{"id":2322,"date":"2021-09-11T01:38:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T00:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2322"},"modified":"2021-09-09T21:39:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T20:39:21","slug":"moreton-in-marsh-and-sezincote-gloucestershire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2322","title":{"rendered":"Moreton-in-Marsh and Sezincote, Gloucestershire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=740,width=1230,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/> First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Moreton-in-Marsh.gpx');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322370789_99e2451487_z.jpg\" title= \"51322370789 Sezincote House among its trees\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322370789_99e2451487_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321852368_e5c0f8ba41_z.jpg\" title= \"51321852368 bullace, ripe for the plucking\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321852368_e5c0f8ba41_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51320915382_82e76cc827_z.jpg\" title= \"51320915382 looking to the church at Bourton-on-the-Hill\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51320915382_82e76cc827_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51320915447_e67b45129d_z.jpg\" title= \"51320915447 Bourton-on-the-Hill\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51320915447_e67b45129d_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321653911_7bace3faef_z.jpg\" title= \"51321653911 Bourton-on-the-Hill from the Heart of England Way\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321653911_7bace3faef_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321653921_9e8c4d13dd_z.jpg\" title= \"51321653921 Sezincote House\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321653921_9e8c4d13dd_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321653996_14c9aff119_z.jpg\" title= \"51321653996 oat field\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51321653996_14c9aff119_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322370974_1432481d66_z.jpg\" title= \"51322370974 field margin near the bullace hedge\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322370974_1432481d66_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322370979_1081fc60c8_z.jpg\" title= \"51322370979 pond below Sezincote\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322370979_1081fc60c8_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322371009_d49c26db92_z.jpg\" title= \"51322371009 scabious and a Cotswold view\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322371009_d49c26db92_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51320915822_11519a0afa_z.jpg\" title= \"51320915822 autumn fruits\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51320915822_11519a0afa_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322325038_f53f4f62d9_z.jpg\" title= \"51322325038 view from ridge between Moreton and Bourton\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51322325038_f53f4f62d9_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=2322','pwin','height=700,width=1000,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nMoreton-in-Marsh is a lovely place on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, an old wool town with a very wide sheep-straggle of a high street. On a hot afternoon we started under muggy grey clouds, passing allotments full of hollyhocks, cabbages and potatoes. Sunflowers stood tall, their face all turned towards a muted gleam in the southern sky. <\/p>\n<p>Outside Moreton we crossed long fields of harvested barley and wheat. Cotton-reel bales of straw lay regularly spaced, as though giants had temporarily suspended some esoteric game and left all the pieces on the board. <\/p>\n<p>The path led on through a superb wildflower meadow where the nodding dark heads of great burnet contrasted with white cushions of yarrow and the rusty iron aspect of docks in late summer. In the hedgerows stood huge old oaks, their ripe acorns sprouting galls like the tentacles of sea anemones. Rusty barns crowned low ridges from which far views opened across a rolling landscape of green and brown, with church towers and country house gables of that remarkable golden stone peeping out from their trees. <\/p>\n<p>Near the wooded grounds of Batsford Arboretum a big red kite was manoeuvring over the trees, responsive to the whistling calls of an invisible handler at the neighbouring Cotswold Falconry Centre. Everything far and near seemed soaked in the heavy warmth and peace of classic English countryside at the turn of the season. We were jerked rudely from this mood on arrival in Bourton-on-the-Hill, a beautiful little sloping village of honey-coloured houses, as a bunch of inexcusably fast and noisy motorbikes went pelting down its narrow roadway.  <\/p>\n<p>South of Bourton-on-the-Hill we came on a slice of the Mughal empire set down in the Cotswolds. The extraordinary house of Sezincote was built in 1805 for Sir  Charles Cockerell to the designs of his brother Samuel Pepys Cockerell, who incorporated Georgian, Muslim and Hindu architectural styles in a glorious, jolting mishmash of a building. We walked slowly along the fence at the foot of the slope leading up to the house, marvelling at the minarets, enormous curving orangery, cupolas and great green onion dome capping the whole thing off. George, Prince Regent, visited in 1807, and it\u2019s pretty clear where the inspiration for tarting up his Marine Pavilion in Brighton came from.<\/p>\n<p>A final delight to cap the walk &#8211; a hedge full of large plump bullace, fat as damsons and bitter as sloes. We picked them into a bag for a later date with gin and sugar, a heavenly marriage to be consummated in a Kilner jar just in time for next Christmas. <\/p>\n<p>How hard is it? 7 miles; well-marked field and estate paths.<\/p>\n<p>Start: High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 0AX (SP 204322)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Rail to Moreton-in-Marsh; Bus 817 (Stow-on-the-Wold)<br \/>\nRoad \u2013 A44 (Evesham), A429 (Cirencester).<\/p>\n<p>Walk (OS Explorer OL45): Down Corder\u2019s Lane opposite Black Bear; on across fields, following waymarked Monarch\u2019s Way and Heart of England Way\/HEW for 2\u00bc miles to road (174337). Left; in \u00bd mile, left (169331, \u2018Bridleway\u2019). In 600m at driveway, left (173327) to A44 (174326). Left through Bourton-on-the-Hill. 100m past church, right; in 100m, right (HEW); in 50m, left (175324, HEW). In 1 mile at a road and cattle grid, left off HEW (175307), following driveway (yellow arrows\/YA). Pass Upper Rye Farm; at Dutch barn, ahead (185310, YA) across field to gate (YA). On outside Thickleather Coppice to reach post with 2 YAs (189311). Half left here (not right!) to gate in far fence (YA); follow Monarch\u2019s Way to Moreton.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch\/Accommodation: Bell Inn, High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 0AF (01608-651887, <a href=\"http:\/\/thebellinnmoreton.co.uk\">thebellinnmoreton.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Info: <a href=\"http:\/\/sezincote.co.uk\">sezincote.co.uk<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/batsarb.co.uk\">batsarb.co.uk<\/a><br \/>\n@somerville_c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moreton-in-Marsh is a lovely place on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, an old wool town with a very wide sheep-straggle of a high street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}