Broadway to Winchcombe

11 miles today, from Broadway to Winchcombe. We left Broadway a little after 9:00, and it was pretty quiet. Just outside the village we turned off  across some fields.  A ways in front of us we watched an older gentleman  who’d been walking his two Labs take their leashes off an turn them loose to race around the field . One of the Labs had taken the cue and was running in broad random patterns across a couple of acres. The other Lab, obviously older,  just walked around his master. As we went past, the dog owner, referring to his running dog, said “Now his day is complete.”

In the next field we saw pretty much a repeat of the same thing.  An elderly gentleman crossed a stile and let his border collie through a little door next to the stile especially for dog entry, and turned him loose.   Fergus (the collie’s name, although his owner also looked like a Fergus)  raced around the field. According to his owner, Fergus was desperately trying to find a stick to show us.

After this field, there was a long climb onto the ridge outside Broadway, down the ridge for a couple of miles, then off the ridge into Stanton.

Calling Stanton a storybook English village wouldn’t be doing justice to it. It looks like the subject of a Thomas Kinkade painting.  To make the picture complete, as we rounded one corner, three horses and riders in perfect Englilsh riding gear trotted down the street.

From Stanton, it was cross country through the villages of Stanway and Wood Stanway, another climb onto the ridge, and past the ruins of  Hailes Abbey. Hailes Abbey dates from the 13th century. It was once a wealthy  abbey that many worshippers would pilgrimage to because it held a relic of a vial of Holy Blood. Later, the abbot confessed that the vial actually contained duck blood, although the duck blood was regularly renewed. It was pretty much downhill for the Abbey (and the abbot) after that.

We got into Winchcombe in the middle afternoon, settled in at the White Hart Inn, dried off, warmed up, and later on had decent dinner and some nice warm beers.

Yes, we dried off and warmed up. It rained off and on throughout the day. We wound up leaving our rain gear on in between showers. High was in the low fifties and breezy. Great walking weather for those who like being cold and damp.