Cotswold Way Day 4

I woke up with the dawn chorus at just gone 5am again – there’s advantages to camping in the wild on long distance walks! You certainly get full days!!! It wasn’t raining yet, though I was filled with dread for the day ahead as the forecast I’d seen in the Waterside Inn had mentioned rain moving south through the country from the north midlands during the day. I’d been fairly cold in the tent – just at the edge of comfortable, where to get out fo the sleeping bag and put on more clothes seems colder than not to bother and stay put! Still better chilly, than rain to pack up the tent in! I was finished in minutes and brushed my teeth with remaining water from the B&B and wiped my face with a KFC wipe I’d found in my pocket and set off at about 6am again – MARVELLOUS!

View just after dawn from my pitch just before Cooper's Hill.. looking across the valley towards Birdlip.

I carried on around the edge of the escarpment through woods again and around the end of Cooper’s Hill. I recognised a part of the slope cleared of trees and grassed, as the place where they roll cheeses on a certain day of the year. Very dangerous as they chase down after them and the slope is so steep that people inevitable fall over and end up rolling in often bone crunching ways behind! Great British customs hey!? I think we’re all mad as cheese! A deer was eyeing me from half way up this grassy section of slope, not knowing whether to run or stand still in case I’d not seen it.

From here the path climbed up and around steeply to emerge at the top of the grassy hill that I’d just been looking up from the bottom, so I now got to look down it – the deer had gone.

I carried on through woods filled with bluebells and wild garlic. I hoped to catch a glimpse of Prinknash Abbey through the trees and did briefly after I’d given up any hope of doing so. It seemed an odd square place. I took a photo of a field of cows, calves and a bull as something of a rarity over the last few days, which have been full of bleating sheep instead!.

Cows, Bulls and calves.. a rarity so far on this walk.. as I leave Cooper's Hill behind.

A sprinkling of bluebells and carpets of wild garlic about to flower as I leave Cooper's hill behind

I eventually emerged from the woods onto the main road (B4070) and walked up the side of this to its junction with the A46. I crossed over and walked through more woodsto cross a lane and then through more woodland to join a lane that ran up to the golf course on Painswick Hill. The path remained straight and climbed gently up the back of the ridge and I passed the very visible remains of a fort on my right, the trees that used to hide it having been cut down. I came to a lane and turned left along it very briefly before turning right on a long and gradually descending path through more woodland and then out onto the golf course again. I rounded the cemetary wall and then cut down to a lane crossing the edge of the golf course.

Painswick was glorious! Over the previous days I’d been beginning to forget that I was actually in the Cotswolds!!! This glorious showcase town made me feel much more Cotswodlish again with its wonderful array of architecture in mellow and golden cotswold sandstone. I took lots of photos and stopped at the local shop to buy oodles of provisions!!! I carried these to the church with its amazing churchyard filled with neatly clipped yews of all shapes and sizes, the ones flanking the numerous paths criss crossing the expanse having grown into yew arches. I sat on a bench, watching the busy world go by.. lots of mothers on the school run and people off to work! I ate my breakfast of a warm cheese and onion pasty and a spinach and ricotta pasty – bliss – and a bottle of diet vanilla coke of course!! Marvellous!! Even better, the cloud cover was stubbornly refusing to increase and if anything was doing the reverse! Maybe the weather forecast of yesterday had been wrong after all!!!??

I set off again and left the main street by a lane near the church’s beautiful Lychgate. I spoke to an old man just before taking to footpaths across fields again.

Road down to the village centre in Painswick.

Typical Painswick side street.

Above: typical Cotswold sandstone houses in Painswick before buying provisions in the shop.

Left: typical Painswick street.

The clipped yew trees making archways in the churchyard at Painswick.

The pretty church Lychgate and the graveyard filled with clipped yew trees.

It was nice to see running water as I crossed Wash Brook. The house here had the most ornate, blocked off doorway with carved coat of arms etc, seemingly half buried beneath the ground?? I stopped for a rest on a bench for a while, just past farm buildings, overlooking another gurgling stream. A father and 30 something daughter passed by with rucksacks – seemingly doing The Way though they only exchanged hellos and no other gossip. I carried on after a while and began the ascent from the valley. There was a Cotswold Way stone in the first field as I began to climb, proclaiming 55 miles to Bath and on its other side 47 miles to Chipping Campden? That makes a total of 103 miles, more than the route I’m doing and so assume it refers to an earlier incarnation of the official route? I continued to climb and joined a lane turning right along it and climbing still further with views developing back over the valley to Painswick.

The odd Cotswold Way milestone with
antiquated information on it as I climbed up
from the valley bottom.

Looking back over the valley at Painswick before joining the lane up to the main road.

I came to a main road at its end and more or less crossed straight over to continue climbing higher and higher. I overtook the father and daughter going up here and exchanged a few words this time. They’d not started together. He had started on Sunday from Broadway, which seemed rather odd to not start at the beginning to me, and she had joined him yesterday to finish the route together.

By this time the sun was shining more than not and after the beauty of Painswick my spirits were soaring, especially as I’d received a text from Martin with the local weather details which suggested sunny spells with no mention of rain. It looked like I might get away with it for another day after all!!

I carried on to another road, crossing it and entering woodland and descending half way down the front of the escarpment. The beech trees were beautiful in the golden sunlight, the leaves almost day glo green in only the way that freshly sprouted beech leaves can be! Marvellous!!

I stopped for a rest on a handy boulder after a fair way and just before coming to a lane at Haresfield Hill. It was time to get the fleece off and stowed in the rucksack as it was gettign warm!! I also had a snack and a bottle of pop. While I rested the father and daughter duo passed me again.

Left: wonderfully day glo green beech trees tower overhead on the escarpment edge.

When I got to the lane I turned right down it and then off to the left up a track between a well and a house. Further along this track I came to the Cromwell Stone seat, built by the same person as the earlier well housing at the end of the track. I carried on around the hillside to Haresfield Beacon, with its beautiful panoramic views – my first glimpses of the Severn Estuary as far down as the suspension bridges across it and off into the Welsh mountains beyond it and to the north Gloucester Cathedral. I sat on the grass by the trig stoneand admired it all before setting off down the southern side of the narrow promontory of the escarpment.

The well housed in a little Cotswold Stone building.

The Cromwell Stone seat.

A wonderful view from Haresfield Beacon.

It didn’t take long to get around the edge to the next jutting finger of the escarpment and walk out to the topograph at its point. I could see the Brecon Beacons, Sugar Loaf and the Black Mountains 58 miles away!!!

I headed back in from the topograph and around the rim of the escarpment again towards Standish Wood.

I sat for a while on a bench with a view and a couple came by for a quick chinwag. The walk through the woods was long but beautiful – bluebells and golden green beech tree leaves above. When I eventually emerged at a lane with good views all around and over Stroud, I decided to turn left along it rather than straight over it, to investigate a pub marked on the map. It wouldn’t be a long detour and I decided I could do with a drink and food so that the tuna sandwiches I’d bought this morning could be used for my tea.

The lovely beech trees of Standish Wood

Alas, when I got there, The Carpenter’s Arms at Westrip was shut and indeed only opened midweek lunchtimes on Wednesdays?? Hey ho! I was a bit disheartened and tired by it. I rejoined the official Way along a lane and then cut down hill across fields. I found a fallen tree trunk cut to be a flat topped seat and so decided to sit for a good hour or so for a good long break and rest properly. I also spent the time writing up the diary and eating the tuna sandwiches. It was very pleasant and 3 other people doing the Way passed by while I was writing, along with a phonecall from home.

I set off on my way again at about 3.15pm after chinwagging with a bloke who huffed and puffed his way over the field to me to sit on my ‘bench’ before heading back. He was on a physio walk after having a hip replacement operation. After a small rise it was all down hill to cross the railway line and then walk down the side of a school sports field to the main road. Opposite was a Wyevale Garden Centre so I went to buy drinks and provisions, but they only had a drinks machine. I asked if there were any shops nearby and they said that there was a garage just down the road. It was in the wrong direction for me, but rather than dehydrate and starve for the night I had to go and investigate. It was in fact only a couple of hundred yards so well worth the extra steps! I bought a Ginster’s cheese and onion slice and some cheese and tomato sandwiches and a couple of bottles, drinking one there and then to rehydrate and save carriage.

Stanley Mills as I leave Kings Stanley

I set off back down the main road the way I’d just come and then beyond down to a mini roundabout where I turned left to go past a row of brick mill workers cottages and over the Stroudwater Canal, followed by the River Frome. I emerged at the busy Ebley Bypass, which didn’t even exist in my guidebook, it being instead a disused railway line on the maps in there. I crossed over it and walked up past the impressive Stanley Mills on my right. Just after this I took to a field path again off to the right, which climbed slightly and diagonally away from the road to overlook the houses on the edge of Kings Stanley off to my right.

I got the impression that Manor Farm didn’t appreciate walkers, with lots of path diversions around the farm from when the guidebook was printed. These diversions were narrow and complete with stinging nettle encroachment, and there was planting of crops with no attempt to delineate a path through them, and ploughed fields with no signing at all. I eventually found my way to Middleyard village, emerging at the impressive chapel building and turning left at the lane and then right up a track. A severe climb up very narrow paths with numerous ‘Private’ signs everywhere didn’t help ease my feeling of intruding!!! Maybe I was just tired by now?? By the time I joined the semi flat woodland path following the countours half way up the front of Pen Hill I was certainly tired!

Lovely walk through more beech woodland along
the front face of Pen Hill.

It was a pleasant walk around the edge of the escarpment through ever beautiful beech woodland – wonderfully vibrant at this time of year! I emerged after a while onto a pasture field on the hill, with St Leonard’s Priory visible below to the right. I wandered througha herd of cows and then back into woodland again for a good while. I eventually began to climb again though fairly steadily and diagonally up the scarp slope through the woods.

I eventually emerged at the large car park and picnic area at Nympsfield. The long Barrow here was nice, but nowhere near as complete as Belas Knap. The flat expanses of mown grass looked like a campsite. It was very tempting to pitch up, even though I’d promised myself to get ahead of guidebook schedule for the first time on the walk and make it to at least Cam Long Down before setting up for the night! I carried on to the far edge of the visitor car park and crossed the stile. There, just beyond, was the most perfectly sized tent shaped hollow, sheltered from the by now quite strong and cool wind and I made the decision there and then.

The view ahead from Nympsfield at the edge of the escarpment.

I set up the tent and went to sit on a nearby bench to eat my cheese and tomato sandwiches, bacon fries and bottle of diet coke. I took my boots and socks off while sitting there, to air my damp and smelly, worn looking feet (ouch!), but they soon turned literally blue in the cold wind, so I decided to go to bed. This wasn’t a particularly wise decision as shortly after I’d zipped up the tent flaps several people arrived to fly model planes off the edge of the escarpment (made evident by the conversation and the numerous crash landings). I was tempted to get out and watch but didn’t, partly through tiredness and not wanting to be sociable, but also didn’t want to be told off by them for being there. They left not long before dark and I could finally go to sleep…a late night for this trip! I must have been about 8.30ish!!

The wonderful evening view from my tent pitch at Nympsfield, Cam Long Down, where I'd hoped to reach, being the hill on the right and Uley Bury being on the edge of the escarpment on the left.