Cross-Cotswold Pathway: Stage 7

Cirencester to Kemble Station – Friday 21 April 2017

If you are keeping note you will know that it is five months since we were last this way. Sorry about that. On the positive side, our group has increased by 25% with the A joining us at the beginning of the year. Our activities have been limited though by the usual work commitments, family duties, bouts of colds and other infections and poor weather. As reported in a recent post we have been trying to keep the joints flexed by our “training walks” with the result that we were confident that we could do this trip out to Cirencester to push on down the Cross-Cotswold Pathway.

We agreed in November that we would skip the North Cerney to Cirencester section and would start in the old Roman town of Corinivm. We joined the train at Didcot and we were speeding to Swindon when A pointed out that further down the deserted standard class carriage was Jeremy Corbyn (at the time of writing Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party) and his team of two female advisors. No sooner had A mentioned this than the said C came up the carriage to go to the loo stopping to chat to us about where we were heading, how he had been taken around all the Roman sites when a child, etc, etc. C believed he had met A before but that might have been an ice breaker. We didn’t discuss politics nor did we seek a selfie but we were left with a good impression of a reasonable chap. As P said “he seemed like a bloke you might see down the allotments who you would lend your watering can to”. Like us C and his party got off at Swindon, us to catch the bus to Cirencester and him and his mobile-phoning assistants to be ferried off to a meeting in south Swindon.

Royal Agricultural University

That excitement over we caught the 10:20 bus to Cirencester and about an hour later set off walking from the centre of this town, Grid Ref: SP0244 0188. Cirencester was busy with market-day pedestrians including one chap who walked past us wearing jodhpurs presumably he had left his horse at the saloon. The route was a bit of a drag out along the traffic-noisy  A419 and then the A429 (Fosse Way). After about 25 minutes from town we were able to turn off and head through the grounds of the Royal Agricultural College (now University), (SP0046 0122) following the Monarch’s Way again. It was much quieter and we were able to catch up on the news and find out what N had been up to, work-wise in the Caribbean.

The weather wasn’t sunny, but not too cold, perfect for walking and we made good progress westwards, accompanied by spring bird-song and new lambs bleating, towards the line of the disused Thames and Severn Canal south of the village of Coates. Way back in 2011 we had walked along this same canal as it joined the upper Thames near Cricklade (Roman Way).

How did this get here?

We eventually joined the canal at SO9790 0004 and walked along the old tow path.

There has been much talk over the years of using the route of the canal as a way of transferring water from the relatively water rich Severn catchment into the Thames catchment with its higher water demand. The canal bed is in a pretty poor state with large trees, agricultural debris (see photo of old plough) and waste dumped into it with more than likely high seepage rates. It seems unlikely that the canal would be reinstated with that objective in mind, more likely the course could be the route of a pipeline (?)

It was the railway that did for the canal

At the GWR railway P & T were interested to see a South-West train using the line. Was this the Southampton to Cheltenham service? We will investigate the timetable when we get home.

18th Century Gothic round house

Shortly after the railway crossing of the canal we came across a “ruined 18^th century Gothick (sic) canal round house”, (SO9701 0011) the purpose of which we couldn’t ascertain. There was a nearby “useful” bench so it was time for our respective picnics.

Further on the canal has been restored and is water-filled up to the eastern portal of the canal tunnel. According to the nearby information board this tunnel under the Cotswolds to the valley of the River Frome and hence the Severn. When it was built it was the longest canal tunnel in Britain, and remains the fourth longest. In the winter, when there is sufficient water depth the local conservation society offers boat trips into the first section of the canal tunnel.

Eastern portal, Thames-Severn Canal

The adjacent Tunnel House Inn (SO9656 0061) beckoned so we went and sampled the Butcombe Ale, though A had Carlsberg. The pub was rather warm inside with a large log fire so we opted to sit outside. After a while we thought it was a bit chilly and therefore time to be heading off. We rated it 6/10 though P conceded that it had nice toilets.

Thames Path starts here

To make use of public transport we needed to divert to Kemble station and retraced our route for 1.5km and then turned south on the Wysis Way (a link between Monmouth and Kemble) to join the Thames Path, in fact to the beginning of the Thames Path, (184 miles to London etc).

The source of the Thames (ST9805 9952) is marked by a large granite stone bearing poorly decipherable writing (it doesn’t come out on the photo). T remarked that granite was hardly a local stone and this large lump of igneous rock certainly intruded into the landscape (this is a geological joke.) The spring was all dried up and looked more like the site of a camper’s barbecue. We wondered how the water could flow from there to create the water course as there was no discernible channel. We plodded on across the field to Thames Head where we could imagine a better defined channel.

Thames source

Across the pastures to just to the north of the village of Kemble and then we saw the train departing for Swindon, it was 16:05; T thought the train was at 16:25! Never mind. The next train was in about an hour so we found the imaginatively named “The Tavern” pub, (ST9846 9746). We swelled the customer count by 400% and surprised the landlady by asking for four teas. Actually it was a most welcome cuppa. The bar started to fill up and it became clear that this was a favourite “watering hole” for commuters. Arkle’s ales were on offer and because of the friendly nature we rated it 7/10.

Back to the station to fiddle about getting tickets to Swindon from the machine and then the HST, that was on time. T carried on directly to Reading and A, P & N changed at Swindon for the following train to Didcot.

We will need to plan the next stage carefully, should we stick to the recommended route and the Macmillan Way and end up near Stroud or be rebellious and keep on the Monarch’s Way to Tetbury? (The later would mean a Pulham’s bus and you know what we think of them!) 

Good walking, we managed 7.7 miles. Dry and not too hot, nor too cold “Goldilocks weather”. Good to be out in the Cotswold countryside again.  Perhaps it has to be C-day, Cotswolds, Cirencester, canal tunnel and Corbyn.