Around Painswick

If you enjoy walking in the Cotswolds and fancy snapping up a bargain, I can thoroughly recommend this book – Family Walks in the Cotswolds by Gordon Ottewell. It was published in 1989 and is doubtless long out of print, but Amazon will sell you one for a mere 93p + 1.80 p&p. It's the book that has given me my favourite and oft-repeated Cotswold ramble – The Three Rivers Walk, between Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter and Bourton-on-the-Water. I blogged about it in June 2018, and here's the link.

 

Other walks inspired by Gordon Ottewell's book and appearing in this blog include Cleeve Hill, Bibury and part of the Thames-Severn Canal.

Last week our quest to find a pub selling food and drink ended in abysmal failure, so this time we headed into the Cotswolds for our Monday ramble – an area richly blessed with good pubs. 

I'm happy to report that we were successful and, reflecting on last week's post, was tempted to title this one "There's nothing so fine as a pub that sells wine." The 'fine pub' in this instance was The Butchers Arms in Sheepscombe, and there wasn't much Savignon Blanc left in my glass by the time I snapped this photo near the end of a superb meal. Since this was my first pub meal since October 5th, I was determined to enjoy myself with whitebait for starters and steak pie to follow.  

 2½ miles from Sheepscombe lies the attractive town of Painswick, which deserves its own post on this blog. This time, though, and armed with my copy of Family Walks, we headed into the countryside for a 5 mile circular ramble.

I began to question the wisdom of my hearty meal, and especially the wine, as we set out. For some reason, my legs seemed reluctant to carry me forward! Thankfully, the feeling quickly passed in the warm spring sunshine, as we crossed fields populated by newborn lambs.

For the first couple of miles the footpath follows Painswick Stream, which used to provide power for several mills.  In 1882 Oliver's Mill was recorded as grinding corn, but appears to have fallen into disuse by the end of the century.

The outflow from the millpond would be a photogenic spot, were it not for those warning notices. I suppose they're necessary, though it would surely be a seriously deranged individual who didn't realise that the water was deep.

Ah, that's better.  Truth be told, many of my photos on this blog have been 'retouched' to remove offending objects, and sometimes even people. 

Painswick Beacon is literally the 'high point' of this ramble. To add interest, our chosen path had joined the Cotswold Way, which runs right through the middle of a golf course. Thankfully, though, those men with their little white balls were few in number when we visited.

At the top of the Beacon stand the remains of the Iron Age Kimsbury Fort. Erosion, quarrying and golf course creators have given it a battering over the centuries, but it's still an impressive spot, with fabulous views over the fair city of Gloucester.

There's nothing so drear as a pub with no beer

Monday April 12th was to be an auspicious day – the day when lockdown rules would be relaxed and pubs allowed to serve food and drinks outside.

My recently acquired AA book 1001 Walks in Britain (£5.79 second-hand) had this interesting-looking walk a few miles north of Gloucester, with two pubs clearly marked.  Surely at least one of them would be open, wouldn't it?  Their websites gave no clues.

We called in to the first on our way to the walk –The Red Lion at Wainlode. Yes, they were open, but wouldn't be serving meals until Wednesday.  We pressed on to Ashleworth.

O dear! The Boat Inn at Ashleworth stood empty and more than a little neglected.  Fortunately, we had packed a picnic just in case, so made ourselves comfortable at a table by the riverside, drank hot coffee and hoped for better days.

A little while later the owner of The Boat Inn appeared and related the sorry tale of the pub's misfortunes. The River Severn had burst its banks and flooded the pub in 2019 and 2020 and the landlord had not cleaned up properly.  Consequently, a layer of river mud had been left too long on the floors and set like rock.  It will probably take another two years to sort out.

"When I ran the pub," he explained, "I used to wash the walls and floors regularly after every flood, and we we were up a running in a few days."

Perhaps when it eventually reopens it will be renamed The Submarine Inn.