Cotswolds Walk Day 5 > Winchcombe to Broadway

May 20th, 2024 >>>Winchcombe to Broadway

After an interesting and entertaining day yesterday, we are gearing up for our longest walk to date which will take us to Broadway.

The day looks a bit cloudy but the forecast says no rain so we are optimistic our luck will hold. With another solid breakfast under our belts, we head out of Winchcombe and onto the Cotswold Way…

After a bit, we leave Winchcombe behind us …

Just before lunchtime, we reached the remains of the Hailes Abbey built in 1246 (an English Heritage site). The site was not open but we did not make a detour to visit the Abbey, so regardless of the CCTV cameras, over the fence, I went and got a few snaps…a pretty, well-organized site which we would have liked to “officially” visit! There are paths cut through the long grass and even the abbey ruins have grass growing on them! Apparently, this is a way of conserving the stone and protecting it from weather erosion >>>  “soft wall capping”.

We had intended to have a picnic there instead we opted to have our sandwiches on the wall of a nearby Church …our host at Zen Cottage had “insisted” we make up some sandwiches with the breakfast ham and cheese as she warned us there were no cafes etc, on our route. A big shout-out to Kay!!!

From here we backtrack to join the Winchcombe Way, another long-distance path we will follow to Stanway and Stanton, two hamlets en route to Broadway…the red-leafed tree we could not identify but it was the only one we saw en route. From time to time we saw dead ancient trees, rather sad-looking:

After about 2 hours we reach Stanway a small village dominated by Stanway House, owned by the Earl of Wemyss and March, undergoing a long 21st century restoration. Owned by Tewkesbury Abbey for 800 years then for 500 years by the Tracy family and their descendants, the Earls of Wemyss still live there.  The manor is home to a water garden whose centrepiece is a 300ft Water Fountain – the highest fountain in Britain. We could see the plume of water in the distance on the outskirts of Stanway. However, the fountain is turned on twice a day and our timing was not in synch with theirs >>> when we arrived at the gatehouse (pic below) it was shut, as was the fountain …bummer!…sometimes the puck does not roll for you!!  As with many of these fabulous estates, the house and gardens are open to visitors during the summer generating some cash flow for what must be massive maintenance expenses.

We pressed on as time was running and we had miles to go, After another hour or so we came upon the village of Stanton which takes its name from ‘stan’ (stone) from which it is built (as is Stanway). This is a picture-perfect little village…we must say that reading about the itinerary for this trip the words cute, pretty, picturesque came up repeatedly …we thought, well it must be hyperbole….not so, these places are real or at least surreal. We suspect the entry price must also be breathtaking!! Unfortunately, there is not much time to gawk as we still have a ways to go… 

From the center of the village, we find a public path which we follow for about 30 minutes, which passes a manor with a pond and some large white swans, then uphill bypassing the village of Laverton and through a field of blue flowers which we could not identify…very pretty nevertheless:

…..and then join up again with the Cotswold’s Way which takes us to Broadway and the end of today’s walk:

Our lodgings tonight are at the Crown & Trumpet and we are quite convinced the trumpet is signalling that refreshment time is nigh on us. I think Annie is quite happy this day is done with …

It has been a long day and we are glad we put in the hours walking at home preparing for this walk….ageing is a real process but can be deferred if one is willing to put in the time and energy!

Today’s effort by the numbers: 30,533 steps including touring the villages, 10.1 miles (16.25 km), 958 ft total ascent and 1959 ft total descent point to point.