On Monday the 29th June 2020 Pete and I drove the 2 and a quarter hours drive to Lower Slaughter in the Cotwolds and parked up next to the church where there is free parking.
Viewranger File here
The village is built on both banks of the River Eye, a slow-moving stream crossed by two footbridges, which also flows through Upper Slaughter. At the west end of the village there is a 19th-century water mill with an undershot waterwheel and a chimney for additional steam power. There is a ford where the river widens in the village and several small stone footbridges join the two sides of the community. While the mill is built of red brick most of the 16th and 17th century homes in the village use Cotswold limestone and are adorned with mullioned windows and often with other embellishments such as projecting gables.
The name of the village derives form the Old English term "slough" meaning "wet land".
The 1944 film "Tawny Pipit" was filmed here.
Lower Slaughter has been inhabited for over 1,000 years. The Domesday Book entry has the village name as "Sclostre". It further notes that in 1066 and 1086 that the manor was in the sheriff's hands.
The village had a small school by 1863, but it was closed in 1931.
Lower Slaughter Manor, a Grade-II listed 17th-century house, was granted to Sir George Whitmore in 1611 and remained in his family until 1964. The lords of the manor resided in the property until 1961.
The 13th century Anglican parish church, Grade II listed, is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. Much of the current structure was built in 1867, based on plans by architect Benjamin Ferrey.
We walk up Copsehill Road, past some lovely expensive properties.(They are pricey I've checked!).
At the end of the road we take The Monarchs Way footpath.
The Monarchs Way is based on the lengthy route taken by King Charles II during his escape after defeat by Cromwell in the final battle of the Civil Wars at Worcester in 1651, when for six weeks the 21-year-old was hotly pursued by Parliamentary troops. It takes in Boscobel (the Royal Oak Tree), Stratford upon Avon, the Cotswolds, Mendips and the South Coast from Charmouth to Shoreham. There are many historic buildings, features of interest and antiquity, with connections to numerous other long distance routes. The whole route is now 615 miles in length following the battlefield paths (5 miles) in Worcester becoming definitive and it is the longest inland trail within England.
We walk through a herd of cows that thankfully wasn't in the least bit interested in us.
This stretch of The Monarchs Way also shares it with Macmillan Way.
A 290 mile route devised to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support to which all proceeds are donated. It runs along sea banks and river banks, across the Lincolnshire fens via Stamford, eventually to Abbotsbury on the Dorset Coast. From the fens it follows, as near as possible, the course of the oolitic limestone belt, called 'Cotswold' stone in that area, but found in slightly varying form from South Yorkshire to Dorset.
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| A Wild Flower Meadow |
Crossing the River Dikler we are on the Gloucestershire Way for a very short stretch.
A 94 mile route through the Forest of Dean, Severn Plain and Cotswolds linking the Wye Valley Walk and Offa's Dyke Path National Trail to the Severn, Cotswold, Oxfordshire and Heart of England Ways.
We pass Hyde Mill, a water-powered corn mill, with attached granary and store, and including the water wheel, milling machinery, and 2 steam engines. Late 19th century, with minor 20th century alterations.
Here I did originally plan to follow The Heart of England Way , but I take the wrong path and continue on the Monarchs way walking through a herd of sheep and goats.
This weather doesn't know what its doing, one minute the sun is out, then windy and cold. The fleece is off and on, I finally give in and leave it off!
I notice a bit too far on that we're on the wrong path and decided to alter my route rather than track back.
So we walk through Netherwells Manor Farm.
We eventually walk out onto Fosse Way the A429, a busy road with huge lorries thundering past.
It is a long slog uphill.
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| A glimpse of Paradise from the A429. |
After a while we pass where our planned path would have came out and we walk into Stow On The Wold, we'll soon be off this road!
The town was founded by Norman lords to take advantage of trade on the roads converging there. Fairs have been held by royal charter since 1330; an bi-annual horse fair is still held on the edge of the town.
We walk down Sheep Street then take our first left down Church Street.
We reach St Edwards Church.
The Church of St Edward is an ashlar Cotswold stone Norman church, its parts dating from the 11th or 12th to the 14th century except for its tower and clerestory of the 15th century. It stands on the site of the original Saxon church, believed to have been made of wood. The tower and clerestory required substantial funds, provided by the community's wool trade which directly enriched the medieval rectory. The church was also renovated in the 17th century and in 1873.
The church features a four-stage tower from the 15th century, with corner buttresses to the second stages, two-light supermullioned bell openings, battlements adorned with blank arches, and crocketed corner pinnacles. A projecting rectangular turret on the southwest side houses the stair. The parapet includes pinnacles and a string course with gargoyles. The tower was completed in 1447, is 88 feet (26.8 metres) high and houses the heaviest ring of bells, eight in all, in Gloucestershire. A clock with chimes has existed there since 1580, and the present clock was built in 1926. The painting of the Crucifixion in the south aisle was painted by Gaspar de Craeyer (1582–1669), a contemporary of Reubens and Van Dyck. Many notable features of the Cotswold church can be attributed to the town's prosperity as a trade centre.
St Edward's Parish Church north door flanked by yew trees.
We leave the church behind and walk back along Church Street to the Market Cross.
The town's main source of wealth in former times was wool, and sheep from the surrounding hills and villages were brought to the fairs in the Square where it is said that as many as twenty thousand were sold on a good day. The narrow alleyways called 'tures' leading from the Square to the perimeter of the town were constructed for the better control of animals. The Market Cross was erected as a symbolic reminder to the traders of medieval times to deal honestly and fairly. Although restored and repaired several times, a cross has stood here since the 15th century. After the local gasworks opened, there was a gas lantern at the top.
Stow-on-the-Wold, originally called Stow St. Edward or Edwardstow after the town's patron saint Edward, probably Edward the Martyr, is said to have originated as an Iron Age fort on this defensive position on a hill. Indeed, there are many sites of similar forts in the area, and Stone Age and Bronze Age burial mounds are common throughout the area. It is likely that Maugersbury was the primary settlement of the parish before Stow was built as a marketplace on the hilltop nearer to the crossroads, to take advantage of passing trade. Originally the small settlement was controlled by abbots from the local abbey, and when the first weekly market was set up in 1107 by Henry I, he decreed that the proceeds go to Evesham Abbey.
On 21 March 1646 the last battle of the first phase of the English Civil War took place one mile north of Stow on the Wold. After initial royalist success, the superiority of the parliamentary forces overwhelmed and routed the royalist forces. Fleeing the field, the royalists fought a running fight back into the streets of Stow where the final action took place, culminating in surrender in the market square.
Hundreds of prisoners being confined for some time in St. Edwards.
In 1330, Edward III set up an annual 7-day market to be held in August. In 1476, Edward IV replaced that with two 5-day fairs, two days before and two days after the feast of St Philip and St James in May, and similarly in October on the feast of St Edward the Confessor (the saint associated with the town). The aim of these annual charter fairs was to establish Stow as a place to trade, and to remedy the unpredictable passing trade. These fairs were located in the square, which is still the town centre.
As the fairs grew in fame and importance the town grew more prosperous. Traders who once only dealt in livestock, now dealt in many handmade goods, and the wool trade always stayed a large part of the trade Reportedly, 20,000 sheep changed hands at one 19th century fair. Many alleyways known as "tures" run between the buildings of Stow into the market square; these once were used in the herding of sheep into the square to be sold.
As the wool trade declined, people began to trade in horses, and these would be sold at every fair. This practice still continues today, although the fair has been moved from the Square, and is currently held in the large field towards the village of Maugersbury every May and October. It is still a very popular fair, with the roads around Stow being blocked for many hours on the day.
There has been controversy surrounding Stow Fair. The large number of visitors and traders has attracted more vendors not dealing in horses. Local businesses used to profit from the increased custom, but in recent years most pubs and shops close for 2 or 3 miles around due to the threat of theft or vandalism.
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| A Austin A40 Devon. |
We walk on down Digbeth Street.
We pass The Porch House PH, England's Oldest Inn 947AD.
There is a long-held tradition that part of this building was once a hospice built by order of Aethelmar, Duke of Cornwall in 947AD on land belonging to Evesham Abbey.
During alterations in the early 1970s, some timber in the building was carbon dated to 50 years either side of 1000 A.D., which would seem to confirm the tradition. Jack James, joiner and carpenter, who worked on these alterations, describes “the rear wall of the original building was a timbered wall framed together with oak timbers of approximately 9 inches by 5 inches, spaced about 12 inches apart, and a groove chopped in the centre of the edge of each timber. Oak split laths would then be dropped into the grooves, and plastered on both sides. This is now an inside wall”.
Since the Evesham Abbey records were lost at the Dissolution of the Abbey in 1537, we have no certain knowledge of the use to which it was put, which might have altered several times in 550 years.
During the later part of the 16th century a stone house was built on the site incorporating the original Saxon timber building. Jack James describes the roof space above the bedroom ceiling as “a beautiful timbered roof with roof trusses and purlins with moulded edges and shaped wind braces”. In what is now the dining room there is a very fine 16th century fireplace with incised symbols at the side which are said to be protection against witches. In 1976 Mrs. Winnie Sadler, who had lived in the house in her youth, told of a mouldy old shoe discovered in a hidden cupboard over an old fireplace. It was long and narrow, with a square toe, a style in use around 1600, at which period shoes were often put in chimneys to ward off evil spirits.
A long room upstairs had a frieze along the outside wall of winged horses with the head and torso of a woman, similar to one at Chastleton House which was built at the beginning of the 17th century. The piece removed when it was divided into two rooms has been preserved.
There are extensive cellars left when the stone was quarried to build the house. During the occupation by the Army in the 1939-45 war, an entry was found in the present bar with steps down to a cellar, and to a passage leading in the direction of Maugersbury. A number of other such passages have been found in Stow leading nowhere, and it is possible that they were used for storage.
The house was disused by 1712, when a suggestion was made to turn it into a Workhouse or House of Correction, but nothing came of it.
The house later became an Inn, the Eagle and Child. Under the modern kitchen, a fairly recent extension, and outside the medieval building, Jack James records that “there was a space some 3 feet deep and about 12 feet square with a fireplace in one corner with a stone hearth and a flue”. It has been suggested that this might have been a cockpit belonging to the inn, since cockfighting was popular during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
About the middle of the 19th century the building was turned into two houses, Porch House and Holmlea. The stone canopy over the window towards the west shows the doorway to Holmlea. The fireplace in the western wall was incongruously modern. When it was removed in the mid 1990s, a series of five fireplaces were found showing various modernisations going back to the early 18th Century and finally revealing another 16th Century fireplace.
The conversion into a hotel dates from 1970.
We walk down Park Street before walking onto Chapel Street towards Maugersbury.
We now walk into Maugersbury,the town is said to have originated as an Iron Age fort on its defensive hill top position. Indeed, there are many similar forts in the area, and Stone Age and Bronze Age burial mounds are also common.
Maugersbury is located less than a mile from Stow-on-the-Wold, which was originally called Edwardstow after the town's patron saint Edward (possibly Edward the Martyr). During Saxon times it is likely that Maugersbury was the primary settlement of the parish, before Stow was built as a marketplace by the Normans in 1107 AD, to be nearer the cross roads. Maugersbury was listed as MalgeresberiAe in the Domesday Book of 1086.
The Maugersbury Enclosure Bill was passed in 1766, and later the village was the location of the Stow on the Wold Union Workhouse.
We stop to have lunch on a cast iron rocking bench with the amazing views in the picture above.
Walking on we rejoin the noisy A429 and head back downhill where we take the A424 for a distance before we cross to take a footpath a little way past the Fosse Manor Hotel.
Its just fields for a way now, nothing much to look at, but we were in fact walking along a disused railway track.
Just past Heath Hill Cottages there were some really friendly horses that came up to say hello.
Then once they smelt we had food in our backpacks they chased down the field trying to bite the packs open.
They eventually gave up and we passed through a gate.
Then out onto a road we walk to our left a short way towards Wyck Rissington.
We take another path across fields on the Oxfordshire Way/Diamond Way.
We cross back over the River Dikler again.
We walk out onto Station Road and into Bourton On The Water.
We pass by The Manor on Station Road.
A 17th century Cotswold manor house of traditional style. The garden front was altered in 1769 . Originally Bourton Manor, it has been called The Manor since circa 1900.
We reach the High Street opposite the Victorian Christmas Shop and turn right into town.
Bourton On the Water was certainly busy, but we were told this was in fact very quiet for this time of year.
Bourton-on-the-Water's high street is flanked by long wide greens and the River Windrush that runs through them. The river is crossed by five low, arched stone bridges. They were built between 1654 and 1953, leading to the moniker of "Venice of the Cotswolds".
The village often has more visitors than residents during peak times of the tourist season. Some 300,000 visitors arrive each year as compared to under 3,500 permanent residents.
The earliest evidence of human activity within the Bourton-on-the-Water area was found in the Slaughter Bridge gravel-spread, where Neolithic pottery (dated c. 4000 B.C.) was discovered. Moreover, excavations of the Salmonsbury Camp give evidence of almost continuous habitation through the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age and throughout England's Roman period (c. 43 to 410 A.D.). A Roman road, Icknield Street (also known as Ryknild Street), ran from the Fosse Way at Bourton-on-the-Water to Templeborough in South Yorkshire. Ancient Roman pottery and coins discovered in the village itself give clear evidence of extended Roman occupation.
The village was served by a passenger railway between 1862 and 1962. Tourism did not became a significant factor in the village until the 1920s and 1930s. The Model Village opened in 1937. There was a significant increase in the population between 1931 and 1951.
The houses and shops in the village are constructed of the yellow limestone characteristic of the Cotswolds and they have the embellishments that make Cotswold architecture so picturesque: projecting gables, string-courses, windows with stone mullions, dripmoulds and stone hoodmoulds over the doors.
We walk up to the Motor Museum currently closed still due to the Covid19 lockdown.
The museum's collection includes cars, motorcycles, bicycles, caravans, and motoring memorabilia of the 20th century.
The museum's toy collection includes pedal cars, bicycles, toy cars, buses, aeroplanes and other vehicles, model kits, meccano built into vehicles and structures, wooden and metal vehicles, and penny tin toys.
The collection also includes the children's television star Brum, when he is not in use. The museum also features in the show's opening title sequence as Brum leaves the museum, where he is on display, and heads into the Big Town. It also features in the closing sequence as well, when Brum drives back into the museum.
The museum was founded in 1978 by car collector Mike Cavanagh, who also features in Brum. In 1999 Cavanagh sold it to the Civil Service Motoring Association, a not-for-profit organisation, who continue to run it.
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| A Millstone sitting in The River Windrush. |
After a little shopping for presents for the family we walk on.
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| A Morris Minor Van. |
We reach St Lawrence Church.
St Lawrence, Church of England. It is a Grade II listed building. A part of it was built in the 14th century but major modifications were made in the 1780s and in the late 1800s.
By the 11th century a Christian church, Norman, was established and the village had developed along the River Windrush much as it is today. Centuries earlier, a Saxon timber church was located on that site since about AD 708, built on the site of an old Roman temple. Some of the St Lawrence church on that site today was built in the 14th century but most of it is from the 17th and 18th centuries.
We leave the Church and walk on down Lansdowne before taking a right turn up Mousetrap Lane and a footpath that runs behind the houses.
We cross the A429 and out into fields beyond heading back to Lower Slaughter.
We walk out onto a country lane before taking a path past a Equestrian centre and into Lower Slaughter.
We ditch our bags and I change out of my boots and we walk up through Lower Slaughter.
We reach The Old Mill Museum.
A mill is recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 on the site of the The Old Mill. In the 14th Century it had begun to be known as Slaughter Mill and by the 18th Century had become independent of the manorial estate.
In its later years The Old Mill, situated on the River Eye came into the ownership of the Wilkins family whose cousins ran John Wilkins & Sons at the nearby mill in Bourton-on-the-Water, now the Cotswold Motor Museum.
From the First World War up to 1958, the last year of flour production, the business at the Old Mill, Joseph T. Wilkins & Sons, was run by grandson Joseph Morris Wilkins, known to his friends as Morris. Joseph Wilkins was the last of four generations to mill at Lower Slaughter, as sadly on the 10th May 1958 he suffered a heart attack whilst on a day out to Lyme Regis in Dorset Morris had two daughters, Pauline and Susan but no sons, so regrettably no-one in the family was able to continue the business.
In 1959 Alfred and Edith Collet bought the bakery business at The Mill turning part of the Mill House into a local Post Office and Shop. Followed by their two sons Toby and Stephen, together with daughter Linda, Collett’s Bakery grew steadily. In1992 they moved to larger premises at Manor Farm in Upper Slaughter, and sadly went out of business.
The Old Mill re-opened its doors to the public for the first time on National Mill Days, Sunday 14th May 1995. By removing the floorboards of the milling room you are able to see the two sets of stones which were used for both grist milling and flour milling.
We sit next to The River Eye and dip our feet in the cool water, watch the Brown trout float by as we drink my homebrew MacBrew Shipwrecked IPA. All was going well till Pete dropped his sock in the river.
A fabulous end to the day. You know what of all the places we've visited today, Lower Slaughter is my favourite!
A great 11 mile walk , now for the drive back home!
