30/08/21 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 12 - Princes Risborough

Distance - 13 Miles

Geocaches - 11

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11

A typical late summer bank holiday Monday, weather-wise.  Low cloud, drizzle, the feeling that Autumn is coming.

I'm back on the Chiltern Chain Walk - having started it on this same weekend three years ago.  This is the trail in a nutshell - good walking, good paths, near constant woodland - enjoyable in execution but providing little photographic opportunities to fill a blog.  

Woodland Walking

With occasional entertainment options

So what do we have on this stage?

Architectural delights at Hamdpen House.  Tracing its history from the C14th to C20th.  If you think its looks familiar, you may have been watching Hammer Horror movies on Talking Pictures.  They owned it through the 70s and used it as a location in films and the TV series.  Rather boringly, it's now in the hands of a financial services organisation.

Hammer Horror

We also have the Coombes Hill Monument - dedicated to the South African Campaign at the turn of the C20th.  Views over the Vale of Aylesbury and family friendly with an optimistic ice-cream van.

Coombe Hill Monument

When not in woodland, I am on the Ridgeway - a pleasure to return to.  This part runs through the grounds of Chequers.  Plenty of dogs but none were Dilyn.

Ridgeway Signage

Chequers, in the shadow of the Coombes Hill Monument

Plenty of pubs too....

At Parslow Hillock - War Poet Rupert Brooke a regular

Hampden Inn - advertising past events.

I've planned the walk to end near the Plough at Cadsden.  I was too early when completing the Ridgeway.  It looked a fine Country Boozer and initially, I was delighted with a good quality Hook Norton Old Hooky.  Waiting 50 minutes for a sandwich, where the only entertainment was watching the same teenage staff drop glasses, trip over a stick and inform me that my ordered sausage was off the menu only slightly soured the visit.

No wonder the Cameron's famously left their daughter behind.  Sam was probably yelling at Dave to "leave it, there's no point in complaining".  

Between the dogs, the stick trip hazard

Post pub refreshment, a stiff climb up Whiteleaf Hill for the same views of the Vale of Aylesbury.

Chiltern Views

28/08/21 - Arlingham Geocaching and the Old Passage Inn

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 30

Arlingham has the feel of a place cut off from time.  It's positioned in the centre of the horseshoe bend, as the River Severn meanders to the sea.  Getting there requires crossing the Gloucester Canal at Sandfield Bridge, so the place is more or less an island.

A new 27 cache geocaching trail brings me here, although its an area I've wanted to explore.  With the start of the walk at a pub, everything is setup for a decent morning's entertainment.

The view from the Old Passage Inn is striking, staring at Newnham on the other side.  Progress marked in time by the church bells clanging - hitting midday, as I finish the round.

End of the Road at Arlingham

The walking around the bend is easy - there is a high grassy bank, with constant views of the estuary.  Inland, a few cattle fields - with very chilled out cows and through the centre of Arlingham to see the church and Red Lion Pub.

Low Tide Mudflats

The Church

Red Lion

An excellent attention to detail on the caches, which are placed to be found with good clues.  One DNF at #13 (it's always #13.  Or #1).  Too many posts :-)  Thanks to GloveGirl for the placing and the maintenance. I can see that they have been popular.

Just the need to pay the pub for use of their car park.

Old Passage Inn

There's not much reference material available at my usual pubs sites.  But a google suggests it had a reputation as a fine seafood restaurant about 10 years ago.  Not that the review was that great.

Its now got the feel of a place newly taken over.  The staff were preparing the lunch menu and the person serving me was having a terrible time with the till.

There didn't appear to be any real ale on - just three kegs and a unlabeled hand pull.  My inquiry to options was met with the hand pull was working but exactly what was going to come out of it was a mystery to all of us, until the landlord was found.

I should have trusted my better instincts and gone safe with the San Miguel.  Butcombe Rare Breed - normally a solid pint - was stuffed in a Doom Bar glass and was quite terrible.  

On the plus side - the food was excellent - huge portions and good value.  

You can't always have it all.

Caching Bag and a Ropey Pint

26/08/21 - Centenary Way - Stage 4 - Birchley Heath

 Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Pub - The Lord Nelson, Ansley (Good Beer Guide Tick #580)

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3

Fourth time on the Centenary Way and early in the walk, we have a my feelings to the route in a microcosm.

Less than a mile gone when we arrive at Lady Wood Farm. The farmer has removed all the way markings signs.  My GPS is pointing to the left of the barns.  The guide book says to enter a gate to the side of the barns.  The farmer has built a mountain of cow shite in front of the barns.  Must be 20ft high.

The run off from shite has formed a river.  To the far extreme, the river looks like it has baked solid.  It hasn't.  A tentative test akin to Princess Margaret scalding both feet in the bathtub has me up to my calves in slurry.  Attempting to reverse out has it trying to suck off my walking shoes, teetering on the egde of a full length dunking.  

Mrs M would have helped me but was too busy trying to live stream it to Facebook.

As you can tell, I am not getting on too well with the Centenary Way.  It's been a battle of dull terrain, overgrown paths with the only redemption coming from the very occasional Good Beer Guide Pub - which fortunately, we have again.  The Lord Nelson awaits at Ansley.

If they let people in with shite up their lower halves.

The walking improves when we reach Hartshill Hayes Country Park - offering views over Nuneaton.

There's a sentence I never thought I would write.  

And at least the farmers have left a path through the wheat at Ansley Common.

Nuneaton Ahoy!

Making like Theresa May

Following a man made hill from mine workings spoils, we arrive at the Lord Nelson.  A decision needs to be made.  We have about 80 minutes of good light left but need to have a meal.

The original plan was to stop now and then continue the last three miles of our walk.  Mrs M has a better idea.  Why don't I go and fetch the car whilst she waits here is her cunning plan.  Bizarrely, bumping into teenage friends 50 miles from home seals the deal.

I am off to battle the triffids, solo.

Just the three miles of this

All this misery deserves a reward and the Lord Nelson was full of surprises.

Unusual

Here's the notes from the Guide - 27th consecutive listing.  Run by the Sperrin family since 1974.  It has their own brewery attached and I now rue not trying one of them. In my defence, the first beer noticed was a 6.8% Stout called the Thick as Thieves.  I panicked and ordered a far more sensible Salopian Shropshire Gold.

My observations.  Well, what can you say about a pub that has a back wall setup to look like a cabin in a C19th Warship?   And an effigy of man who's dying words were "Kiss Me, Hardy".

You'd probably think you had gone on holiday to the seaside

It's quite bonkers.

Possibly worthy of a second visit - and as I still have the Church End Tap Room to investigate, I will be back for Stage 5.

Wish me luck.

20/08/21 - The Donnington Way Summary

Distance - 62 Miles

The Donnington Way is a 62 Mile walk developed in 1990 by Colin Handy in a little guidebook.  No longer in print but can be found on ebay, although this has surprisingly been superceded by a mobile phone app.  The app also details individual day walks from each pub. 

The Guide Book

The plan is to visit the 15 tied Donnington Pubs in the chain.  A few notes on that;

• 14 remain - The Coach and Horses, Ganborough a permanent closure
• The Farmers Arms in Guiting Power is temporarily closed in Aug 2021.  New landlord required, so should be soon back and running.
• In the way that I divided the route, two pubs are passed too early in the day.
• The brewery is walked past and has a shop.  I timed it when the owner was around and had an impromptu tour.  And a free hat.
• Three pubs have been subsequently added, but too far off route to add.  The app will be used to develop day walks from;
• The Pheasant, Toddington
• The Red Lion, Castle Eaton
• The White Bear, Shipston-on-Stour

There are two main reasons for completing the walk.  

The North Cotswolds area offers some perfect walking and the way shares paths with various other LDPs, including the Heart of England Way, the Monarchs Way, Windrush Way and Wardens Way.  It meanders in a circle through the quintessential Cotswold villages of Moreton-in-the Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bouton-on-the-Water, Broadway and Chipping Campden.  The final two needing to work on their hyphenation.

The pubs are superb examples of Country House hostelries.  All flagged floors, exposed beams, ancient courthouses/cottages/farmhouses converted to use as boozers.  Despite the often lonely locations, they were all reassuringly busy.  Alan Winfield - pub crawler extraordinaire - rated most of them 10/10 on Pubgalore, usually with a "it was a nice drink" in the notes. 

My itinerary was based around easy public transport access - Moreton-in-the-Marsh is on the Hereford to London Rail Line.  Accommodation found at pubs through Booking.Com.  Two nights spent in Donnington Pubs.  Details on each day at the below hyperlinks.

Day 1:  Moreton-in-the-Marsh to Stow-on-the-Wold - 11 Miles.

Day 2: Stow-on-the-Wold to Great Barringhton - 15 Miles

Day 3: Great Barrington to Kineton - 14 Miles

Day 4: Kineton to Chipping Campden - 16 Miles

Day 5: Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-the-Marsh

The Flickr Album

20/08/21 - Donnington Way - Day 5 - Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh

Distance - 6.5 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Pubs - 2

Previous Days - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

The odyssey comes to an end, with a short distance to walk and a route that I covered step-by-step on the Heart of England Way.

An opportunity to reflect on the beer.

There are three in the core range.

The Three Donnington Beers - and a Cider

BB - The entry level - a 3.6% traditional bitter.  I avoided it for the entire walk.  When it was the only (gravity fed) beer available at the Fox Great Barrington, I developed a hankering for red wine.

Cotswold Gold - Found at all the pubs - their web site says that its award winning, but fails to mention what award it was.  A golden 4.0%.

SBA - Not found until half way around the trail at the Black Horse, Naunton.  Easily the pick of the bunch at a more robust 4.4%.

The beers are deceptive - when kept well, they initially poor perfectly.  A crystal clear pint, often with a decent foamy head.

Looks the business - maybe a top up required

The head will soon disappear and lacings are an alien word.  I was always left with a clean glass.  

The real problem though, is a lack of taste.  There's so little going on.  It will refresh you after a long walk, but you'll never get that moreish hit you'd expect.

Still, the pubs are lovely.

Leave Chipping Campden and head due south - through the pretty village of Broad Campden (too early for the GBG Bakers Arms) and into Blockley.

Ancient Quaker House, Broad Campden

Blockley

Looking back on Blokley from the Heart of England Way

It's all downhill from Batsford Arboretum, through arable fields and into Moreton-in-the-Marsh to have a final pint of SBA until I return to walk from the unexplored.  The temporarily closed (Farmers Arms) and the passed too early (Plough Inn, Ford).

The Black Bear opens at 11:30am and at 11:32am, there is a queue to get in.  I wait for the scrape of the bolt from the other side of the road and when the line is no longer there, I make my move.

An explanation to the bar-maid about this being the end of my 5 day journey does not result in the free pint that I was hoping.  Still, can't complain.  I did get a free hat from the brewery on day 2.

Black Bear, Moreton-in-Marsh

Waiting for the queue to die down

A Final SBA.  An accidental reveal of the WiFi Password.  Canned Alternatives.

19/08/21 - Donnington Way - Day 4 - Kineton to Chipping Campden

Distance - 16 Miles

Geocaches - 2 and a Lab Cache

Pubs - 4

Previous Days - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Judging by the amount of photos taken, Day 4 provides the best walking.  Unsurprising, as the villages passed reel off a greatest hits of Cotswold delights... Snowshill, Stanton, Broadway and finishing at one end of the Cotswold Way in Chipping Campden.

Its North from Kineton and the proximity of Ford means that I have to walk past another Donnington Pub - The Plough Inn.  Colin Handy, the guide book writer, waxes lyrical about "vast fireplaces, with hand made hinges" and slightly more bizarrely, asparagus.  

I will be back to check on the veracity of his claim that it is "one of England's Oldest Inns".

The Plough Inn at Ford

Refreshment is not too far onwards - and Snowshill is a quintessential Cotswold Town.  So nice that people in Ferrari's come to visit.  A collection of honey stone cottages around a central church/pub combo.

Snowshill

Snowshill Arms

My visit sums up the Donnington Pub experience in a nutshell.  It's gorgeous inside and out.  Its open at 11am and is starting to get busy.  I cannot help but overhear the bar-staff talk to one another about "keeping an eye on the SBA, we had complaints yesterday".

Just when I was enjoying myself, relaxing on the green leather bench seating.  Half way down my SBA.

.

Alan Winfield (from yesterday's blog) gave it 10/10

A drop down to the Worcestershire Plain is needed.  I know the area well and aware that I'm also going to have climb back up the flanks of Fish Hill.  I can worry about that later.  Another classic Donnington Pub, the Mount, provides a barely justified second refreshment stop.

I've only walked about a mile, downhill.

The Mount Inn

Rather annoyingly, they've kept to their covid policies, possibly trying to get some return on their investment.  You cannot sit inside.  You need to order via a QR Code.

The system is monumentally flawed, when the staff have to lean all over the pensioner punters to show them how to do this.  

The Stroud Cycling Club are also in.  One's not happy with the amount of olives.  His mate is more unhappy as he ordered first on the app and he is the only one without his meal.  Have you ever heard cyclists bicker?  It's not pleasant.

Thought I had said Goodbye to QR Codes

A plethora of choices in Broadway and it was hard to walk on past the Crown and Trumpet - a Good Beer Guide regular and easily the best in town.  I will make it to their Thursday Jazz Nights one day.

Instead, I save myself for my only new Good Beer Guide Tick along the entire route.  The Broadway Hotel sounds exactly what it is.  An expensive, food led tourist hot spot. The Old Hooky was just what my palate demanded.

C16th Hotel, overlooking the village green

Can they have a W please Bob

The penultimate Donnington Pub of the way is at the Willersey, the next village.  Ordinarily, I would have walked past, expecting little entertainment at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon but it was quite amusing seeing how many tradesmen do their admin from a beer garden.

Alas, I could take no more boring brown bitters, so I had a San Miguel.  You cannot hate me more than I hate myself.  Untappd reminded me its owned by Carlsberg.

Tradesmen's Office

Back to the walking - its all uphill to meet the Cotswold Way at Dover's Hill.  Saintbury Church providing a place for a breather.  The views just about making up for the exertion.

Saintbury Church

All of Worcestershire....

... Can be seen from Dover's Hill

Familiar walking into Chipping Campden and I've picked my accommodation well.

The Volunteer Inn is the first pub you meet on arrival.  

And it has an in-house Indian.

View from a Room

18/08/21 - Donnington Way - Day 3 - Great Barrington to Kineton

Distance - 14 Miles

Geocaches - 4 and a Lab Cache

Pubs - 3

Previous Days - Day 1, Day 2

Midway through the trail and I discover that I am on the trail of Alan Winfield.  A legend in pub crawl circles, who seemingly thought little of fitting in 18 pubs in a go.  No one knows whether he was drinking pints or halves.  But we can guess.

From the review site, pubsgalore.co.uk, where he diligently updated visits from before the Internet was invented, it would appear that on the 07/05/2011 he had a chauffeur.  In true Alan style, he visited them all in a single day.

One of Alan's Easier Pub Crawls - just the 15

Why didn't I think of that, you may ask?  Well, I would have missed out of some terrific walking and today may be the best.  Following the River Windrush through tourist hot-spots and some picture perfect Cotswold villages, with plenty of refreshment stops. 

Having had the paths to myself, its a bit of a shock to the system to arrive at Bourton-in-the-Water at lunchtime.  Its always busy but maybe a combination of staycations and school holidays mean its busier than ever.  The unprepared rambler may be seduced to one of the touristy pubs but tranquility can be found if you consult the Good Beer Guide.   To the North of the town is an area called Lansdown and the best pub in the area can be found at the Mousetrap Inn.

Little Bridges in Bourton

Best bit in Bourton

On my visit, they were stocking three beers from the Clavell and Hind Brewery.  I'd never heard of them, but they are based nearby in Birdlip.  The Coachman and Liberty providing a welcome change from the Cotswold Gold.  

It tough to drag myself away but I know there are future refreshment stops and the walking along the Windrush and Warden's Way(s) is the best encountered so far.

A rare bit of blue sky

Naunton is the first village of the afternoon and the Black Horse takes the title of the best Donnington pub encountered.  This may have been because it was the first to stock Donnington SBA - the pick of their three beers.  It also had a great landlady who knew all about the Donnington Way.  She joked about about the locals referring to the pub in Kineton as the Halfway Inn.  Or the Disappointed Lady.

Best Donnington Pub.  Jaunty Sign

She also informed me that the pub in the next village, Guiting Power, is temporarily closed due to new landlords being requried.  An unexpected retirement leaving them landlordless.  I will return and complete a walk from the Donnington App.

I entertain myself by trying to buy a newspaper - impossible after 3pm, when the PO sends them back - and completing an Adventure Lab Cache - finding information around the church and village.

Guiting Power

Only a mile to the final pub of the day and my accommodation for the night.  Contrary to the Black Horses Landlady, it actually called the Halfway House.

Full range of Donnington beers are on and as the pub was the only facility in the village, it was packed all night, with a broad range of customers.  Elderly diners, Internet Stealing Teens and solo ramblers who need that bandwidth to watch the Baggies mid week game.

Half Way To Heaven (when your team wins 4-0)