Cotswolds part 2: ...and a pheasant in an Oak tree

Boxing Day morning was clear and cold.

  We wanted to travel down to Bibury, a village with an ancient row of pretty cottages, and home of William Morris.   

Bibury was gridlocked, we later found out they have a duck race along the river on Boxing Day (one to avoid in future)

No matter, onwards to Cirencester to find the Roman amphitheatre I had spotted on the map.  

Just outside the city walls the amphitheatre is now just a series of deeply sloping mounds, man made and where wooden seating would have been placed to hold the 8000 spectators.

 As you can see with OH for scale, it is quite big, I made a run for it up the slopes but didn't get far

With nowhere pretty nearby to stop for lunch, we turned back towards Bibury, where we found a parking space and had a look around.

I love Arlington Row, constantly being photographed by a myriad of tourists it is difficult to get a clear shot of the pretty 14th century wool store (converted to these weaver's cottages in the 17th century).

  Traditional view, I even managed to get the controversial yellow Corsa in the shot without realising it

My preferred view is looking the other way, what do you think?

William Morris lived opposite Arlington Row and his house is now a B+B, the adjoining house is a tea room where we sampled tea and cake, although it felt a little like Acorn Antiques (in a good way), with the clatter of cutlery hitting the floor every time a tray was taken into the kitchen 

 Despite the wobbly service, which just added to the charm of the place, the tea and cake was lovely, and it was nice to find somewhere open on Boxing Day

 Note the mismatched china, and every table had a different teapot

The sideboard at the end displays all the available cakes 

Well worth a visit if you are ever in Bibury

Outside and heading back to the car we noticed the evil black swan approaching down the river

He doesn't get on with the other waterfowl, and spits a lot

The following day was frosty, we had two morning visitors before we set out for the day, a pheasant in an oak tree

and a muntjac deer

We decided to set off for Bourton on the Water, another favourite place of mine, with the intention of visiting the miniature village there.  

Miniature Bourton, I'm outside Lloyds Bank

OH, by the miniature river

Real Bourton, almost the same place

Miniature Bourton again

Real Bourton again

We had a great time in the miniature village, spending almost an hour wandering round and round, it was a lovely place to visit and well worth the £3.60 entrance fee.

 The miniature version of the entrance to the miniature village

 Every shop is duplicated in miniature

There's a miniature village in the miniature village...

 and a miniature village in the miniature village in the miniature village!

Gulliver moment!

After an enjoyable stroll around the village, we were in need of lunch and so headed off to Stow on the Wold for something to eat.

Seems we were first into the dining room

 I love the wallpaper and thoughtfully appropriate Christmas decor

Lunch arrived, OH had a wild boar burger and I had a venison burger.  I'm not a big meat eater and at home sit in my comfort zone as far as food is concerned, but when we go out I like to push my boundaries and try different things

The short days of an English Winter meant it was soon time to head back to our holiday cottage, where the sunset was in full flow, complete with fog rolling in

One more post to come from our Cotswold Christmas holiday! 

Cotswold adventures part 1: Minster Lovell Hall

Attempting an escape from the over commercial ridiculousness that is Christmas in the 21st Century, we set off for the Cotswolds on 23rd December, meandering gently down the country to our holiday cottage for the week, in Oxfordshire.

We stopped in Broadway, Stow on the Wold and Burford along the way.

Burford, a small town on a steep hill with the usual selection of ancient golden Cotswold stone buildings leaning against each other, proved an interesting stop in the rain.

   

We quickly found ourselves in the basement of a grand building, mooching through stalls of new goods and second hand bric-a-brac, when I heard the strains of the Coventry Carol, and was drawn to a side room, where tables laid with jewellery and other trinkets were being sold to raise money for a breast cancer charity.  

    

I spotted this watch and was surprised to find it was for sale for just £3, it does have some issues that are not obvious but overall is in good condition.  I love watches in general rather than jewellery and especially non battery ones. I'm particularly partial to 60's and 70's cocktail watches, and have a gold colour one I bought on ebay many years ago.  It was a must have and the OH bought it for me!

We carried on to our holiday cottage for the week, an old converted barn in a very small village, but with a fabulous view.

The following day, Christmas Eve, we decided to head out to a nearby Medieval manor house, via a Roman villa, North Leigh.

North Leigh is the remains of a two thousand year old villa which had underfloor heating in 11 of its 16 rooms.  It is a free to enter site managed by English Heritage.  Not much remains of the building from above ground, but the footprint is clearly visible as you approach downhill towards it.

I can imagine what those Italian natives must have thought as I stood there in the biting December wind. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

The pillars holding the floors up and allowing the hot air to circulate are still obvious, two millennia later.

The villa was abandoned when the Romans withdrew from Britain in the 5th century.  The building you see on the right in the photo above was constructed to protect the original mosaic tiled floor from the elements.

 The information board gives a better idea of the overall look of the floor

As the building was locked, I pressed the camera up against the window and was surprised to get such clear shots

A last walk around and a look at the clearly defined rooms

We drove further in to the countryside, along single track roads with few passing places and finally came upon the village of Minster Lovell.  Through the churchyard we found the hall, it was quite a surprise to see it was so big, as again, it was free to enter.

 Original cobbled pathway 

Minster Lovell hall as you see it today is the remains of a medieval manor house built around 1430 by William, Baron of Lovell, after his return from the French wars.  

At the time William was one of the richest men in England thanks to good fortune and good marriage. 

William's son John was a servant of Henry VI and a prominent supporter of the Lancastrians and duly rewarded with the position of master forester in the nearby Royal forest. 

His own son Francis, was a favourite and ally of the Yorkist Richard III, and King Richard visited Minster Lovell frequently during his short reign. Francis Lovell attended the coronation of Richard III and was made a Viscount by the new king.

However, he was so close to the king that resentment grew in court towards him and two other favourites. Following the death of Richard III at Bosworth, the whereabouts of Viscount Lovell remain unknown to this day.

After Bosworth, the house was forfeited to the crown under Henry VII and used by the Tudors to house noblemen until it was sold in 1603 to a lawyer, Sir Edward Coke.

The river Windrush passes close by.

Descendants of Coke lived in the property until it was abandoned and part dismantled in the mid 1700's

39 feet high walls in the hall, complete with patchy plasterwork

Walking in the footsteps of a king.

It's my birthday tomorrow, the 3rd and I am 51 (eek!), so we are off out for a meal somewhere, and I have requested a day of chazzing, can't wait!

Join me soon for more tales from the Cotswolds. 

Witley Court - a spectacular ruin

Happy New Year!

As I escaped to the Cotswolds from the hustle and bustle of Christmas, here is a post I prepared earlier, from our visit to Witley a couple of weeks ago.

As much as I love National Trust properties, with their sometimes lavish interiors and opulent decor, I equally enjoy a spectacular ruin.  Thanks to membership of the Civil Service recreational association, HASSRA, I have corporate membership to English Heritage.

Our nearest English Heritage property is the Grade I listed building and Scheduled  Monument, Witley Court. 

Witley Court started life as a brick built Jacobean mansion, built on the site of an earlier medieval manor house.  It was bought by Thomas Foley, son of a prominent Midlands ironmaster, in 1655 just after the Civil War, and he and his descendants remodelled it substantially over the next 200 years, creating much of the familiar footprint that we see today.

During their term of ownership the Foleys also built the attached church, with paintings by Antonio Bellucci, and remodelled the gardens, which included relocating the village of Great Witley, as it came too close to the south side of the house. Don't you just love that idea, neighbours too close?  Just move their house back a bit!  

Church interior 

The brook was dammed to create this lake.  

On a visit a few weeks ago, the lake was part drained for work to be carried out, and thousands of freshwater oysters were revealed along the shoreline 

In the early 1800's, when family coffers were bolstered by an advantageous marriage, noted Regency architect John Nash was commissioned to build two great Ionic porticoes at either side of the property, said to be the largest on any privately owned house in England.

  Not unexpectedly, the family finances took a turn for the worse, and the 4th Baron Foley was forced to sell the property to the trustees of a minor, William Ward, 11th Baron Ward and later 1st Earl of Dudley

Ward set about remodelling the house to his own tastes and it was soon clad in Bath stone, the finish that can still be seen today.

From 1843 to 1846 Witley Court was home to Queen Adelaide, widow of King William IV and after requesting the piano to be re-tuned, the young son of the tuner, a certain Edward Elgar, became a regular visitor, entertaining guests in the ballroom by playing the piano for them. 

 The ballroom, as it would have looked to Edward Elgar

The ballroom today

In the late 1800's the house was the scene of many parties, the then Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, attended frequently.

In 1920 the house was sold again, this time to a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer, Sir Herbert Smith.  The house was never properly maintained or lived in after Sir Herbert bought it and a skeleton staff was employed to keep it ticking over.  In September 1937, a gardener noticed flames coming from the roof above servant's rooms and a strong wind carried the fire throughout one wing of the property.  An attempt was made by staff to put out the fire, there was a clever pumping system connected to the Perseus and Andromeda fountain for just such an event, which, due to lack of maintenance, failed to work.

Perseus and Andromeda fountain

The house was still liveable as only one wing was damaged, but Sir Herbert was not properly insured and so sold the house at auction to scrap merchants, who stripped the house of all the finery and valued items, some of which are scattered all over the world.

Even though the fire was almost 80 years ago, the charred wood in the ballroom still leaves a distinctive charcoal residue when you touch it.

Roofless and windowless, the house is a ghost of its former self.  Walking around you can almost hear the chinking of glassware and rustling of ballgowns, it really is an almost disturbing yet captivating place

Ornate plasterwork still intact on the wall and open to the elements

The huge curved wing joining the main house to the conservatory, designed by William Daukes for Lord Dudley.  Those empty plinths were once home to magnificent lion statues in solid marble. 

South view, church cupola visible over the massive conservatory, which had the largest curved glass roof of the time

Remains of the plate glass can still be seen embedded in the stone columns 

Conservatory where grape vines and lavender still grow 

East wing, which was the only part of the house destroyed by fire

The Perseus and Andromeda fountain has been fully restored and is currently undergoing maintenance, it will fire up again in the Spring, and is the second highest fountain in Britain, behind the fountain at Stanway House.  At the moment you can walk onto the scaffolding set up for the masons and view the fountain close up.  We could see the detail on the dragons foot and Andromeda's new hand

Andromeda is once again shackled to the rocks 

 An interesting local website here with more information about Witley and old photographs of how it once looked.

In 1967 Witley was considered to be the perfect backdrop for Procol Harum's video for their song A Whiter Shade of Pale, and historians have been poring over the video's grainy images for glimpses of the state of the building then to compare how much of it has been saved.

More information can be found on the English Heritage site here

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Witley, I may revisit my Summer photographs and blog some more about the places we visited during the year.