Gloucester

Whilst in the Cotswolds earlier this year, I visited the City of Gloucester. It was only a 15 minute drive from where we were staying and as I hadn't been there before decided it was a good opportunity to call in on my way back to London. It is not a large city with c130,000 residents but it does have a well known cathedral.

In 679 a minster was built here which later became a cathedral. The present building was begun in 1089 as an abbey. In 1216 Henry III was crowned here. A large fire in 1222 meant it had to be rebuilt. The cathedral contains the shrine of Edward II  who was murdered at the nearby Berkeley Castle. Following the dissolution of the monastries by Henry VIII in 1536, the Abbey was refounded as a cathedral. The cathedral went through much restoration in the 18th century. It is a Grade I (the highest grade).

 

This is St Michael's gate which is the entrance to the Lay Cemetery of the Abbey. It was also used by pilgrims to visit the shrine of Edward II.

Beatrix Potter's 'Tailor of Gloucester',  'lived' in the shop to the left of  this gate.

This is the Shire Hall with the Crown Court at the back of the complex.

In the same vicinity is this Grade II listed building which was the Prison Governor's House. HMP Gloucester opened in 1792 and closed in 2013. The prison stood on the site of Gloucester Castle, whose Norman Keep served as the county jail before it was demolished in the 1780s. The new county jail opened in 1792 with basic sanitary conditions and separate cells, a new idea at the time. It was substantially rebuilt in 1840. More than 120 people were hanged at Gloucester between 1792 and 1939. Those executed were buried in unmarked graves within the prison walls, where they remain today. Guided tours of the prison are available but not on the day I visited.

The River Severn runs through the city.

Gloucester Docks is one of the furthest inland dockyards in the country but does lie close to the River Severn and the Sharpness estuary.

 Elizabeth I gifted the City the status of a customs port in 1580. The main basin at Gloucester was constructed during the 19th century for canal boats that would arrive via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal from the Severn Estuary.

Most of the warehouses around the main basin were built for the storage of grain. They all have thick brick walls, a slate roof and strong wooden floors supported by cast iron columns.

The Mariners Chapel was built in the docks to serve a multicultural mix of seamen and boatmen. The church also provided basic education for their families and established the docks first coffee shop. It opened in 1849.

Newer housing developments .

A Victorian postbox.

I liked Gloucester very much. There was far more to see than I realised and I was very pleased I had made the effort to visit.

Pride and Prejudice

 

If any of you have ever watched the BBC series 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austin then you might recognise Pemberley and the lake that Mr Darcy swam across.

This is Lyme House in Cheshire where it was filmed. I made a detour on the way home from visiting family in Leeds.

Cotswolds Day 3

 

On our second walk we drove a few miles from where we were staying in the Cotswolds so that we could walk a different section of the Cotswold Way. We wanted to have a look at Cooper's Hill which is known for the annual cheese rolling race. 

This is a bizarre event where a 3-4kg round of Double Gloucester cheese is sent rolling down a 180m hill with a slope of approx 50% (26.6 deg). Competitors then race down the hill to try and catch the cheese. As the cheese has at least a one second head start and due to its shape can reach high speeds, it is not easy to achieve. There are often injuries as runners fall trying to catch the cheese. Multiple races are held on the day with separate events for men and women. The event is held once a year on Spring Bank Holiday which is the first Monday in May. It is thought this event started at least six hundred years ago.

 A photo just couldn't do justice to how steep this hill is and I couldn't comprehend why you would want to run down it. You can see how easy it would be to fall and injure yourself. 

At the bottom of the hill is this bench with a dedication to one of the winners.

Using a pathway we climbed to the top of the hill and had a tentative look over the edge.

 The plan is to walk back to where we are staying and then a couple of us will drive back to the starting point to retrieve the car.

Once again the sun was shining and the temperature was perfect for admiring the beautiful Cotswold scenery.

The path takes you alongside a golf course. Golfers are well aware of people on the path and should wait until they are out of reach but one golfer managed to hit way off the fairway and caught P on the back of his leg. Luckily he was OK but maybe that was a lesson to the inexperienced golfer to be more patient and give walkers a chance to move out of their way.

Walking through the woodland, the wild garlic was in full bloom and the air was full of the aroma.

We decided to stop for lunch at the Painswick Rococo Gardens. 

Description of the garden from their website

The Painswick Rococo Garden  was fantastical in both its character and inspiration. Squeezed into a valley with deceptive vistas juxtaposed with serpentine paths, the Garden is peppered with charming follies to surprise and delight. 

It was a fairly short walk from the Gardens to the village.

Arrived back in the nearest village to where we are staying, Painswick.

Just a couple of miles and then back to our home for the week. We probably did about 8 miles but we are not counting. The aim this week is to enjoy one another's company whilst enjoying the walking.

A very welcome sight when we returned home for us to sit around the table with a cool drink and have a rest. We now had to decide who would give T a lift to go back and collect his car.

Day 2. The Cotswolds.

Our first walk of the week. We decided that we would try and walk some sections of the Cotswold Way this week. It is a 102 mile national trail going from the SW to the NE of the Cotswolds. The word 'wolds' means rolling hills and that really sums up the Cotswolds. In between the rolling hills you find quaint villages built from honey coloured stone.

Today's walk would be mainly on the Cotswold Way and then we would leave it after a few miles to circle back to where we are staying. 

The bluebells were really past their best but we could still see a few clumps in flower.

We lost count of the number of stiles we had to climb over. In Kent where I walk frequently most stiles have been replaced with kissing gates which make the walk more accessible.  Climbing over high stiles becomes increasingly more difficult as I get older.

There were some steeper inclines than perhaps the word rolling suggests.

No end to the stunning views.

A well maintained wooden bridge with a small stile at the end.

The walk took us through the village of Painswick. 

The church is from the 14th century with the spire added in 1632. Sadly is was destroyed by lighning in 1883 and then later rebuilt. The churchyard is known for its 99 yew trees, planted in 1792. Legend has it that a hundredth can never be grown because the devil will pull it out.

Just outside the village back on the Cotswold Way is a memorial to Tony Drake a principal creator of Cotswold Way.

In the village where we are staying is this house covered in wisteria.