Today’s post is 1475 words, 29 photos, a 7 minute read. Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
Welcome back. This week I’ll take you on our walk from Bourton-on-the-Water along the River Windrush to the village of Naunton, a distance of 4.5 miles. If you missed the earlier posts in this series, click here, here, and here.
Onward to Naunton
After a delicious breakfast (I had the sausage sandwich) at the Chester House Hotel in Bourton-on-the-Water, we were back on the trail. The day was sunny with hazy skies and rising temperatures. It was getting warmer and a bit more humid during the day.
During the first part of our walk, we retraced some of the steps we made the day before. At the junction of a couple of walking trails, we took the trail to the left that would take us to Naunton. The walk generally followed the River Windrush.
Sometimes the river was below us as we climbed a couple of gently sloping hills. This took us among some of the tallest pine trees. At one rest stop, we pondered how tall they were, our estimate was 80 to 100 feet (24-30 meters) tall.
Early in our walk to Naunton, we passed this shed with a stunning African safari mural painted on the two sides we could see from the trail. It was a complete switch from the usual limestone buildings or the occasional nondescript metal buildings we saw on some of the farms we passed. Our theory is that it was a remembrance of a trip taken by the owner. 
During our seven days of walking, we often commented on the rocky fields planted to wheat, barley, canola (rapeseed), and peas. The farm equipment used to plant the seeds into this soil must be quite sturdy. On the farm I grew up on in North Dakota, we had rocks that needed picking but not an abundance of small stones like this. 
Here’s a scene of the countryside. We walked past one farm where the farmer was working on a rake hitched to a John Deere tractor.
We were trying to improve our observational skills when we came upon an area along the trail covered with spiderwebs like the one below. The grass and webs were wet with dew making for an interesting view of nature at work.
The River Windrush flowed gently along its winding path through the Cotswolds. It was close to this area when we were passed on the trail by two groups of bicyclists. One guy told us to stay on the trail, not sure what he meant. The trail was in a pasture with plenty of room. A little bit later, a couple we recognized from the Chester House ran past us. They were young, spry trail runners. We met up with them a little later as they were petting a couple of horses in a paddock. 
It was nice to have a sign tell us where we were!
We saw many of these creamy white flowers on what I think is a hawthorn tree. In a few places the scene was fill with them.
There were a lot of horses on the trail today. Here two graze on the green fresh grass. One must have been cold because of the blanket. Just kidding, probably a show horse.
Do you see the fence at the top of this hill? That was our destination up this fairly steep hill. The gravel path was hard to walk on, we wondered how the bikers faired on this hill. At the top, we met up with the trail runner couple. They were petting the two horses that had their heads hanging over the fence. We took over when the runners moved on. One of the horses licked my arm incessantly, I think for the salt from perspiration. That was fun but we too had to move on.
As we approached Naunton, the day was becoming warmer. We were looking forward to some shade and cold drinks. Our water supply was running low.
Naunton
Naunton, population about 350, is another village that has been in existence for over 1000 years. Some estimates suggest there has been a settlement in this valley for over 2000 years. That’s a long history for a tiny town. This is the last we’ll see of the River Windrush as it heads off to the north.
We passed the now closed Naunton Baptist Chapel. The locked churchyard contained the war memorial with the names of thirteen men who were killed in World War I and one that died in combat during World War II.
We saw these signs in some of the villages and towns we passed through. They are starting to pop up in our neighborhood in Madison after the speed limit in most residential areas was lowered to 20 MPH from 25 or 30.
We were happy to see The Black Horse Inn in Naunton. In last week’s post, I referred to Naunton as a “one horse town” meaning The Black Horse. That’s not exactly true, just before reaching The Black Horse, we stopped to pet a couple of horses in a paddock in the middle of the village. Apparently, the training of race and show horses is a big business in Naunton as one of the most sought after trainers has a stable nearby.
Anyway, The Black Horse is the only place in the village that serves food and drinks. We took a seat inside to get out of the warm sun. We enjoyed sandwiches and cold drinks, then made a reservation for dinner that evening.
About a quarter mile down the road, we came to our lodging for the night, the Millview Guest House. Our luggage was waiting for us and our rooms were ready. We took a shower and a short siesta. In the photo below, the room my Traveling Partner and I stayed in is the one with the windows open. It let in fresh air and we were drying out our hiking socks.
Dovecote
We had plenty of time before dinner so we did some more walking. We visited Naunton’s main attraction, the Dovecote situated next to the River Windrush. A dovecote is designed to house pigeons or doves. The Lord of the Naunton Manor apparently built this dovecote in the 1600s as a sign of prestige or high economic status and secondarily as a source of food. This Dovecote originally had 1200 holes where the birds could nest. This was all new to us, we’d never heard of such a thing. Fortunately, the bulletin board and a brochure provided everything we needed to know about this dovecote. We also lucked out, there was a man trimming the grass in the yard. He’s visible in the background in the photo below. He told us his wife is involved in the group that preserves this dovecote, he was assigned to mow the grass. We learned a lot from him but he had to get back to work, his wife was waiting supper for him!
Here’s a view of the interior of the dovecote. The bottom pigeonholes were blocked off during World War II when chickens inhabited the building. This prevented them from laying eggs deep in the pigeonholes.
As we walked up the hill from the Dovecote, we saw these concrete pigeons resting on what looked like mushrooms. They were the only pigeons we saw.
Out of Naunton
Our walk took us out of the village proper. While the sheep in the photo below looked like it was standing in tall grass, it wasn’t. To us it looked like a rectangle of wool plopped in the pasture. Or maybe she was hot and the grass offer a bit of cooling.
This was my favorite photo of the day. Note the white horse in the foreground and the corresponding white horse in the background. The plastic garbage bags are filled with horse manure and sell for £2/bag or about $2.75 USD. Hey, I hear it’s good for your garden.
On our way back to the village, it’s announced by a nice sign.
This repurposed red telephone booth that was once famous across the country is now holds a defibrillator. A smart idea. There should be some at the top of a couple of nasty steep hills we had to climb during our seven day walk.
We were back at The Black Horse Inn for dinner. We were seated at the same table where we had lunch earlier. This time I noted the ceramic poppy that once was planted in the moat of the Tower of London during the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. We were there in 2014 when they were still working to fill the moat with these poppies to honor the more than one million citizens of Great Britain that perished during that war.
Meet Pat, our hostess at the Millview Guest House in Naunton. It’s the only lodging in the village. We enjoyed visiting with her during breakfast. We talked about her garden, she is trying to minimize the care it needs. She runs the inn on her own, her husband is deceased. The house has been in her family since 1947. 
That does it for Naunton. I’ll finish with a review of the five senses.
Touch – stone wall, moss, horses, flies
See – butterflies, flies, spiders/spiderwebs, flowers galore, sheep, cows, many horses, a few dogs, bicyclists, runners, fields of small grains, ducks, geese, dovecote, historic homes and gardens, tall pine trees, race horse stable, crows
Hear – crows, blues music at lunch, lambs, people talking in the pub, flies buzzing, rushing water in the river, traffic
Taste – smoked salmon, orange juice, raspberry jam, beef with dumplings, beer, cider, lemonade (really Sprite), fries (chips in England), garlic toast
Smell – horse, horse dung, fresh air, pine trees, dog pee, food cooking, dove or pigeons in dovecote
Things we learned (a new category we added to the five senses) – about dovecotes, public phone booths may contain a defibrillator, there were Baptists in Naunton at one time, pubs give generous helpings suggest sharing
Join me next when we’ll walk the eight miles to Winchcombe. Find out what record was set in the Cotswolds on that day.
Until then, happy travels!
Tom
PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM