Maugersbury to Cold Ashton – Friday 24 June 2016
As predicted on our last walk, we undertook this sector of
the Cross-Cotswold Pathway on the day after the European Referendum. Much of our conversation was therefore taken up
by the events of the previous day and the result. These posts are meant to
record our walks through Middle England, to provide us with a record of what we
did and what we saw (or missed), rather than to comment upon current affairs
however the result of the ER on 23 June 2016 is likely to have a major impact
on us, our children and later generations therefore we make no apology for
touching upon the “Brexit” subject from time to time. (Editor: For our overseas readers "Brexit" is a phrase invented by the popular media in the UK meaning "British Exit from the EU".)
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| Hyde Mill |
For the record we started off from Oxford station on board
the train to Moreton-in-Marsh. The day looked fine though rain showers were
forecast for later.
We found a tea room in the town for a coffee (and tea-cake
for some) and N took time to check in with the office (!) before joining a
largish crowd of people waiting for the bus to Stow and Bourton (Editor: For
Moreton read Moreton-in-Marsh,
Stow read Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton read Bourton-on-the-Water). Eventually the crowded bus set off and we debussed at the junction of the A429 and A424 near Maugersbury, Grid Reference: SP1897 2434.
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| Water meadows |
The route followed the Macmillan Way for most of the day. We
made good progress down a farm lane towards Hyde Mill on the River Dikler (SP1794 2434). The old mill looked to have been
turned into a luxury home.
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| Cottages - Lower Slaughter |
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| Lower Slaughter church |
Across water meadows towards Lower Slaughter and met
a chap walking the other way who quizzed us on the the best way to walk through
a field of cattle. We were at that time in a small paddock with some apparently
docile cows, SP1718 2371. After an exchange of opinions about cattle, how best to approach
them (avoid them) we set off towards Lower Slaughter.
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| Welcome to Lower Slaughter |
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| Did you not see the earlier message? |
This along with its
sister village of Upper Slaughter are famous icons of Cotswold life and
pictures of the River Eye meandering through these villages with their stone
cottages feature on many a calendar. The village was moderately busy with
day-trippers taking in the views. To our minds though the place didn't appear
to be very welcoming (see attached pictures taken at SP1635 2245).
Suspect the “leave” vote was big here.
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| View across the Windrush valley |
A rain shower was rapidly approaching and we just caught the
edge of it. Out came the water proofs as
we approached the top of the ridge at SP1565 2190
known as Buckle Street (Anglo-Saxon). The rain soon stopped but
it was a good time to stop for lunch and we found a convenient wall over
looking the Windrush valley, SP1533 2181.
There was still a threat of rain as we headed down to cross
the Windrush at Aston mill and under the line of the disused railway line from
Kingham to Cheltenham, SP1481 2124. It started to rain again as we walked along the edge of
a wheat field and then up through a field of rape seed. By the time we reached
the road to Cold Ashton (SP1379 2016) we were very wet. T's trousers were completely sodden,
“I was trying to save weight and didn't bring my over-trousers”. N was OK he had shorts on. We squelched
our way into Cold Ashton and found the Plough Inn, SP1289 1974. Beer was good and we rate
this place 7 out of 10. It was good to take half-an-hour to dry out.
The sun came out as we headed-off towards the A429 (Fosse
Way) to catch the bus back to Moreton. We were now heading off the
route, down a quiet lane with dog roses all around, to catch the bus which was
clearly scheduled on the Travel Line website, SP1423 1878. Well to cut a long wait short, the bus
came, sped past, and didn't stop. We were left on the side of the road thinking
ill of Pulhams Coaches. Luckily the lady in the adjacent stables offered us a
lift into Bourton, for which we were very grateful.
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| Dog roses |
Here we were in Bourton again. We started the
Oxfordshire Way from here back in 2008! We decided that it was time to phone
for a taxi and after some searching found someone who turned up after a short
wait. It gave us time to observe tourists wandering in and out of twee shops
around the village. The taxi driver sensibly suggested going back to Kingham
station rather than Moreton as the traffic through Stow and into Moreton is
dreadful in the late afternoon. He also added to the poor reputation of Pulhams
Coaches by telling us of passengers who had not been let off at intermediate
stops. For those of you who may remember we were caught out by Pulhams on 31
October 2014 at Little Faringdon as that bus never turned up at all.
The train was on time and we headed off to our respective
homes ready to complain to Pulhams and to face a week of political news and
excitement following the Brexit vote. Planning for the next few sectors is
going to be difficult if we can't rely upon the bus, which we have now named “Pulhams
– we stop at nothing or for anybody – Coaches”.
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| River Dikler |
PS: We contacted Pulhams Coaches and after about a week they
responded that they didn't stop at the intermediate stops. They implied that it
wasn't their fault that publically available websites gave the intermediate
stops (there are many clearly showing the bus stops), it certainly wasn't their intention to stop at them! To our minds
Pulhams have the monopoly of rural routes in this part of Gloucestershire and
are only interested in serving the tourist trade between the major hyphenated
towns of the Cotswolds.
