Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Cotswold Capers

Up and into our English breakfast. Very nice too! We had another long walk around the village. It is a photographers paradise.

We went into the old church and explored around the grounds. Then Geoff took us on a ramble through the hills. Lovely views.

This was the Painswick bowling green. It is the oldest bowling green Britain
The old church was very interesting.
Parliamentarian prisoners were kept here. The following is an inscription on one of the pillars inside the chuurch made by one of the prisoners.

Chedworth was next on the schedule. This is a village in Gloucestershire, England, in the Cotswolds and best known as the location of Chedworth Roman Villa.

The villa is a 1,700-year-old 'stately home' and was discovered by accident in 1864. It is the remains of one of the largest Romano-British villas in England featuring several mosaics, two bathhouses, hypocausts, a water-shrine and a loo.The water shrine became very special as the Romans used it to worship the goddess of the natural spring that gives it an endless amount of water.

The villa restoration was opened last year and it gives a comprehensive insight into life in the villa. We did the National Trust tour.

The mosaics have been covered for nearly 2000 years and they are in original condition and beautiful.

Next stop was Bibury. Bibury is situated in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds on the River Coln 9 miles from the market town of Burford.

The village was once described by as 'the most beautiful village in the Cotswolds' The village centre clusters around a square near St. Mary's, a Saxon church.

One of the village's main tourist spots and overlooking a water meadow and the river is Arlington Row, a group of ancient cottages with steeply pitched roofs dating back to the 16th Century.

Henry Ford thought Arlington Row was an icon of England. On a trip to the Cotswolds he tried to buy the entire row of houses to ship back to Michigan so that he could include them in Greenfield Village.

The Saxon church was St Mary's. It was very interesting because it was partly Saxon and you could see where it had been modified by the Normans.

It had an ancient font.

We stayed overnight in a hotel called Riverside. It was a bit like Fawlty Towers but quite quirky. Very relaxing verbal.

 

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