09/02/19 - Chipping Campden to Broadway

Distance - 9.5 Miles
Geocaches - 9
Good Beer Guide Pub Tick #362 - The Eight Bells, Chipping Campden, Old Hooky
Walk Inspiration - Cicerone Walking in the Costwolds, Walk 1



Here's an absolute belter of a ramble and a great introduction into walking in the Cotswolds.

That said, I never really got on with Chipping Campden, where we start activities.   It's got a lot to offer walkers - free parking along the high street, the start of the Cotswold Way and the classic honey coloured stone buildings wearing their history beautifully.   My problem has always been the quality of the pubs.   For me, they've never quite matched the grandeur of the surrounding.  I needed to look slightly harder than the three along the high street and the Good Beer Guide is pointing me to the town's only recommendation - slightly off piste, along Church Street.

We'll come back to the Eight Bells after the walk.

The Cotswold Way starts at the C17th Market Hall and look closely and you can find a little plague marking the start / end.

Cotswold Way Beginnings and Endings

The Market Hall

I'd recommend that the walk is completed in a clockwise direction - tackling Mile Drive to Broadway first.   This minimises the impact of the two hills that need to be tackled.... Fish Hill to Broadway Tower is definitely steeper than Dover's Hill.

Mile Drive is always a joy to walk - a one mile broad avenue of easy walking.   A new multi cache has been placed since my last visit, so this kept me further entertained.

Mile Drive

Mile drive leads to the picnic area at the top of Fish Hill.   Broadway tower is next up and it doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, it still takes the breath away.  Not just the monument, but the views over 16 counties and 60 odd miles.

The best approach to Broadway Tower is from Fish Hill Picnic Area

The endless views

All downhill into Broadway.  If you're feeling like mid walk refreshment, then the Good Beer Guide recommends the Crown and Trumpet.   Its only been six months since my last visit, so I decided to keep on marching.

It must have been the views.

Views from the Valley Floor

Broadway

More new Geocaches to find on the exit from Broadway, taking great paths through Foxhill Manor to the isolated but utterly delightful Saintbury Church.

Saintbury Church 

The big climb of the day is back to the top of Dover's Hill, stopping for endless photos when a breather is required.

Plenty more of this kind of thing on my memory stick

The top of Dover's Hill - nearly time for the pub.

The Cotswold Way will return you to Chipping Campden and I can tell you all about the Eight Bells.

The 8 Bells

Originally, it was built in the C14th for the stone masons working on the town's church.  It was then used to store the Church's bells.

The current building was developed using the original material in the C17th.

A Classic Example of a Cotswold Pub

Inside, it's all low ceilings (a rather nice warning sign on the front door) and just what's needed after a lengthy walk - good beer, extensive sandwich menu and a roaring fire.   A choice of four ales on, with the Old Hooky being in exceptional condition.

With a Chicken Ciabatta on the way and getting the last table, handily positioned in front of the coal fire, I may well have been the happiest man on the planet at the time of this photo.

Chipping Campden is saved.

Fitting End to a Great Walk

02/02/19 - Finding the Peveril of the Peak Open

Good Beer Guide Ticks - 360 and 361
Previous Manchester Good Beer Guide Ticking - Day 1, Day 2

Back to Manchester for more Good Beer Guide Ticking, with a couple of hours to kill before live comedy at Deansgate Locks.   It's never a chore in this incredible city but is seemingly a sisyphean task.  By the time I get close to completion, a new issue of the bible is released with more gems to discover.


Peveril of the Peak, Great Bridgewater Street, Timothy Taylor Landlord

I know this is a pub institution that really ought to be at the top of any list for the architecture alone.  And believe me, over the years I have tried to get my visit in here.   There is a log of mine on BeerintheEvening.com from 07/07/13.

"Closed on a Saturday Afternoon"

I think it was one of those pubs that used to open when it fancied.   There's even a rumour that its closed when Manchester United are at home.   I am unsure whether this means they are Man U fans and want to watch the game or they simply don't want Man U fans through the door.

At the moment, I think its keeping regular hours, as advertised.   Which is handy for out of town beer tourists like ourselves.

So why the fuss?  Mainly the tiling.

Everything's gone Green

It's grade II listed and Manchester's only detached pub.   A triangular island of externally clad green tiling dating from the early C19th.

End On

Inside, it wears its history just as comfortably.   All wooden paneling dividing rooms from a central bar.  Get it wrong and your are ordering beers blind from a hatch where the pump clips cannot be seen but a chalkboard proudly details their three hand pulls.   Drinking Yorkshire in Greater Manchester was probably a faux par but Timothy Taylor will never be ignored.

We make our way into a packed bar are, where there's a cracking atmosphere generated by a mixture of friendly locals and other beer tourists, equally as excited at drinking in a living museum.   I manage to get the family a seat and lean against the bar.   As more and more people crowd the bar, I eventually find myself impaled on the world's oldest pub table football game - delivered in the 1950s.

Everything I love about pubs in one visit.  Apart from the impaling.

Family Mappiman enjoying the pub ticking as much as their grinning father

The Gas Lamp, Bridge Street, Ilkley Porter

There's still time for one more tick and Family Mappiman love a good route march across a City Centre, every step taking them further away from their eventual destination.

The Gas Lamp provided refuge a couple of years ago.   It wasn't in the GBG then, but the Brink - directly over the road - was.   The Brink is a liar of a pub, that did not keep the Sunday hours detailed on their own door.

2019, sees the Gas Lamp recommended.  Its a cellar bar underneath an old Children's Mission. 

Eye's peeled in Bridge Street

Nothing beats the descent to a subterranean cellar bar and this opens out to wide spaces, tiled as impressively as the Perevil but in a far more muted colour scheme.

Downstairs at the Gas Lamp - Sans Beer Mats

I can only report on what I find and this was a bit of a disappointing visit.   There's a much higher concentration on bottled beers than hand pulled cask - with only two on.   No complaints with this impressive Ilkley Porter but it wouldn't have been my first choice.

The tables were also filthier than the JDW at Picadilly.  Our table was free of people but it took me two trips to the bar to return all the empties and once free of debris, your wouldn't have wanted to balance you elbows on the stickiness.

Admittedly, its the responsibility of any good beer person to return their own empties and I ensured this was done before we raced down Deansgate for the Comedy.

26/01/18 - London Countryway Stage 11 - Windsor to Marlow

Distance - 15 Miles
Start - Windsor
Finish - Marlow
Geocaches - 12
Pubs - Kings Arms, Cookham and the Butchers Tap, Marlow
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10


Stage 11 of the London Countryway, the longest walk and quite a different feel to the previous stages.   Starting at Windsor, I pick up the Thames Path and stick to it.   A whole day of river walking, with the only exception a short climb onto Winter Hill.

It's kind of a shame to leaving Windsor immediately after arriving.  Its a short hop from the Central station down to the river and over the pedestrian bridge to Eton, shedding a tear that 9am on a Saturday morning is too early for a Good Beer Guide tick at the George.

Still, the view from the opposite side of the river is impressive.

Windsor Castle from the North Bank

Route finding is not going to be an issue today.  Fortunately, I have a combination of plentiful geocaches and some magnificent architecture to admire.   The houses on the riverbank on the way to Maidenhead are stunning.   And if a new purchaser doesn't like the architecture, they simply pull the old house down and build one they do like.

Geocaching on the Thames Path

A hotel, next to Bray Studios (where they filmed all the Good Hammer Horrors)

Less Care spent on their boats

Coming into Maidenhead

Timings continue to be wrong as I cross the Bridge into Maidenhead.   It's 2.5 hours since I left Windsor and I am both ready for a break and have completed my research.   The Grenfell Arms is another potential Good Beer Guide tick that's a 1/2 mile detour from the route.   Alas, this opens at 12pm, so not wanting to wait 30 minutes, its a sad tale of washing my sarnies down with water.  At last it takes my mind off the only bit of road walking completed today.

The next stretch is described by the Geocache listings as the finest part of the whole of the Thames Path.   I'd only caveat that with the bit through the City but its probably correct.   There's a series of weirs, islands and the hanging gardens of Cliveden on the opposite side to marvel at.   I finished the walk with a burning desire to re-read Jerome K Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat".

Thames Path upstream of Maindenhead is a delight

The next town is Cookham.   I may not be able to afford to live there but I can just about afford to have a drink there.   Its a beautiful place with plenty of refreshment options that I narrow down to a choice between the Bel and Dragon and the Kings Arms.   Both ancient and handsome but the Kings Arms has better advertising.

Rebellion IPA sold in the Kings Arms.  £4.40 a Pint

But is was £4.40 well spent

A lovely old C17th Coaching house with a roaring fire and a friendly landlord who took an interest in my travels.   He also reminded me that Marlow is where the Rebellion Brewery is, although to be fair, there is a clue on the glass.   This could be added to the end of the trip, should I get bored of hunting Tom Kerridge.   He's much better at hide and seek these days.

Onwards and upwards for the final leg..... literally, as I have the only climb of the day to Winter Hill.  It promises more than it delivers.  The OS Map signifies a viewpoint but you can't see much through the trees.

Cock Marsh outside of Cookham

Winter Hill Views

I've not been to Marlow before and I'm pleased the route creator, Keith Chesterton, chose this place as the leaving point to enter the Chilterns.   Its a much bigger town than I expected and crossing the stunning suspension bridge next to the church raises the spirits when you are on weary legs, 14 miles into a trek.

Crossing into Marlow

View from the Bridge

Much as Rick Stein is synonymous with Padstow, Tom Kerridge appears to own Marlow.   I had a long conversation on the train in about whether the Hand and Flowers would be suitable for a man that is would only be interested in a Michelin starred restaurant if the beer is good.  Google maps showed it as Greene King, so this is unlikely.    My fellow passenger reeled off all the places in town that Tom owns and suggested that the Butcher's Tap might be more up my street.

This triggered memories from an article in the Times about how the butchers shop continues as a pub.  I had to investigate.

Doing what it says on the Tin

I'm not sure what this says about the other pubs in Marlow but it is packed.   And its exactly what you would expect.   A long refrigerated butchers display - with some outstanding looking joints - runs one length of the shop.  In the middle of the bar/fridge unit, are two hand pulls, alongside a chiller containing sausage rolls that even the hardiest #DryJanuary self denier would struggle to resist.   The shop's opposite side is a packed house of occupied traditional pub tables.

I was forced to share seating arrangement but there was only enough meat based pastry snacks for one.

Tightly packed punters meant I was closer to my Rebellion Gold than I would have liked

It looks like Tom has hit on a winning formula.

20/01/19 - Heart of England Way - Stage 22 - Into Bidford

Distance - 8 Miles
Geocaches - 17
Pub - Bulls Head, Bidford-on-Avon
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


A lengthy stretch for this month's leg on the Heart of England Way.   It's a simple walk from Bidford on Avon to Alcester - heading North along the River Arrow and following the Heart of England Way back.   Unfortunately, this is a stretch that I have walked relatively recently on the Cakes and Ales Trail but doing it the opposite way may present new views.

I'll do the new bit first.

Picking up the intriguingly named Marriage Hill to the west of the town, the route provides a good vista of the housing expansion taking place.  Plenty of unfound geocaches, as I pick up the Arrow to deliver me to the outskirts of Alcester.

Looking over Bidford from Marriage Hill

The interesting part of the River Arrow

By rights, I should head into Alcester now to pick up the Heart of England Way - but having walked it many times and relatively recently, I decide to take a previously unwalked bridleway below Oversley Hill and pick up the HOEW at Oversley farm.   Three previously unfound caches may have had something to do with this decision.

Onto the HOEW - an obstacle course of stiles through farmland and horse grazing fields.   Timed correctly, I could have revisited the Fish (wacky) or the more traditional and Good Beer Guide endorsed Broom Inn.   Today, I am too early but there is music coming from a potential new micro pub.

Nailed on for the 2020 Good Beer Guide

Soon back in Bidford on Avon, emerging from the back lanes at the Church and the previously unvisited Bulls Head.  It's 11:55am and hanging around a pub for lunch time opening is never a great look, so I head down to the river for a final cache.

Bidford on Avon

Sun past the Yard Arm, or whatever the saying is, I add the Bulls Head to the list of pubs visited, having previously frequented the Frog and the Bridge.   The Royal is now closed down and the Falcon Inn is the stuff of Shakespearean lore.

Bills Head, Bidford on Avon

I'm still the first punter through the door.  Two real ales on - Doom Bar and Tribute and I was pleased to see the landlord pull through the first couple of glasses worth before handing over a reasonable example.



A sneak peek at Stage 23 and this looks a familiar walk too.   I'll have to find a way of getting a unique experience from it.