Stourport and the Cotswolds

Saturday, 16th December, 1989

Drop Cap oday it poured and poured! The Severn and the Avon and lots of little streams are very high. We decided to do the washing at the laundrette, do some shopping and visit the old folk. A lazy day. Mac's father has been in bed apparently since last Tuesday. I hope the night out on Monday wasn't too much for him. I offered to cook Christmas dinner but he insisted that we stick to the plan of going out for it. We telephoned Olwen and we will go to see Kay, her daughter, and family next Saturday night. Christmas Eve with the family, to telephone home, Christmas Day with the family. I can't believe it is so close, even with the towns all decorated. It doesn't feel right to be just jaunting around sightseeing when I feel I should be making mince pies, and preparing all the food for Christmas. But all the little market towns are full of twinkling lights, looking so much like traditional Christmas cards that you find yourself looking for Victorian carollers with lanterns on sticks.

 

Sunday 17th December, 1989

Broadway Tower photograph

Broadway Tower


Drop Cap lthough it rained all night and blew a gale, we decided to head for the Cotswolds. A very good decision as it happened for, although wet underfoot, the day cleared and we saw the sun and blue skies! The Cotswolds are really lovely, the real England. Chess board fields, rolling hills, green meadows, dry stone walls and lovely little Georgian villages built of grey stone and looking as if they had grown there. We spent some time wandering around Broadway which we only saw briefly before. It is VERY picturesque. Then we went to see Broadway Tower, a grey stone structure whose purpose is obscure (at least to us, I think it is a Victorian folly of some kind) but picturesque for all that.

Bourton on the Water photograph

Bourton on the Water


Drop Cap hen we drove, via Bourton-on-the-Hill, Moreton-in-Marsh, and Stow-on-the-Wold (love those names!) to Bourton-on-the-Water. It is a very self-consciously beautiful town where the main road flows beside a duck-laden stream with several humpy backed bridges crossing it. Lovely. We drove on towards Chipping Norton and had lunch in a layby with a prospect of rolling downs and hills with the sun behind them. Then, going by the tourist map, we went off the beaten track to find the "Rollright Stones". These are the remains of some very weathered standing stones which stand in two fields with the road between. A stile leads to the "King Stone" and a public footpath to the "Five Knights". Quite interesting. We drove home in daylight, amazingly until after 4 p.m. It's been getting dark about 3.30 lately. Had afternoon coffee and a mince pie at Bewdley and so to home. It was very clear tonight, I saw the stars for the first time in England.

 


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