fruit put into them. In England, cookies are called biscuits. After my meal, I went around to the tourist info booth and asked how to find some thatched cottages. I was kindly directed to drive north to Chipping Camden, where there are a few cottages that are the most photographed. I did that, but couldn't get any pictures. The buildings that I found were all at busy crossroads with no place to park. So I drove around and found myself at another fine old church, which, again, was closed. This time it was for a pianist to rehearse for a concert that evening. I could hear him playing and it sounded really nice, but darn it, I wanted to get in!  I took some pictures outside that are pretty nice, the sun had come out again.

The outer gate of St. James in Chipping Camden.  This was a pretty big and imposing church with many old, old grave markers in the yard, some dating back to the early 1600's.

The grass is really this green, and don't you love the variations in the colors of the stone?

Read this inscription, the wife is called a relict. I saw this terminology on several other grave markers of this time period.

A really cool side door on the church.

Last picture for this blog post. (I'm tired) this is the view from the St. James church yard, the turreted building is what's left of an ancient estate that its owner burned in the civil war (which one-I don't know) so that it would not fall into enemy hands.

Taking it easy

 

On Sunday it was actually sunny and I didn't want to drive anywhere far yet, I had planned to go to a Church of England sunday service but chickened out and so went wandering instead. On Monday, it was raining as well as a bank holiday-which in England means most things are closed. What wasn't closed was cancelled because of the rain. So I spent Sunday wandering around the village and Owlpen, and sketched some, bought some food in the small local shop (fresh local baked bread, brown free-range eggs, butter, jam and organic milk-this was some of the best food I have ever had!) took pictures, and relaxed. On Monday I practice driving by going to the nearest bigger town, Dursley, to find a supermarket and some maps. I found both and spent then spent the rest of the day sketching the colored drawing of the path next to the church and this sketch of a tile. I also watched BBC television which I found very entertaining.

The Crown Pub and Inn, in Uley.

These cows live on a farm right next to Owlpen.

Pretty view from the Owlpen road.

Flowers in the hedgerow.

An Uley house.

Uley house with white roses around the door. This photo doesn't do justice to how pretty it looked.

Owlpen Church and Manor

 

Owlpen is the name of the place where I stayed. My apartment was in the top of a tithe barn built in the mid 1400's, around the same time as the main part of the manor house was built. The main house is a grade1 building, meaning that its owners have to keep both the outside and inside period correct. It has been used as a set for many TV and movie productions. I sadly was not able to tour the manor because it is undergoing some repairs. But I met Lady Mander, who with her husband, Sir Mander bought the place in the mid 70's and lovingly restored it, converting several outbuildings into rental cottages. She was very gracious and we had a lively conversation about Utahns and Mormons. She said that the estate has had a fair amount of Utah mormon visitors, Sir Mander had even been to Salt Lake City once. She drew me a map for negotiating the roundabouts between Uley (the little village at the bottom of the lane) and Stow-on-the-Wold, this being the picturesque Cotswold village I wanted to visit on Tuesday. I will go into that trip later, I'm still on Sunday! The little church was built a while later for the personal use of one of the manor's owners. I think it's early Victorian. Here are some pictures I took of the church and manor.

Owlpen Manor, with its church in the background.

Owlpen church

Back of the church

Richly ornamented grave marker.

Church nave.

Ceiling in the nave.

One of two carved stone faces.

One of the many stained glass windows.

There is a lot of mosaic work in the nave, very Victorian and pretty.

More trip

 

I slept almost all of Saturday trying to recover from my traumatic travel day. When I finally got up, I bathed, dressed and decided that I needed to get down to the village to buy some food and find some dinner. When I walked out of my cottage, I met an Englishman who was there to look at the manor house and surrounding area. His great-grandfather came from the area and when not able to find work, had walked to London. He gave me a ride down to the pub (about ¾ mile away) where I ate dinner (by myself). It was a very nice pub, they let out rooms and are well known for their food and local ales. One customer had an Irish wolfhound dog that was really, really big. Almost all the customers had dogs-inside the pub. The ladies who were running the pub kept a close eye on me, it made me feel a little bit like being in a fishbowl. I ordered a beef pie, which fed me for 3 days! When I was done, I walked back up the lane to my place. I saw some bunnies, some cows and lots of flowers blooming in the hedgerows. It was so pretty. I stopped at the tiny Victorian church that is part of the estate, and found it open. On Sunday morning I spent some time there, taking pictures and sketching. That's pretty much all I did on Sunday, I was still too chicken to drive anywhere.

Skeleton keys!

Owlpen church, more on this in the next blog entry.

Pastel drawing of church and road with stacked stone wall.

Some flowers I picked from the hedgerow, on my kitchen table.

My little sitting room.

View of the manor from my kitchen window.

More of my room, those beams were cut and put in this building before Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Narrow lane leading from the village to the manor house.

The outside of my cottage, this building houses  a restaurant downstairs and the estate office on the opposite side, my apartment is under that peaked roof upstairs.

The view just yards from my place.

Gate leading to the Owlpen church.

Owlpen Manor is surrounded by 50 acres of meadow and woods.

 

More day one.

Enormous National Buses, I rode one to Bath, the next stop on my trip. It was a pleasant 2 1/2 hour ride through countryside.

 

Once I got to Bath (rather dazed and confused) I went across the street to a nice new shopping mall in order to buy a pre-loaded phone to use while in England. I saw this Krispy Kreme shop, which floored me.

  I flagged down a taxi (the first time I've done that) to take me to my car rental, where I got a Vauxhall compact, I made sure I got an automatic shift and a Sat-Nav.

 

I then spent a terrifying 45 minutes trying to get out of Bath in Friday rush hour traffic, driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time. I finally got out of Bath, onto the M4, and then to my exit to the tiny village where I was supposed to spend the night. All the while I'm thinking I wish I were staying in Bath tonight, I wish I had booked a tour so someone would be taking care of all the details, why didn't someone talk me out of this!!??? Oh wait, people did try to talk me out of this! Okay, don't throw up, it will be alright, it will be alright, it will be alright. Well, after another hour, several stops to ask directions, stopping at the local pub to find someone who could tell me where the key to my cottage was (it was now 6:00 p.m., no one was at the estate office or in the manor house. Turns out everyone at the manor was having a party up in the woods) I had, thankfully, ordered food to be waiting in the fridge, ate it, went to bed and slept.

First day of trip

 

On May 3, 2012 I got on an airplane to Dallas, then on to Heathrow Airport, 12 hours of airtime all together. I amused myself with my Kindle, sudoko, and my sketchbook/journal. Here's what I drew.