Tag Archives: Go Cotswolds

Cotswolds Tour Part 2

Bourton on the Water and Bibury were the last two villages in the Cotswolds that we visited on our Go Cotswolds Tour on Thursday September 15th.

Bourton on the Water is known as the Venice of the Cotswolds. We had time to enjoy an ice cream cone, buy some take away hand pies, and buy a couple souvenirs in Bourton on the Water. There are 5 bridges over the water here. I’m not sure if I got a photo of all five.

While purchasing our ice cream we met a sweet older couple from Yorkshire who encouraged us to visit their part of England.

We visited Bourton on the Water in July of 2014 and to see the colors of summer in comparison to my Fall photos click over here.

After Bourton on the Water we traveled a short distance to Bibury.

Bibury ‘the most beautiful village in England’.

Arlington Row

The cottages of Arlington Row are often referred to as the most photographed and beautiful cottages in the country.

Originally built in 1380 as a monastic wool store, the building was then converted into a row of weavers’ cottages in the 17th century.

The cloth produced at Arlington Row was sent to Arlington Mill on the other side of Rack Isle. The cloth was then hung on wooden timber frames on Rack Isle after being degreased at Arlington Mill.

 

The Arlington Mill

With a history dating back to 1086, the mill which stands on the site today is believed to date back to the 17th Century.

Arlington Mill is now a private residence (which was also available as a holiday cottage), but it was once a working mill processing corn and wool, and later housed the museum of Arlington Mill with a collection of period clothing, documents and working machinery illustrating milling & the Victorian way of life.

Arlington Mill, a Grade II listed building, was recorded as a cloth and corn mill in the 17th Century, continuing in dual use until mid 19th Century when concentration switched to corn milling.

Founded in 1902, Bibury Trout Farm is one of England’s oldest working trout farms set in the historic village of Bibury, in the heart of the Cotswolds.

On our Go Cotswold Day Tour we were happy to make a couple stops to places we hadn’t seen in the past. Bibury was one of those stops. This was the end of our tour on this day and we got back on our tour van and were driven back to the Oxford Train Station. While others on the tour headed in the station to catch trains back to London we enjoyed the 5 minute walk back to our apartment in Oxford where we warmed up our steak pies for dinner.

One more post from the Cotswolds featuring St. James Church in Chipping Campden coming soon.

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Back to the present…

We are doing well here at our Country Bungalow. Our church family is treating us well with meals and visits. Our friends, family and neighbors are checking in to see if we need anything. We are waiting for Occupational Therapy appointments for Dear. There was a glitch on the referral from Dear’s new doctor. Our sleep schedule is improving.

We had a light dusting of snow on Wednesday night and we have more snow predicted next week. Our temps have been below freezing and the forecast is for several more days of freezing temperatures.

Hope all is well in your corner…

The Cotswolds 2022

It’s been a while since my last post on our trip to England in September of this year. I have a goal to finish my posts before the end of the year. Our tour with Go Cotswolds, a small family owned touring company, was called Cotswolds in a Day.

On Thursday September 15th (two months ago!) we walked to the Oxford Train Station to be picked up for our day in the Cotswolds. At the station while waiting for the tour van we met another couple waiting for the tour. We enjoyed getting to know them and connecting some dots in our backgrounds that intersected. The rest of the tour group arrived and we hit the road for our first stop which was Chipping Campden. We had a set amount of time to enjoy the village. We chose to spend our time at St. James Church. That will be a separate post.

In 2013 and in 2014 we visited Chipping Campden and my posts are here in 2013 and here in 2014.

From Chipping Campden we stopped at Dover’s Hill for some panoramic views.

It was breezy!

On the way to Snowshill we passed The Broadway Tower.

St. Barnabas Church in Snowshill

Snowshill village sits on the top of the escarpment above the villages of Broadway, Buckland, and Laverton. It is a secluded village where ancient pretty cottages and a 19th century church cluster around a small green. As its name implies – if there is any snow about then you will find it here first.

This was our tour group on this day.

In 2014 Dear and I enjoyed this little village and my post is here.

The weather was good with beautiful skies. Our next stop was Moreton in Marsh where we would enjoy some lunch which left little time to explore.

I hurried from our lunch table at the Talbot Inn so I could get some photos of the wonderful door on the back side of St. Edward’s Church.

If you walk around the churchyard towards the north porch, you will stumble upon what’s known locally as ‘The Yew Tree door’ or ‘The Hobbit door’.

“Speak friend and enter”

In 2014 we had more time in Stow on the Wold and my posts with more information are here and here.

Next time the villages of Bourton on the Water and Bibury.

 

The Cotswolds!

We had a wonderful tour of 5 villages in the Cotswolds today with a great small touring company called Go Cotswolds. 

Met some nice people and saw some very quaint villages. Our walk to the railway station was short and we met some kindred spirits that were on our tour before we were picked up by our tour company. More about our tour when we get home and do a day by day recap.

 

We Booked It

On Saturday we finally clicked on the purchase button for our flights to and from England come September. That first step is always the hardest for me. Now, Lord willing, we’ll be on that plane heading to London Heathrow in September. We also booked an apartment in the Jericho area of North Oxford for 11 nights. 2 bedrooms, full kitchen and living space.

The last time we were in Oxford was in July of 2014. We were only there for several hours and we talked about how much more there was to see and do in this college town and how we’d love to return. We planned our time in Oxford around an Open Day for the Colleges.

We’ll see what is blooming in September compared to July.

Besides Oxford we are venturing back to Canterbury for 2 nights. The photo above is of Dear and me in Canterbury in 1973 or 1974. We will be staying on the Cathedral grounds this time around. From Heathrow we’ll travel to Canterbury and then after 2 nights travel to Oxford for our 11 night stay there. While in Oxford we will explore some neighboring areas on some day trips by bus or train. We are not renting a car.

Update: A woman’s prerogative to change her mind. In thinking about jetlag we are changing our plans and not traveling to Canterbury on this trip. Just thinking about the tube/train and hours it would take was daunting to my brain. We are choosing someplace on the Oxford side of Heathrow to travel to and enjoy for the first two days, instead.

We are excited and Dear is feeling the pressure to finish the construction of his shop by September. Now I’ll look into booking tours of places like “The Kilns” and also some walking tours. We are planning on signing up for a tour with “Go Cotswolds”, too. Decisions, decisions…

So here are some quotes from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, all who spent some time in Oxford. There is a Library in Oxford that houses a G.K. Chesterton Collection that we hope to visit.

From Letters to Malcolm, by C.S. Lewis;

“If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” And equally, if our heart flatter us, God is greater than our heart. I sometimes pray not for self-knowledge in general but for just so much self-knowledge at the moment as I can bear and use at the moment; the little daily dose.

Have we any reason to suppose that total self-knowledge, if it were given us, would be for our good? Children and fools, we are told, should never look at half-done work; and we are not yet, I trust, even half-done. You and I wouldn’t, at all stages, think it wise to tell a pupil exactly what we thought of his quality. It is much more important that he would know what to do next…

The unfinished picture would so like to jump off the easel and have a look at itself!”

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song over hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”~J.R.R.Tolkien

“He admires, but he won’t clap, which must be very discouraging” Dorothy Sayers in her book, Documents in the Case. This speaks to me on how important spoken or written encouragement is.

“Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live.” G.K. Chesterton

Enjoy the last week of February!