Banbury to Broughton – Monday 1 February 2016
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| Banbury Cross |
Welcome to 2016 and a new venture, the Cross-Cotswold
Pathway, Banbury to Bath (86 miles). The intention, when we reach Bath, is to
return on the Cotswold Way to Chipping Campden (100 miles and then on the
Cotswold Link back to Banbury (21 miles). The complete route is known as the
Cotswold Round. Should take us the best part of three years!
The potential problem of the route is that it was developed
in the 1990s and published in 1999 so we expect some of the detail to be
out-of-date. We soon found that to be the case when we left Banbury but let us
start at the beginning.
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| The "Fine Lady" |
We (P,N & T) arrived in Banbury at 10:30 on a rather
cold February, Monday (!) morning. We headed west from the railway station
through the town past Banbury Cross and the statute of the “Fine Lady”. T took
a couple of pictures. P was carrying his new walking stick and was doing an
excellent impression of “One man and his Dog” (or lost dog in this case).
We walked on up the Broughton Road following a bunch of
students from Oxon and Cherwell Valley College who had been to the sweet shops
in town and who were liberally adding to street litter by dropping and tossing
wrappers and cans as they went. Probably to our shame we didn't tackle them.
Across Woodgreen Avenue and up Bretch Hill to find that the
route was already incorrectly described. Thanks to a local gent who put us
right we walked on to the flats near Hampden Close and headed up hill again to
leave the bounds of the town (Grid ref: SP4375 4006). The area was obviously
much frequented by dog walkers and yet more piles of rubbish and litter. We
wondered why someone had struggled to drag and then dump an old mattress
halfway up the hill rather than take it to the civic dump. Sadly, in this
respect Banbury (Cherwell District Council) is no different from other urban
fringes that we have had to walk through.
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| Ironstone country |
Soon we were into rolling countryside we reasonable views to
the north and west and crossing a field with three cold looking ponies. After crossing
a couple more fields we had our first stop of the day at SP4324 3990. P was in
need of a coffee having had an exciting but tiring day the day before.
Something about an important football game!
The path went through some scrubby woodland and emerged at
the Sor Brook. Up the slope towards North Newington past a dark brown ploughed
field and a couple of barn conversions making good use of the local
“ironstone”. The village looked attractive with a mixture of old cottages,
restorations and late 20th century infills.
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| Path well trodden |
Grateful for another local resident putting us onto the
right path out of the village, we headed south across an old deer park now
occupied with sheep. Looking back was an attractive dovecote and further across
the field was what had previously been a water mill on the Sor Brook.
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| Woadmill farm |
The path headed southwest towards Broughton Park. By now the
sun had come out and it was turning into a pleasant day. We arrived at the
entrance to Broughton Park (SP4190 3855) - decision time. It was about 1pm,
could we get to Swalcliffe by 2pm to catch the bus? The next bus would be at
16:15. Or shall we head up the lane to the pub in Broughton and catch the bus
back to Banbury.
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| Gate house, Broughton Park |
Well we were all tired so the Saye and Sele Arms won and we went
and had a couple of drinks. Pleasant staff and some of the cleanest gents
toilets we had come across, so a sure 7 out of 10. Talked of pensions and
families over the drinks and then headed outside to catch the planned bus back
to Banbury Bus station.
We took advantage of the cold but sunny afternoon to head
over to T's flat (maisonette, I'll have you know) to use the loo, have a rest
and eat the remaining packed lunches before walking back to Banbury station
and bumping into an enormous dog (St.
Bernard) on the way. CrossCountry train back to our home bases.
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| Oak Tree |
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