Cotswold Way - Wotton-under-Edge

Having left Painswick, I crossed the Wash Brook up onto the Edge Common and stopped for a gaze back over the town. Heading in and out of woodland, I took the opportunity to slow down and admire the variety of trees and ponder their many benefits.

To that end, I aimed to work out the uses of some of the trees I was passing, starting with the Black Alder. This semi-hardwood tree can live up to 100 years. It is often used to fix soil erosion and nitrogen problems. It’s used commercially to make paper and has been used for dyeing and tanning. Because the leaves are sticky people put them on their floors to trap fleas. It attracts woodpeckers, warblers, and wrens.

Another significant tree found in, but not limited to, the Cotswolds, is the oak, an ancient timber that can live past 1,000 years. It was used to construct many of the historic properties in the region and the rest of the UK. As the national tree of England, it is woven into the fabric of the country. A great number of pubs are named ‘The Royal Oak’, it appeared on the round £1 coin from 1987-1992, and the leaves and acorn are on the National Trust’s emblem. Represented in mythology as a symbol of strength, nobility, and knowledge, this mighty English oak is home to many bird varieties. Barn owls and wood ducks like to nest in cavities formed by animals that pick too much wood from a tree.

Walking along the edge of the escarpment through Penn Wood, I emerged at Coaley Park, a popular picnic spot with an ancient burial site. The meadow is a kaleidoscope of colour during the flowering season, with purple sainfoins, mauve or white flowered clover, and delicate buttercups.
 

Passing a disused quarry, the trail led me through more woods, into a valley, up a nice steep climb with amazing views and then through farmland to the market town of Dursley. Climbing up steeply onto Stinchcombe Hill, I could have taken a perimeter walk around the Stinchcombe Golf Club but keeping an eye on those flying golf balls is not something I wanted to worry about; hence I carried on straight over the hill and marched on to Tyndale Monument, a tower erected in honour of William Tyndale, an early translator of the New Testament into English. I climbed the 120 steps to the top of the tower for fabulous views of the Berkeley Vale.

Continuing on, the route flattens out a little through grassland and wooded terrain to Wotton Hill. Here, an enclosure of stone and iron fence surrounds a cluster of trees planted in 1815 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. Following the hill down, I went straight to Wotton-Under-Edge. First mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 AD, the town has several notable buildings such as the Ancient Ram Inn dating back to 1145, a public house now used for ghost tours; and the Newark Park, a Tudor hunting lodge from the mid-1500s. Newark was given to the National Trust in the mid-20th century, who, together with American architect Robert Parsons, restored the property to its former glory.

A stop at the Royal Oak Inn for a feast was a must and there’s nothing like a Sunday Night Roast with offerings of pork belly and crackling, roast beef and stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon with side servings of Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and of course, a drizzle of gravy.

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