{"id":1547,"date":"2018-05-05T01:21:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T00:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1547"},"modified":"2018-05-01T07:57:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T06:57:25","slug":"sapperton-tunnel-source-of-the-thames-glos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1547","title":{"rendered":"Sapperton Tunnel &#038; Source of the Thames, Glos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=840,width=1230,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/>\nFirst published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Sapperton.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:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4697\/39659448185_8a101c7a93.jpg\" title='field edge path near Coates'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4697\/39659448185_8a101c7a93_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4720\/40512037402_ffba41cb37.jpg\" title='Sapperton Tunnel - south portal'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4720\/40512037402_ffba41cb37_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4623\/26683559898_506cfc6a29.jpg\" title='Overgrown cutting of Thames &amp; Severn Canal near Sapperton Tunnel'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4623\/26683559898_506cfc6a29_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4740\/39844143804_a5caa94e85.jpg\" title='old plough in the hedge near Coates'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4740\/39844143804_a5caa94e85_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4631\/26683555448_3da75a7041.jpg\" title='Bluebells in Hailey Wood'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4631\/26683555448_3da75a7041_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4761\/39844137114_54f2840058.jpg\" title='source of the Thames in Trewsbury Mead 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4761\/39844137114_54f2840058_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4769\/26683553198_99af0e74c7.jpg\" title='source of the Thames in Trewsbury Mead 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4769\/26683553198_99af0e74c7_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4758\/39844132594_e856aa9959.jpg\" title='Hailey Wood'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4758\/39844132594_e856aa9959_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4724\/40554821111_fb4e361b22.jpg\" title='Hailey Wood 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4724\/40554821111_fb4e361b22_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4703\/39659450655_cf2c1067aa.jpg\" title='path to Tarlton Manor'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4703\/39659450655_cf2c1067aa_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4673\/39659445575_41c229366a.jpg\" title='Cotswold stone stile near Hullasey Farm'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4673\/39659445575_41c229366a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4708\/40512041202_9c2eeea22a.jpg\" title='GV near Hullasey Farm'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4708\/40512041202_9c2eeea22a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4611\/40554809521_935f050089.jpg\" title='looking towards Tunnel House Inn'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4611\/40554809521_935f050089_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1547\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=1547','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 \/>\nCS Forester once had his fictitious naval hero, Captain Horatio Hornblower, RN, legging a canal barge through the Sapperton Tunnel. Even Hornblower, victor of a dozen desperate sea battles in Nelson&#8217;s navy, would be hard put to force passage today &#8211; roof falls have blocked the tunnel and severed the Thames &#038; Severn Canal, a through route between London and the west coast of Britain in former times.<\/p>\n<p>These days the wonderfully ornate southern portal of the Sapperton Tunnel looks out on a silent waterway, weed-grown and melancholy in its shadowy cutting. We passed a strange little round stone tower, once the abode of a canal maintenance man, and turned down a side path fringed with cowslips to Trewsbury Mead and the source of the River Thames.<\/p>\n<p>Old Father Thames in infant form whelms from a little circle of greenish stones near an ancient ash tree. At least he does in wet seasons &#8211; today in Trewsbury Mead not a trickle disturbed the grass. Strange to think that, 180 miles to the east, this modest nothing of a river would be coursing through London before broadening out to meet the North Sea.<\/p>\n<p>St Matthew&#8217;s Church in nearby Coates lay quiet and cool. From a memorial display a rather severe face looked out under a military cap. Lt Col Bernard Vann, raised as a boy in Coates Rectory, was the only C of E clergyman to win a VC as a combatant in the Great War. His decoration, for leading a charge against German positions under heavy fire, was a posthumous one. His wife was one month pregnant at the time of the attack, but neither she nor Bernard was aware of that, when a sniper killed him four days later &#8211; five short weeks before the end of the war.<\/p>\n<p>A flood of bluebells splashed the floor of Hailey Wood. We turned down a broad ride between log stacks. Badger highways had been beaten out by leathery pads through the undergrowth.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the wood we climbed through a bright gold sea of oilseed rape to the great barn and chapel at Tarlton Manor, a dream of mellow perfection in Cotswold stone, before dropping down across a green and gold valley to the Tunnel House Inn and the ornate portal on the old canal once more.<\/p>\n<p>Start: Tunnel House Inn, near Coates, Glos GL7 6PW (OS ref SD 966006)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Coates is signed from A419 (Stroud-Cirencester). In village, 1st left (&#8216;Canal Tunnel &#038; Inn&#8217;). In \u00bd mile, right to Tunnel House Inn.<\/p>\n<p>Walk (6 miles, easy, OS Explorer 168): Down steps into cutting; right along canal for 1 mile. At 3rd bridge (979000) right through gate; right (&#8216;Thames &#038; Severn&#8217;) for 500m to source of Thames (980995). Return to cross canal; ahead to road (979005). Left; first right; just before war memorial, left (978008). Go through gate; across fields to cross road (975011); on to pass church. In 50m, right up green lane (972010) for 700m to gate into Hailey Wood (966014).<\/p>\n<p>Right (Country Landowners Association\/CLA arrow) up path. In 100m, left (CLA); in 200m, right at junction (CLA) to turn left (south-west) just before sawmill on right (965015). Follow broad track for 450m to cross railway (961013); fork right on track for \u00bd mile to The Star junction (954009). Counting from left, take 3rd exit, with fence and young forestry on left.<\/p>\n<p>In 100m, left (CLA) on public right of way. In 450m cross track in valley bottom (956005, CLA) and in 200m leave wood by gate (957004). Ahead along field edge; through successive gates on ridge; at Manor Farm, left along stony road (956999) between buildings. At T-junction, left (959999); right through gate (&#8216;Macmillan Way&#8217;).<\/p>\n<p>Follow Macmillan Way\/Monarch&#8217;s Way; through gate on left, and half right across field to cross stone stile. Down to gate at wood edge (962002); fork right out of trees and up across fields to Tunnel House Inn.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Tunnel House Inn, Coates (01285-770280, <a href=\"http:\/\/tunnelhouse.com\">tunnelhouse.com<\/a>) <\/p>\n<p>Accommodation: Crown Inn, Frampton Mansell, Stroud GL6 8JG (01285-760601, <a href=\"http:\/\/thecrowninn-cotswolds.co.uk\">thecrowninn-cotswolds.co.uk<\/a>) &#8211; pretty Cotswold village pub-with-rooms<\/p>\n<p>Info:  Stroud TIC (01453-760992); <a href=\"http:\/\/cotswolds.com\">cotswolds.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/visitengland.com\">visitengland.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/satmap.com\">satmap.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/ramblers.org.uk\">ramblers.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CS Forester once had his fictitious naval hero, Captain Horatio Hornblower, RN, legging a canal barge through the Sapperton Tunnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1547","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":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}