Cotswolds Day 2 – Winchcombe to Broadway 9/21/24

Saturday, September 21, 2024

9 miles

We took a taxi back to Winchcombe the next morning and met up with our guide for the day, Robert. We had booked one day with a guide, simply to tell us about the history of the area and it was nice to not have to worry about staying on the path, as he knew the track from memory. Mom and Dad stayed behind to explore and let Mom rest up from the first day’s hike. The weather today was probably the best we had the whole trip. Sunny and cool for most of the day, with only a slight shower in the afternoon for 10 minutes or so.

We came to one of the older churches we would see on this trip. This one, Hailes Church next to the remains of Hailes Abbey, dates back to I believe the 13th century at least (the Abbey is from 1246 and the church is said to pre-date the Abbey) and still has some original frescoes still visible on the walls. Super cool.

We stopped for lunch just after at Hayle’s (different spelling) Fruit Farm, which was a nice place to grab a juice, coffee, and a pastry to fuel up for more hiking.

We hiked on to the village of Stanway and the house of the “His Lordship”, which Robert mockingly called the Earl (?) who technically lorded over the lands we were walking. He explained to us how the Earl lived in the house by himself and how the old medieval peasant fields were still visible in the earth, creating a rolling landscape of mounds, which I have heard by others referred to as the “Cotswold Wave”.

We hiked on to the next town of Stanton, which was quintessential Cotswold cottages with the yellow limestone. We would love to have a home here, but they were all well over a million pounds to buy.

Moving on through the pastures, we came to our last town of the day in Buckland, though it was really just a few nice homes here and there. We chuckled at this sign, as Robert really doesn’t think much of the Royals apparently.

We also found one of the few functioning pay phone booths still around.

And Courtney got to pet a sheep. These sheep were specially bred by this family and Robert thinks they are kept as pets, which is why they are much less timid than most we had encountered.

We finished up the hike into Broadway and stopped at Robert’s favorite pub, The Crown & Trumpet, for a pint with him to end the day. Mom would rejoin us tomorrow, as would the rain.