{"id":2398,"date":"2022-02-05T01:50:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T00:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2398"},"modified":"2022-01-30T22:21:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T21:21:40","slug":"hillesley-and-alderley-gloucestershire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=2398","title":{"rendered":"Hillesley and Alderley, 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('Hillesley.jpg');\" 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\/51797059974_3b3cca5113_z.jpg\" title= \"View of Winner Hill and remnants of the Upper House, Alderley 1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797059974_3b3cca5113_s.jpg\" alt=\"View of Winner Hill and remnants of the Upper House, Alderley 1\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797059669_4990022c3a_z.jpg\" title= \"Snowdrops at Hillesley\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797059669_4990022c3a_s.jpg\" alt=\"Snowdrops at Hillesley\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417450_6300c2180f_z.jpg\" title= \"Somerset Monument from the drive to Splatt Barn\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417450_6300c2180f_s.jpg\" alt=\"Somerset Monument from the drive to Splatt Barn\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51796688841_68eb0d578f_z.jpg\" title= \"newly trimmed hedges near Splatt Barn\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51796688841_68eb0d578f_s.jpg\" alt=\"newly trimmed hedges near Splatt Barn\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51795742867_3290462abb_z.jpg\" title= \"Monarch's Way approaches Long Coombe 1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51795742867_3290462abb_s.jpg\" alt=\"Monarch's Way approaches Long Coombe 1\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417760_8353d3fab2_z.jpg\" title= \"Monarch's Way approaches Long Coombe 2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417760_8353d3fab2_s.jpg\" alt=\"Monarch's Way approaches Long Coombe 2\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417225_5caa730738_z.jpg\" title= \"Monarch's Way descends Long Coombe\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417225_5caa730738_s.jpg\" alt=\"Monarch's Way descends Long Coombe\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417630_536b7ea838_z.jpg\" title= \"spring ponds in Long Coombe 1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797417630_536b7ea838_s.jpg\" alt=\"spring ponds in Long Coombe 1\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51796807873_c88d05d390_z.jpg\" title= \"spring ponds in Long Coombe 2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51796807873_c88d05d390_s.jpg\" alt=\"spring ponds in Long Coombe 2\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51796688326_9742a27c10_z.jpg\" title= \"Cotswold Way between Kilcott Mill and Alderley 1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51796688326_9742a27c10_s.jpg\" alt=\"Cotswold Way between Kilcott Mill and Alderley 1\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51795742372_d52abbfc41_z.jpg\" title= \"Cotswold Way between Kilcott Mill and Alderley 2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51795742372_d52abbfc41_s.jpg\" alt=\"Cotswold Way between Kilcott Mill and Alderley 2\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51795742242_69958ca476_z.jpg\" title= \"Cotswold Way between Kilcott Mill and Alderley 3\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51795742242_69958ca476_s.jpg\" alt=\"Cotswold Way between Kilcott Mill and Alderley 3\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797416480_4944a40042_z.jpg\" title= \"View of Winner Hill and remnants of the Upper House, Alderley 2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/51797416480_4944a40042_s.jpg\" alt=\"View of Winner Hill and remnants of the Upper House, Alderley 2\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=2398','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 \/>\nA windy winter\u2019s day in south Gloucestershire, the sun a nacreous ball behind fast-driving clouds. The recent mild weather had encouraged a couple of daffodils to raise their heads along the crooked lanes at Hillesley, a village tucked down in a fold of the Cotswold escarpment. Hillesley\u2019s Fleece Inn is owned and run by the community, an excellent initiative that has kept the place alive.<br \/>\nAs we climbed the squelching muddy path through the trees behind the village, I spotted a solitary celandine among the hart\u2019s-tongue ferns. At the top the prospect opened out into a landscape typical of these southern Cotswolds, an undulating upland with snaking valleys invisible from on high. On the ridge ahead rose a tall column with an elaborate cap, built in 1846 in honour of Lord Robert Somerset, one of Wellington\u2019s bravest Peninsula War officers.<br \/>\nA crowd of tiny animated birds rushed past with a swish of wings \u2013 goldfinches, feebly twittering, forming a little cloud that balled and elongated like a miniature murmuration of starlings. We left them to their winter manoeuvres and turned aside down the roadless declivity of Long Coombe, where rosettes of primrose leaves were showing in the shelter of hedge roots.<br \/>\nSpring pools shivered in the wind on the grassy slopes. Down in the steep-sided valley at the bottom, green lamb\u2019s-tail catkins bobbed along the neatly laid hedges around Lower Kilcott. A pair of buzzards swung out of a spinney, the pale \u2018headlights\u2019 on their wings lit by the sun. Above them, a pair of parallel con trails drew themselves lazily and soundlessly across a patch of blue in a sky rapidly darkening from the southwest.<br \/>\nAt Kilcott Mill we joined the Cotswold Way, a mud-bath that took us slithering up the valley. Under a coppiced hazel a squirrel had dug out the last of its nut hoard (or someone else&#8217;s), and nipped the crowns off each one to get at the kernel, leaving a scatter of empty shells like miniature scalped skulls on the bank.<br \/>\nBeyond Alderley in a spit of rain we turned along the homeward path to Hillesley, passing the magnificent Cotswold stone mansion of Rose Hill with its ranks of windows and stalk-like chimneys. A tractor grunted up the nearby lane, carrying a bale of hay on its praying mantis arms for the sheep whose rain-pearled fleeces were suddenly silvered by a low ray of sun escaping from the clouds.<\/p>\n<p>How hard is it? 6\u00bd miles; easy but muddy; field and woodland paths, country lanes.<br \/>\nStart: Fleece Inn, Chapel Lane, Hillesley GL12 7RD (OS ref ST 770896)<br \/>\nGetting there: Bus 84 (Yate\u2013Wotton-under-Edge).<br \/>\nRoad &#8211; Hawkesbury Upton is signed from A46 Bath-Nailsworth road; Hillesley is signed from Hawkesbury Upton.<br \/>\nWalk (OS Explorer 167): From pub, left; at bend, ahead up footpath via Mear\u2019s Plantation. At top, right to Splatt\u2019s Barn (770888); south along drive for \u00bd mile. At road, left (771880); fork left on Monarch\u2019s Way for 1\u00bc miles via Long Coombe to road at Lower Kilcott (786892). Left; in \u00bd mile pass Kilcott Mill; in 150m, right off road (779897). In 200m, left on Cotswold Way for nearly 1 mile to road at Alderley (770910). Right (\u2018Tresham\u2019); in 150m cross road (771909); follow Cotswold Way for \u2154 mile to road by Elmtree Farm (768916). Left; in 200m cross road (766916). Follow marked detour past Lacys; in field beyond, left (764916) on path south (passing east of Park Farm, west of Rose Hill school) for 1\u00bc miles to Hillesley.<br \/>\nLunch: Fleece Inn, Hillesley (01453-520003; <a href=\"http:\/\/thefleeceinnhillesley.com\">thefleeceinnhillesley.com<\/a>)<br \/>\nAccommodation: Swan Hotel, Wotton-under-Edge GL12 7AE (01453-843004, <a href=\"http:\/\/swanhotelwotton.com\">swanhotelwotton.com<\/a><br \/>\nInfo: <a href=\"http:\/\/nationaltrail.co.uk\/cotswold-way\">nationaltrail.co.uk\/cotswold-way<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A windy winter\u2019s day in south Gloucestershire, the sun a nacreous ball behind fast-driving clouds. The recent mild weather had encouraged a couple of daffodils to raise their heads along the crooked lanes at Hillesley, a village tucked down in a fold of the Cotswold escarpment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2398","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\/2398","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=2398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}