Bourton-on-the Water

A nice little family day out to Bourton with our daughter and daughter-in-law and their babies. We headed from the car park towards the village passing the wonderfully named Old New Inn.

Soon we reached the wide shallow stream, the River Windrush, (the chap standing in the stream gives a clear indication of how shallow it is).

I found myself wondering if the river has always flowed in such a wide, shallow bed. It seems that it probably has, judging from the dates of the five bridges, a map of which can be found here. The picture below shows Paynes Bridge of 1776 and behind it the New Bridge of 1911.

Continuing along beside the river you come to the High Bridge (1756).

Just after this, on the left, is the splendid Victoria Hall, now a Fleamarket.

At the end of the main stretch is the Mill Bridge (see picture at the head of this post), the oldest one, dating from 1654.

We decided to explore a bit more and continued to find St Lawrence's church on the right hand side of the High Street. This very attractive church is now mainly Victorian, but has a 14th century chancel and a Georgian tower. I loved the skull and cross-bones over the tower entrance.

We saw a sign for the Warden's Way and decided to explore a little further, walking along a pleasant path with a school on the left. it joined a busy road however, so at that point we retraced our steps and went off to find somewhere to eat.

We discovered that the Warden's Way links the Oxfordshire Way at Bourton-on-the-Water and the Cotswold Way at Winchcombe. We have in fact walked both the Oxfordshire Way and the Cotswold Way, but made the link between them using another option, the Windrush Way.

Conditions: a very pleasant day.

Rating: four stars. A very enjoyable family day out.