Today’s post is 1450 words, 28 photos, a 7 minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

This week I’ll take you on a walk from Stanton (UK not North Dakota USA) to Chipping Campden, a distance of  10.5 miles. This is the longest distance on our seven day 50 mile walk in the Cotswolds.

If you missed the earlier segments in this series, click here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Onward to Chipping Campden

After a good nights rest, we were up at 6:30 AM and ready for breakfast at 8:00. Angela prepared eggs, bacon, toast, and a nice array of fruit. As we were preparing to head out for our walk to Chipping Campden, she suggested an alternative route to the village of Broadway that would skip a steep, high hill that was on the Cotswold Way route. We eagerly agreed to this plan. She also told us there was a nice history of Stanton and its people available at the church for a donation of £1 (about $1.35 USD) that we would pass on the alternative route.

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels has been on this site since the 1290s. As Rick Steves says, “This church was built with wool money.” After a quick peek at the ancient church and dropping a one pound coin in the donation box, we picked up the history brochure and headed out on the trail to Broadway.

It was a little claustrophobic walking between the hedgerow and the stone wall. Fortunately, it opened up into a pasture where sheep were grazing.

We had a few gentle hills to climb that took us to a ridge overlooking the countryside. On this alternate route, we passed two small villages, Laverton and Buckland.

Warning signs offered us some humor on the trail. I have a question: “Was this sign warning the chickens or warning us to be on guard when approaching chickens?” For your information, we did not see any chickens walking the trail or any attack chickens as we walked the trail but we did see some chickens doing what chickens do, cluck and peck the ground.

After a few hours of walking, we came over a ridge and saw the village of Broadway in the valley below.

Broadway

Often referred to as the “jewel of the Cotswolds,” Broadway takes its name from the wide main street. With a population of over 2500 people, it’s a destination for visitors who enjoy the many shops and restaurants that line High Street, the main thoroughfare.

Before approaching the town center, we passed the Parish Church of St. Michaels and All Angels built in the 1830s. On the way into town, the trail took us past the back of several homes. There was a couple working in their garden. They stopped their work to chat with us and offer some suggestions of places to stop in Broadway.

The first thing I noticed was the war memorial for those who gave their lives in World War I and II. 

Further on, we stopped to use the public restrooms in the large parking lot a block off High Street. The city was busy on this first weekend of May, a bank holiday. In the UK, bank holidays are days when most businesses and non-essential services are closed or at least have limited hours. People take these seriously often heading to places of recreation such as the Cotswolds.

After stopping briefly for refreshments, we were back on the trail. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this sign outside a card shop given all the sheep we saw on our walk.

This gaggle of dog walkers was headed in the same direction as we were. In a few minutes we would know why.

The Broadway Tower

One of the main attractions in Broadway is the Broadway Tower. To reach the tower on Beacon Hill (the second highest point in the Cotswolds), visitors (and walkers on the Cotswold Way) have to climb this steep hill, an elevation change of 770 feet (235 meters). For a couple of seniors, this was the most grueling segment of the whole seven day walk. We huffed and puffed up the hill, taking several rest stops along the way. We made it but it was a challenge. The photos I stopped to take on the way up (and catch my breath) don’t show the steepness of the hill. Photos of people descending tell a better story.

The wind at the top of the hill was quite brisk, I added a layer to keep warm. What we did find at the top in addition to the tower was a car park. If we’d a known how difficult the hill was, we would have hired a taxi or Uber to take us to the top.

The Broadway Tower rises about 65 feet above the surrounding landscape. It is said that on a clear day, visitors can see nearly 60 miles in any direction. Built in the 1790s by the William George, the 6th Earl of Coventry for his second wife who loved the countryside. During the two World Wars, the tower played a minor but essential part in the security of the country even though it had been converted to a farmhouse. In the late 1950s during the Cold War, the tower was equipped to monitor nuclear fallout. A nuclear bunker was built in the early 1960s that was staffed continuously until 1991. Even then, the tower was renovated by the owner and opened as a tourist site in 1974. It was busy the day we stopped to admire the building before continuing on to Chipping Campden.

The rest of our journey was unremarkable. The high hills were behind us and well trod trails were ahead.

At one point, we had to cross a busy road to the Fish Hill Picnic Place. We took a break at one of the tables and checked out the informational signs on the Cotswolds and Cotswold Way National Trail.

About a mile from Chipping Campden, we came to Dover’s Hill, a property of the National Trust, a heritage and conservation organization. Dover’s Hill offers a panoramic view of the surrounding area. This flat plain on a hilltop is named for Robert Dover, the founder of the Cotswold Olimpick Games, a precursor to the modern Olympic Games.

We continued down the path to Chipping Campden in the afternoon sun. We met a fellow walking his dog and had a nice chat. The weather was cooler today requiring outerwear.

The view from the trail was fantastic.

Chipping Campden

The market town of Chipping Campden, population nearly 2400, was a wool trading center for nearly 1000 years. The word Chipping comes from the Old English that means market or market-place while Campden is from the Saxon word that means valley with fields. Thus the name means market town in the valley. The town was issued its market charter in 1175 although earlier settlements preceded the charter. It’s a popular tourist destination as it hosts the Cotswolds Games, music festival, and is the end (or starting) point for the Cotswold National Trail.

On High Street near the city center is the war memorial. 

One of the historic places is the Market Hall built in 1627 and still is in use. On the morning of our departure, vendors were setting up for the Sunday market.

We took our photo at the Cotswold Way National Trail marker in the town center.

Our lodging in Chipping Campden was at the Volunteer Inn. Our room was on the first floor not far from the pub. We were worried that the Saturday night crowd might keep us awake until early morning. No worries, the temp cooled down so there weren’t any patrons in the large beer garden outside our door.

After a shower and a rest, we walked around the town looking for a place for dinner. The two places we checked were filled so we headed back to the Volunteer Inn where the dining room was serving authentic Indian food. We got twice as much as we could eat, it was good and something different than the standard fare we had during the walk.

Now for the five senses plus one.

Taste – wonderful fruit, salty bacon, crunchy cereal, scrambled eggs, and Indian food (the pickles were especially good)

See – dead mice, sheep including a black sheep, horses, a big hill, Broadway Tower, streams, flowers, trees, many stiles (gates), a lot of people walking on the trail and in Broadway, churches, graves, a field of peas, barley field, war memorials, Dover Hill

Hear – many languages, sheep, traffic, dogs barking, rushing streams, people talking, buzzing insects, wind in our ears, birds singing, our panting breaths

Touch – Broadway Tower, fences, gates, hand gel, sheep turds under our boots

Smell – Indian food, wild garlic and onion, sheep dung

Things we learned – brochures in the church in Stanton, we can walk up big hills, the nuclear bunker at Broadway Tower, we like Indian food for a change, it would be fun to come back to spend time in the towns we passed through, listen to the locals for the shortcuts, some red phone boxes still have phones

Join me next week for the last day of walking from Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh, a distance of seven miles.

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