Cotswolds

Chipping Campden

An area of rolling hills, all the towns are tucked down in the valleys near the streams that were used for their power. This is the part of the country that grew the best wool until the industrial revolution, and the wool market collapsed. 

Lower Slaughter mill house

It is now the place that Londoners escape for the weekend being only an hour away. They are the DFL (down from London) crowd. This is the Black Butte of England. 

The house prices have gone up so much that young locals can’t afford to buy homes.  As a result, many towns while quaint are aging. As the population gets older, schools are no longer needed, so they close.  Resident numbers decline, services such as busses are cut causing isolation of older locals. 

The building codes are strict in the Cotswolds and the houses must be built with lime stone, have stone, slate, or thatched roofs. We noticed all the houses here are much larger than those found in our area.  We were told that many were originally several attached houses that have been converted into one home.

 

We walked from the town of Bourton-on-the-water.  It is the Venice of England with the rivers running through it channeled like cannels. The area is known for walking, and busloads of people were arriving to walk through the town and hills. A very touristy place.

Bouton-on-the-water

Center of town at Bourton-on-the-water

We stayed at Chipping Campden, a smaller town but a more normal town with houses of various sizes, lots of kids, and not as many tourists.

Chipping Campden High Street

 

Chipping Campden

 

                    Rollright Stones are a stone circle set on top of a hill near Morton-in-Marsh. 

It is a Neolithic site and parts are 4500yrs old.  We were given divining rods, and as you walked through the circle the energy from the earth made the rods move. 

 It was very interesting.  If I thought of John, while in the circle, my rods would point to where he was standing even if he was out of sight. In addition to the circle there was a kingstone, and a grave site.

Grave site

Kings Stone