COTSWOLDS: Sheep-on-a-Roll

Mo 16 May

Creative Naming

A is Oxford, B is Stow-on-the-Wold, 
C is Chipping Campden; the green area
where B and C are is the Cotswolds.
Two orange markers show Bath, Stonehenge

OK, I came up with a good pub name in the other post (The Cow and Kite); now I'm working on a good small town name. Today we went through Stow-on-the-Wold, and we've seen other names like Moreton-in-Marsh and Bourton-on-the-Water. And of course there's the well-known Stratford-upon-Avon. After seeing the cute room decor pictured above, I've decided we're at Sheep-on-a-Roll. 

Actually we're really at Chipping Campden, which is a pretty distinctive name, too. "Chipping" is from an Old English word for 'market-place'; there are other towns that were deemed market places as well: Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury. The overall area we're in is called the 'Cotswolds', a lovely region of rolling hills that has a history of very successful sheep farming. The area is also characterized by stone houses made from the local oolithic limestone (had to get in a mention of 'oolithic'). 

Last morning in Oxford

We started the day with a last bus ride into Oxford's City Centre to run a couple of errands. We also managed to catch a small exhibit on the Oxford English Dictionary, at Oxford's Weston Library. It seemed an appropriate last sight to see at Oxford.

Rainy lunchtime snack at Stow

A little before noon we headed up to the Cotswolds, about an hour's drive away. We stopped briefly at Stow-on-the-Wold, where I had some lemonade and a tasty pesto pastry snack. The bakery was full inside, so we sat at an outside table, but it started raining! It'd been raining off and on, on the drive, but had stopped when we got to Stow—only to start again when I was eating. Doug stood over me to shield me from the rain (he wasn't eating) and I hurriedly ate the parts of my snack that would be hard to pack, and packed up the rest. Then we wandered about Stow.

Chipping Campden

Before long, we continued on to Chipping Campden, our main destination. After checking in at our lovely Eight Bells inn, we first visited the nearby St. James church. The church itself is lovely, but I was especially struck by the fairly extensive graveyard surrounding it. There are so many old headstones which are now very difficult or impossible to read. It made me sad to think of how people thought they were leaving a permanent remembrance but it's now gone. The ones you could still read were often very touching and some were still being honored with fresh flowers. Behind the graveyard, we were rewarded with the sight of multiple sheep grazing!

After seeing the church, we wandered up and down Chipping Campden's main street, a street which the English historian G.M. Trevelyan considered to be "the most beautiful village street now left on the island." It is indeed a lovely street, though there are so many cars! It would be even lovelier without the cars...

Note: One side of the street is lower; note how the cars are higher than the sidewalk in a couple shots.

Next Post

Tomorrow we will leave the Cotswolds already, and head up north for a few days in the Lake District.

The Eight Bells inn we are staying at.

Note the Ukrainian flag. We have seen the Ukrainian flag a number of times on this trip. The Bath Abbey was flying the Ukrainian flag, and Merton College at Oxford was flying the flag, too. Bath Abbey also had slips of paper you could use to write and post prayers for Ukraine. Two large boards were crammed full with prayers. I added one, too.