Castle Combe

The day before Storm Ciara struck was dry, sunny and not too cold; in fact a perfect winter's day for a ramble. Flipping through the pages of our little book The Cotswolds: 40 Town and Country Walks, we alighted on walk No.4 – Woods and Valleys by Castle Combe. Neither us had ever been to Castle Combe, so the choice was made.

This is the view for which Castle Combe is probably best known – a row of picturesque cottages beside a bridge over the By Brook.  What a gem of a place it is, and only 40 minutes' drive from our home.

From the same bridge, this is the view up the brook, with St Andrew's Church in the distance. That was to be our next destination, though photographing it proved to be a challenge.

The churchyard is quite small, so I couldn't get far enough away from the church to get a good picture. Consequently, the tower appears to be leaning away from the camera – a effect known as keystoning (posh name, 'perspective distortion').

My PhotoPlus program offers a couple of ways to correct this effect. The first (left) simply reverses the keystoning, resulting in a keystone-shaped photo.  Not ideal, but the tower does look better.  The second way is more clever, in that it adjusts (distorts?) the whole photo.  That's impressive, though unfortunately I've lost the church porch in the process.

Inside the church, this is the final resting place of Sir Walter deDunstanville (d.1270).  He has his feet on a lion and a hand on his drawn sword, indicating that he died in battle. He also has his legs crossed, which shows that he went on a couple of crusades.

I photographed him because I wondered whether there might be a Cornish connexion. Reginald deDunstanville (c.1110-1175) was the 1st Earl of Cornwall and an illegitimate son of King Henry I.  He wisely backed Matilda during The Anarchy, was rewarded with his earldom and is famous for addressing a meeting in Truro with the words "All men, both Cornish and English...", affirming Cornwall as a separate country (Hurrah!).  Sadly, though, I couldn't find a Sir Walter in his family tree.

Outside the church stands the Market Cross.  Clearly someone had decided that it wouldn't stand much longer without some care and attention, and had surrounded it with a corrugated iron barrier.

That was a great pity as it's rather an attractive structure. I did, however, manage to snap this photo through a gap in the barrier. We shall have to return one day to admire the renovators' handiwork.

All of which reminds me that we were actually here to do a walk!  It turned out to be a pleasant one, albeit extremely muddy in places.  So rather than bore you with nondescript photos of fields with muddy paths, I offer these two... (OK, I admit it. In truth, I got so engrossed in the walk that I forgot to take many photos.  Silly me.)

This very smart bridge over By Brook is in the middle of a golf course. A notice advised us to look out for flying golf balls from the right. In the opposite direction there's a bell to ring, to advise golfers of ones approach. I'm pleased to report that we passed through unscathed.

Finally, here I am relaxing, part way though my exertions, washing my muddy boots in the stream.

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