Tormarton, Cotswold

 

Continuing on a flat landscape, I passed the village of Wortley and diagonally crossed a pasture with grazing sheep. There are numerous breeds of sheep in the UK. However, one breed special to the area is the Cotswold Sheep. Known for their long wool, they are thought to be descendants of long-wool sheep introduced by the Romans in the first century AD. They became an important part of American farming in the early 19th century until they were replaced by Australia’s merino sheep. On the decline, the breed joined the ‘rare breed list’ until recent renewed interest by spinners. Yielding 15lb (7kg) of wool per shearing with fibres up to 20 inches (50 cm) long has turned the tide on their numbers. The fleece is described as lustrous and sometimes referred to as “poor man’s mohair”.

I entered a narrow yet densely wooded section, with little light filtering through, yet oh so delightful and exited on the outskirts of the small village of Alderley. As the trail meandered up and down the hills, I enjoyed a combination of narrow earthen paths with overarching trees providing shade and single-lane roads lined with hedges and a smattering of cottages.

About a mile before Hawkesbury, I came upon the Somerset Monument, a 100ft (30m) tall tapering stone structure with a viewing platform at the top overlooking the local area, as well as Bristol and, on a good day even as far as the Welsh border across the Severn River and Valley. Built in 1846, the tower was dedicated to Robert E. Somerset, a British soldier who fought in the Battle of Waterloo.

Hawkesbury is a small hamlet with St Mary’s Church at the centre of it. A simple church of Norman origins, it was built on the site of an earlier Saxon church whose incumbent, Wulfstan, a parish priest elevated to Bishop of Worcester, became the last surviving pre-Norman conquest bishop. A social reformer, Wolfstan was a strong opponent of the slave trade and nearly succeeded in stopping the trade between nearby Bristol and Ireland. In 2021, St Mary’s Church installed a ring of eight bells in the tower, with the largest one weighing 1,322lb (600kg) and named it in honour of Wolfstan.

Across the street from the church, up a hill, are two old walnut trees marking the location of the abandoned Hawkesbury Manor House. Owned by Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool, the house is where his son Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was born. Robert was to become Prime Minister of the UK from 1812-1827.

A mile further from Hawkesbury, I came upon Horton Court, a National Trust property with a history stretching back to the 12th century and thought to be the oldest vicarage in England. Adjacent to the house is St James’ Church, built around 1300 from Cotswold stone.

Passing through the villages of Horton and Old Sodbury, I walked through Dodington Park, laid out in the 18th century by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, a landscape architect who was prominent in the development of the English landscape garden style featuring rolling hills, lakes and groves of trees.

I ended this section of my journey in Tormarton. With my eyes set on a pot of tea with homemade scones, jam and cream, I'm off to search for a café serving it.