Burford

The High Street

We were visiting friends in the Cotswolds and the plan for this morning was a walk starting from Burford. However, the weather was very uncertain and as it started raining heavily when we arrived at Burford we decided to limit ourselves to a stroll around the town. Pevsner describes Burford as "a remarkable small medieval town". The town's prosperity was based on wool and coaching inns and unusually it had no lord of the manor before the 17th century, being governed by an alderman and burgesses. On a drier day, armed with the Oxfordshire edition of the Buildings of England, we would have got even more out of it.

We approached from the west, parked at the end of Sheep Street (pretty appropriate) and walked along it to join the High Street at about its midpoint - shops to the left going down to the river, but gradually becoming residential uphill to the right.

Immediately opposite we saw the first of many fine old houses. Pevsner dates WJ Castle to the late 15th century and comments as we did on the carved barge boards.



We walked down the high high street, dodged a shower in a delightful art gallery, and reached the medieval bridge over the swollen brown Windrush. We then turned round and went to the left to reach the church of St John Baptist.

The church is Norman in origin - we noted a typical doorway on our approach and the central tower has the typical round arches and thick stonework. The building was extended and remodeled in the 13th and 15th centuries to create the impressive but rather incoherent structure you see today.

One of the most extraordinary features of the interior is the elaborate 17th century tomb of the Tanfield family. Sir Lawrence Tanfield purchased the lordship of the manor in 1617 and this rather reduced the power of the burgesses who had previously run the town. The tomb was apparently just installed in this chapel by his grandson without permission, occasioning much grumbling. It is tempting to see it as a reaffirmation of who was now the boss.



Outside in the churchyard there is a group of bale tombs of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.



Only now could the facade of the church be clearly seen - and it was too wide to be squeezed into the frame of my camera. The porch is particularly impressive.



We returned to the High Street via Guildenford and Witney Street and were now facing the 16th century Tolsey or Court House. The tolls which were collected here were from people who wished to trade in the town's market.



Another shower drove us, without much resistance, into the Highway Inn of about 1500 where we had a nice lunch before returning home to watch England's dismal performance against Argentina.

Conditions: wet obviously.

Distance: probably no more than a mile.

Rating: four stars.