Chipping Camden Town HallToday, after a good deal of discussion, we began the Cotswold Way, which we are going to walk, over however long a period it takes, with our friends Merv and Pud. It runs from Chipping Camden to Bath - a distance of 102 miles - so it could take a while.
The Way begins by the Town Hall. It turns out that when we did our one previous walk in Chipping Camden we had actually walked its initial section - there are also a couple of nice pictures of the market hall and church, and later of Dover Hill. We knew we were on the Cotswold Way, but not that it was the actual start. I don't know where we thought it did start.
You walk down the high street, turn right by the catholic church and begin a long but reasonably gentle climb up to Kingcomb Lane and then on to Dover's Hill. On the way up our target for today, Broadway Tower, was visible off to the left.
The view south from Kingcomb Lane was also very agreeable for its subtle changes of colour and shading.
We walked along the edge of the Cotswold scarp at Dover's Hill (230m) and enjoyed the wide open views across the Vale of Evesham.
We then walked along a field edge and soon entered a long wide grassy drive - the Mile Drive, presumably an old drove road. Like so many other places this year it was thickly carpeted with dandelions.
Then the path led us to the picnic area at Fish Hill on the A44. We crossed and began the climb up Broadway Hill towards the Broadway Tower. Soon there were fine views to the west with Bredon Hill visible across the Vale of Evesham and the Malverns just discernible behind it.
And then we passed through a winding valley, embellished with sheep, to reached today's destination: the Broadway Tower.
The Tower (312m above sea level) was built in 1799 as a folly for the 6th earl of Coventry by James Wyatt. It is a six sided structure with towers at alternate corners. One of the later tenants was Cormel (Crom) Price a close friend of William Morris, who stayed there with his family. (A full account is available on the Broadway Tower website).
Map: Explorer OL45 (The Cotswolds).
Conditions: dry, sunny, warm.
Distance: 5 miles, or perhaps a bit less. A gentle introduction. At this rate it will take us at least 2 years to do the whole thing, so perhaps in the future we will have to push on a bit further.
Rating: four stars. A wonderful introduction to the Cotswold Way.
Flowers of the day
Two classics: Red Campion ...
... and Cowslip.
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