A walk around the Cotswold Village of Coberley

By: Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

This week I am going to suggest a walk along a section, a very small section of  The Gloucestershire Way

The full walk takes you from Tutshill, near Chepstow, through the Forest of Dean and down into the Severn Vale to Gloucester, then up Crickley Hill to the Air Balloon, and on into the Cotswolds taking a great sweep through Coberley to Stow-on-the-Wold before doubling back through Winchombe, finally finishing in Tewkesbury, a distance of 100 scenic miles. The section I’m going to talk about is about the tiny but very historic village of Coberley which lies near Severn Springs, above Cheltenham.

Interestingly, two years ago the tiny village of Coberley featured on national television because the Channel 4 Time Team arrived for a 3 day archaeological dig in a nearby field and uncovered two magnificent roman mosaic floors. Further finds gave them sufficient evidence to assume that they had uncovered the ruins of a high status late 2nd century villa and large country estate. The then owners had chosen a sheltered site near Ermine Street a major Roman road linking the important fortress towns of Cirencester and Gloucester.



Coberley village Church

Twelve hundred years later a large medieval stately home at Coberley became the childhood home of Sir Richard Whittington, thought to be the Dick Whittington of Christmas pantomimes, but I race ahead. The big house has long since gone, so a visit to the village church has Dick’s picture on the wall and the south chapel reveals some interesting stories about the Lords of the Manor and their families.



After the Norman invasion in the 11th century records show that the powerful Berkeley family owned vast areas of land including land at Coberley.  In about 1270 Sir Giles Berkley II travelled to the Holy Land with Prince Edward, and his large army to fight in the crusades. On their return home Sir Giles now a knight, member of parliament and important public figure settled into Coberley Hall and entertained his Prince who had become King Edward I.

When Sir Giles favourite war horse died, he had it buried in the churchyard, the horses headstone has its name, LOMBARD inscribed across it. You can see the headstone as you make your way to the church door. When Sir Giles died his body was buried in Little Malvern Priory church, however his heart was brought to Coberley for burial and there is a monument beside the altar, on the south wall of the sanctuary with a carved image of a knight holding a heart.



Sir Giles was succeeded by his son Sir Thomas who fought at the battle of Crecy with King Edward III. He died about 1350 and his tomb and stone effigy are in the south chapel. His widowed second wife Joan married Sir William Whittington of Pauntley. This was a very rash thing to do as they hadn’t sought permission from King Edward, to marry; so Sir William fell out of favour with the king as well as the Berkeley family, and was forced to live as an outlaw, he died a few years after Richard was born. Joan returned to Coberley where Richard was brought up. Joan was probably buried in the Berkeley family tomb as her stone effigy lies next Sir Thomas’s on top of the tomb.

A walk around the Sherborne Estate, Gloucestershire

By Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

Today I'm going to recommend an easy, interesting family walk in the Cotswold countryside.

The walk is around the National Trust land at Sherborne Park just off the A40 between Northleach and Burford. This is an easy 21/2 mile walk which should take around an hour and a half to complete. There are lots of things to discover on the way, such as wildlife sculptures, the village church, an ice house, stone quarry and many more. Parking is available at the Ewepens car park. There is no access to the magnificent Sherborne House which is private property but it can be seen through the trees during the walk.

A very good guide about the walk can be downloaded from the internet. It’s a pdf file from the National Trust and is titled Sherborne Family Fun Walk. I find it very useful to take with me, particularly if there are children in the group, to help them find the 15 points of interest along the way.

The history of Sherborne is interesting. During the Middle Ages the Sherborne Estate was part of a huge area owned by Winchcombe Abbey. The monks kept large flocks of sheep which grazed on the pastures all round the Cotswolds. At shearing time the sheep were rounded up and brought to Sherborne where there was a fast flowing brook for washing them before shearing. You can see the brook and its waterfall during the walk. Merchants came from Flanders and Italy to buy the fleeces and paid the Abbey large sums of money, making it very wealthy.

Winchcombe Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and a Thomas Dutton bought the estate and built himself a stately home. The house you see today is the second house on the site, the first one was carefully dismantled, the stones numbered and stored for re using in the second building in 1830.

The Duttons and their descendants lived at Sherborne for about 400 years. Probably the most interesting member of the family was a Sir John Dutton known as Crump Dutton who was one of the richest men in England. He was a passionate gambler, and built 17th century Lodge Park nearby, as a grandstand to entertain friends and gamble on the deer coursing that took place there. History books say that on one of his all night gambling sessions he rashly staked Sherborne Estate, but when his servant heard spectators saying “Sherborne’s up” he rushed in and removed his master bodily from the table and took him home.

Despite all the gambling and high living the Dutton family managed to hold on to Sherborne House until the second world war when it was taken over by the army and the Duttons moved into Lodge Park and made it their home.

Sherborne later became a school before being sold and in the 1980’s it was converted to private apartments. In 1983 Charles Dutton the 7th Lord Sherborne died without any heirs and the land was gifted to the National Trust. It’s through this gift that we are able to enjoy this lovely countryside.

A walk along the MacMillan Way from Chastleton to Adlestop

By Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

I’m going to recommend a walk along part of the Macmillan Way from Chastleton to the village of Adlestrop in Gloucestershire.

The Macmillan Way, is a long distance footpath, which was given its name to raise awareness of the work of MacMillan, an organisation that supports people affected by cancer.

This section of the walk is particularly interesting as you pass an Iron Age Hill fort, stroll through leafy woods as well as enjoying lovely views.

As you get towards the village of Adlestrop, at the fork in the road you may be surprised to see the name of the village written on a chocolate and brown coloured railway sign positioned at the back of a bus shelter. There’s also a bench with a metal plaque attached to the back rest. On closer inspection you will be able to see that there is a poem inscribed on the plaque which starts.

Yes I remember Adlestrop
The name because one afternoon,

Of heat the express train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat,
No-one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop – only the name.

You can read the entire poem in the bus shelter. The poem was written in about 1915 by Edward Thomas (one of the Dymock poets) just before he was tragically killed in action during the 1st World War. Adlestrop station is no more. It was demolished in 1966. The sign and the platform bench are all that remain of a station made famous by one chance stop, and the opportunity of a passenger to write a poem.

A walk into the pretty village takes you past honey coloured cottages and an attractive thatched Post Office. Head towards the church and you will learn of another famous writer who visited Adlestrop.

The Reverend Thomas Leigh, rector of the church in the late 18th and early 19th century, was Uncle to Jane Austen. Jane, her mother and sister Cassandra came to stay with him on a number of occasions.

And it’s probable that the grounds of Adlestrop Park and Adlestrop Rectory which you can see through the trees were landscaped by the great Humphry Repton and were mentioned in Jane’s novel Mansfield Park.

This is just a small village with some powerful literary connections. A stroll back to the village post office will enable you to buy some refreshments, teas and coffees and some delicious home made cakes.

A walk to the Source of the River Thames

By Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

It was nearly 2,000 years ago that Roman invaders settled on two hills above a wide tidal river, it was the perfect place for the soldiers and merchants to build a town which they called Londinium. The river which wove its way past this settlement was The River Thames, and it not only gave the Romans a good defensive site but was also recognised and developed because of its strategic and commercial importance. Today Londinium has become London and is now one of the major capital cities of the world and all along the banks of the River Thames so many historical sights and connections to our nations past.

Bur how many people who visit Gloucestershire from London realise that the River Thames rises here in our county in a field just outside Cirencester. Today I’m going to take you to the source of that River, the great river that made London.

For the short walk to find the source of the River Thames I suggest that you follow the footpath south of the village of Coates, nr Cirencester and make your way towards the village of Kemble as shown on Explorer map 168. The route is visible as it’s been trodden down by the many walkers who have gone before. You’ll have open fields on your right and after a short walk come to a wood on your left. The source of the Thames is situated at the top of the field beyond the trees. This remote site and the start of the Thames walk is marked by a sturdy wooden signpost with two signs pointing straight ahead. The top sign reads Thames Path and has a black acorn symbol alongside to show that it’s a national trail. The bottom sign gives the distance of the path all the way to the Thames Barrier, beyond London, - a whopping 184 miles or 294 Kilometres. That is where the footpath finishes but the River has another 30 miles to go before it gets to Southend and finally flows into the English Channel.

Close to the signpost there’s a large engraved stone to mark the source of the river. This marker replaced a reclining stone sculpture of a long haired, bearded and bare chested Father Thames, a much more fitting symbol for England’s greatest river. It was increasing vandalism that meant that in 1974 the statue had to be taken away to be repaired. Sadly the statue was never returned. Old Father Thames was found a new home and now reclines alongside St John’s lock at Lechlade.

Beyond the marker stone there’s a circle of small stones on the ground under a very old ash tree, this marks the spring and in very wet weather may produce a small puddle, but when I was there, there it had dried up, as is often the case, so, no chance to drop a stick into water here and watch it float its way down river. The source of the Thames, for most of the year is an underground supply of water and I had to cross two fields and the A433, the Fosse Way, to find the evidence of the proper river flowing above ground. From here the river meanders past the Gloucestershire villages of Kemble and Ewen and on towards Somerford Keynes and The Neigh Bridge Country Park, which is a landscaped flooded gravel pit, in the Cotswold Water Park. Here you can rest, enjoy a picnic and watch the wildlife, and maybe recall the story of the Wind In the Willows, when mole held up both fore-paws and gasped “Oh my, oh my”, because he thought the river so very beautiful.