Winchcombe. This village was where T and C's Aunt and Uncle lived their lives and it holds many memories. The house they lived in, until their recent passing, still had a 'for sale' notice. Quite sad. We walked long the street up to the church and went inside where we chatted for a while with an old gentlemen who remembered their Aunt and Uncle. The church itself was again beautiful, and we spent a while in there. We continued our walk into town and decided that morning tea was a damned fine idea. We spotted a nice looking tea shop, Juri's, run by a Japanese guy, coincidentally named Juri. While he was Japanese the tea served was very English. It was all very good, and quiet - morning on a grey Friday in Winchecombe is like that I guess. Suitably refreshed we wandered back to the car drove to nearby Sudeley Castle and looked in the gates. We didn't really have time to stop and visit, we'll do that next time.
 |
| Inside St Peter’s Winchcombe |
Onwards. Our next destination was listed in the guide books as a beautiful village, with no shops and not too many tourists. Stanton sounded good so that was our next stop. It lived up to the billing. This is now my favourite village. Very chocolate box, but somehow unspoiled. We did the walk up and down the main (only) street. Of course that's pretty much all you can do here, but it's free, and worth every penny.
 |
| Just us and the horses in Stanton |
From here we drove off to Broadway, didn't stop here. On to the Slaughters (got to love those names). The grey day was turning showery at this point so our Slaughter sojourn was short-lived. Worth the visit though.
Burford was next on the list. We stopped here and did the shops. Then we decided that lunch was now or never and found a nice place, whose name I forget. The food was good, but I wasn't allowed to buy a cake or pastry to take away. Slowly back to the car and off to our last stop in Bibury. We eventually found a park - not an easy task in Bibury - and set off to view the sites. By now the Japanese tourists were starting to turn up, but I guess they are allowed to look as well. Apparently they love the Cotswolds, well, who wouldn't. We hadn't seen any on our travels before but we saw several groups today.
 |
| The Row Bibury - an arty shot of the roofline |
Back to Cirencester. We had a bit of a rest and then set of for a pre-booked (several weeks earlier) dinner at The Potting Shed Pub, Crudwell (another neat village name), near Malmesbury. This was originally done as a celebration dinner for Christine's 60th birthday. Not quite on the day but close enough. Malmesbury was her birthplace. It also turned out that it was also Tricia and my wedding anniversary (whoops - I'd forgotten), so it was definitely all cause for celebration. The food and ale was very nice, and the surroundings were great.
 |
| At The Potting Shed - Mike took the pictures |
Back to Cirencester in the dark again.
Tricia had documented today with:
Tour of Cotswolds. Went to Stanton, Winchcombe, Broadway, Slaughters, Burford, Bibury. Lovely day even though weather not good. Out for dinner at The Potting Shed Pub, really nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment