30/07/23 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 17 - Christmas Common

The Unexpected Remoteness of the Chiltern Hills

Nearly 6 hours and 15 miles walking in the Chilterns. On several named paths - the Ridgeway, the Chiltern Way, the Oxfordshire Way. Yet I pass few people, visit no villages and the only pub is a revisit to the Fox and Hounds at Christmas Common. Visited on Stage 16 of the Chiltern Way.

I should have made a note of the entertainment that the walk author achieved. He recorded every wild flower observed to keep himself going. I can give you are report on the animals encountered - two large deers and a hare.

The walk starts at the Watlington Hill National Trust Car Park and works its way south to pickup the ridgeway, It's the usual Chiltern Ups and Downs, on great tracks and through lots of woods - the biggest being Warburg Nature Reserve. Packed lunch at Pishill Church and a most welcome post walk pint in on a sofa under a teepee at the Fox and Hounds. The Untappd lowest ever scoring Brakspear Gravity once again defying its poor reputation. Perfectly kept and I'll do my best to raise its average rating.

Starting the day going downhill from Watlington Hill NT Car Park

Information booth at Warburg Nature Reserve

Pishill Church - View from a lunchstop bench

The Oxfordshire Way taking me home

Familiar Ground, Familiar Pint - Brakspear Gravity at the Fox and Hounds, Christmas Common

I wish I could bring you more than a scattering of meaningless photos.

Next time, I will come prepared with my Guidebook to British Wild Flowers.

Walk Information

Distance - 14.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2 

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, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16

29/07/23 - The Kings Arms, Ombersley - An Historic Inn of Interest

 A Pub Good Enough for King Charles II

Another day, another book for inspiration.

3/6 in Old Money

This is part of a series published by county in my birth year, 1969. Ebay is a wonderful thing. Said Mrs M, never.

50 inns detailed for Worcestershire, so that will keep me going for a while.  A page per pub, with background information and pub highlights of old. In 1969, Ombersley's Kings Arms was a Bass/M&B Pub and the Ploughmans was highly recommend.

Before sustenance, a walk. An easy ramble across agricultural land, along the Severn Way and back through the ancient hamlet of Uphampton. No surprises, if you exclude what fishermen leave behind in the undergrowth. 

Ombersley Court and Church at the start of the walk

Holt Fleet Bridge with an Inn either side, if you want to make a day of it

Severn Way Marker

Fine views over Abberley on the return through Uphampton

Onto the pub - which according to the guide has been in existence since 1411, although the exact date of the current building is unknown. Timbered coaching house, it was used by King Charles II on the first night of his escape from the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The rumoured bed he slept in, still in the building, apparently.

View from a Beer Garden

Remove the cars, and this street scene is unchanged for centuries

No internal photos, but you can use your imagination of low ceilings and inglenook fireplaces but alas, the guide book mentioned suits of armour are no more.  

An unexpected Youngs Special London Ale on offer but I'll keep it honest on the blog. With an uninspiring lunch time menu lacking what you'd class as "light bites" - we hot footed it to the Cross Keys up the road. 

But that wasn't in the guide book.

Walk Details

Walk Inspiration - AA 1001 Walks, Walk 454

Distance - 5 Miles

23/07/23 - Belgian Beers in the Malverns

 Station to Station Walking for the Best Pub in the Land

There it is, I have said it. 20 years of serious pub ticking and I am prepared to declare a winner.

The Nag's Head, Malvern.

In a blog where I have walking company and take the least amount of photos of any walk completed.

Normally, these boys days out are in more glamourous national parks but with one of us in post op recovery, a gentle six miler was deemed best to test a new leg joint.

Letting the train take the strain, we alight at Colwall for a jaunt up the Western Flanks of the hills to pick up the Northern Malverns at the Wyche Cutting.  A simple dissection to the Worcestershire Beacon and then a skirt past Sugarloaf before taking Lady Howard De Walden drive, zigzaging down to the pub.

Looking South down the Spine of the Malverns

Looking North to Sugar Loaf

If anything, the walk was too short.  

So why is the Nag's Head so good?  Let me count the ways.

• Wonderful pubby interior of low beams, a fire place, a squeeze to get in and to get to the bar.  Conversation inducing.
• A separate dining room and the food, especially a sunday lunch - is very good
• An external patio covered and sheltered
• If you can't fit in a full Sunday Lunch, they do a roast sandwich, with yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and a gravy boat.
• The gravy is that good, I could drink it from the pot.
• And if I was alone, I would have.
• The beer.  A printed menu is available and its the perfect mix of traditional, craft and foreign.  In 90 minutes, it was;
• Timothy Taylor Landlord
• Burnt Mills Shivelight New England Pale Ale
• Hook Norton Old Hooky
• Orval

Chalice was returned by hand.  I know what you are thinking, but I'm not an animal

With trains only every hour on a Sunday, we had a decision and a 1/2 mile dash to make to get to Malvern Link. To avoid future confusion, the Worcester Bound Platform is the nearest.

And what's in Worcester..... only Tripel Bs.  Possibly the best Belgian Cafe this side of the water.

Paljas Saison on draft with correct glassware.

Honestly, you need to take up walking. It's great.

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Start - Colwall Station

Finish - Malvern Link Station

22/07/23 - The Royal Oak at Tetbury

 Trouble at Tetbury

11 years since my last visit to Tetbury. A walk marred by bad weather and a bad pint. Armed with a Good Beer Guide Tick to aim for but still in appalling weather, I hope to have at least 50% more success this time. 

Today's walk start at the old railway station - a Beeching casualty - with the goods shed now repurposed as an Arts Centre. A cafe and free parking makes for a busy start, even if the rain is coming down as stair rods. Rain spotted photos, when I can be bothered.

A sequential (no need) Adventure Lab Cache forces me to look for clues through the town centre first. Counting screws in door brackets in a storm..... how do you spend your weekends?

The Market Place - an a pedestrian unfriendly town.

Tetbury Church, where I hunt for an 8 layered pyramidal tombstone

The walk breaks down into three distinct stages - agricultural fields on the Monarch's Way - lane walking to Newnton Hill and a wonderful disused railway line called the Tetbury Trail.

Easy walking on the hardcore

I noticed the Trouble House on the drive in. A former pub, it now looks like a cafe but post walk research has the magic three letters - B A R. I should have explored more - its a mere half mile in the other direction to reach it on foot. The wikipage makes for a fine story. The area known as "The Troubles" - due to both flooding problems and issues with press-gangs. The Trouble House Halt became the only railway stop built to serve a pub and didn't they put up a fight when the Beeching Axe fell. A coffin full of empty whisky bottles sent to the destroyer of railways. The last passenger train stopped on the tracks by burning hay bales.

Where is this spirit of rebellion now?  

France.

My refreshment is the GBG Tick - the Royal Oak. Situated more or less at the former Tetbury station.

Alas, a pub that is less than the sum of its parts.

Cotswold GBG Ticking

Accommodation blocks and a nice garden for another day

Inside, its strangely soulless for a pub. Wood aplenty, most tables with "reserved" signs. Staff that refer to you as "Sir" far too often for it to be comfortable, especially when they are from higher up in the class system.

Otter Bitter was one of four available - and maybe a touch too cold, but OK.  A sausage sandwich for a tenner that came on regular sliced bread that couldn't cope with the sogginess of the onions, less palatable.

Especially when the order was lost.

Lots and lots of wood in the Royal Oak

I'd say me and Tetbury are done - but the Trouble House needs investigating.

Might be in another 11 years.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Guide to Cotswold Pub Walks, Walk 14

Geocaches - 1 regular, 1 ALC