18/08/19 - Heart of England Way - Stage 29 - Batsford

Distance - 6.5 Miles
Pubs - None
Geocaches - 3
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19, Stage 20, Stage 21, Stage 22, Stage 23, Stage 24, Stage 25, Stage 26, Stage 27, Stage 28

Blockley - a place that I mused on last months HOEW as to why its not as popular as the other Cotswold Honeypots.  Today, I have the answer.   The pubs are bobbins.   Last month, I had an awful Hooky Gold at the Best Western, so was keen to try the other pub.   We'll come to the Crown later, if I can bring myself to relive the memories.

If you are here for the walking, then you're fine.   This is a top quality ramble in the heart of the Cotwolds that delivers the final climb of the HOEW.   Literally, its all down hill from here to Bourton on the Water.

The path out of Blockley is shared by the Monarchs Way and the HOEW and rises gently to Batsford Arboretum.   The views are behind and worth a glance.

Blockely behind

A circuit of the walls of Batsford Arboretum, eventually getting close to village.   Contained within the walls are the largest collection of privately owned trees.   A collection started by Algernon Mitford, grandfather to the Nazi sympathising sisters and buried in the church, which seems imported from France.  Handsome but unusually shaped.

Nazi Grandpa's final resting place

More Architectural wonder at the Stud Farm

Back up hill for the views over Draycott.  A dry village, full of beautiful buildings but no pub.   The locals all come out to watch a man get his drill out and put up a house number.   That's what passes for entertainment in villages without boozers.

Looking Down towards Draycott

An encounter with non native beasts.   Not entirely sure they were friendly.

Arrival back in Blockley is along a wonderful street of Terraces, Park Road.   By the number of foreign cars and little key safety deposit boxes fixed to the walls, this must be prime AirBNB territory.  One's up on right move for 345K.   Its a deceptively spacious (their words, not mine) two bedder.

Its not a direct route back to the car but as mentioned at the start, I want to check out the Crown Hotel for post walk refreshment.   Normally, I wouldn't trouble something marked as a Hotel but I had noticed a little bar to the side on my last leg.

So I enter and find a bar that is empty of people (staff, punters, ghosts of former patrons) and with no hand pulls at all. 

I left before I was seen by the staff.   At push, I can take bad beer but not in a silent, empty room.

Footnote - last review on Pubsgalore was from legendary blogger Alan Winfield