Banbury and Cotswolds Day 1

 May 17th.  Woke to a British Bright Blue sky and promise of a warm fine day.

Back to car park and a minor adventure getting out when the basement pay machine didn’t like our Visa card.  An official came out with a laminated card containing details of how to make payment by bank transfer and soon we were on our way,  Trusting Guy and Uncooperative Machine!

Then Lady Satnav, with whom I mentally spoke in an unchristian manner, took us right through Oxford High Street almost following the Sightseeing Bus Tour route!   Eventually we got on to a main road, past Oxford Airport and on the Banbury Road.   Together reciting the old nursery rhyme about “Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross” we actually drove a Mercedes!   Finding a park for £1.20 we walked into the town centre in the direction we thought the cross would be.  Neither of us has much sense of direction and we were completely and utterly wrong.   A helpful shop assistant in the bookshop took us out and pointed us back up from whence we had come.  And there, oh joy and delight, was the Banbury Cross and The Fine Lady on the White Horse.  Well, a dull statue grey actually.  

 I’m sure I had read somewhere that in actual fact the fine lady was in reality a Lady Fiennes, an antecedent of the famous Ralph and Ranulf but the information board didn’t prove my myth!   This statue gave her seven blue bells on her feet symbolising seven days of the week, as well as the rings on her fingers.   I loved the little touch of the frog under the horse’s hoof.  

We also found another interesting building - the two dates were from ancient to old.

Satisfied with what we had come to Banbury for, we reprogrammed Lady Satnav for Great Tew and set off on what proved to be the most pleasurable country lane journey thus far.   On My Great Thatched Cottage Adventure this route was Just Right.   Almost every village had multiple, “oh wow” inducing thatched houses.  We even saw one roof that had a dog and a squirrel in straw along the ridge line - sadly not in a place I could stop to take photos.  Golden Cotswold limestone buildings, quaint names in abundance, windy country lanes and high satisfaction levels for me.

Warning - photo overload.

Great Tew was all I had imagined it to be and I was thankful to Helene Hanff author of  84 Charing Cross Road who described visiting this hamlet in her book The Duchess of Bloomsbury.   Picturesque thatched cottages tumbled down a short slope - we followed a Royal Mail van delivering to letter boxes in the doors.   

At the centre there was the Quince and Clover Cafe which provided a welcome pot of tea and a Tarragon and White Chocolate cake.   The four ladies seated at the other end of our large scrubbed pine table provided the entertainment as they compared rings and decided who had the best topaz, whose daughter had had the worst midwife and other interesting topics of conversation!   Apparently this is the epicentre of the Cotswolds and the Beckhams and Kate Moss live nearby.   

Then on to Chipping Norton for lunch - really lovely fresh smoked salmon a salad and a refreshing glass of Sparkling Elderflower. 

Of course we had to find a yarn shop which provided a photo opportunity as well as local town gossip about the “big funeral to be held at the church this afternoon”.   Naturally flappy ears Margaret had to listen - it appears that Tony Hill, the owner of the local Manor House has died and his funeral was to be held at 3 this afternoon.  They were expecting 500 people!!  The owner of the yarn shop was most perturbed that there would be no parking in the town.  Still in shock she said, “the Manor tried to lease the whole of the public car park.  You can’t do that!”   And sure enough as we left we saw, Rolls Royce, Bentley and other posh British cars rolling into town. 

In Oxford we saw the church where the author of The Wind in the Willows was buried and today we saw his characters come to real life.  Don’t these two give an air of Toad of Toad Hall!

Again we took the scenic route through Moreton In Marsh and  Bourton on Hill.  Oh the names of the villages here are delightful.  Today I collected “ton’s”  -  Kidlington, Deddington, Shipston, TadMarton,South Newington, Wigginton were some of them.  I saw a Little Compton too and looked for Great Compton but that didn’t appear to exist - instead it was Long Compton!

And for Little Brother who is reading this blog, I found Home Farm.  Wish I could send the smells too!

Eventually we found our way to The Old Coach House at Blockley where we are to stay for two nights.  We hit the jackpot with this.  

Delightful building, comfortable two bedroom accommodation, next to a well stocked Village Shop and bonus next to the Church of St Peter and St Paul where the whodunnit series Father Brown is filmed.  They are next scheduled to disrupt this quiet hamlet on May 24th so I’m some way I’m pleased we won’t be here.   I can’t imagine the mayhem of that!