Category: Cotswolds

Ready for a patio party

Cirencester had an Abbey, St Neots had a Priory; both are long since gone, but both are remembered still. Cirencester has a lovely public park, The Abbey Grounds, St Neots has a public building called The Priory Centre for theatrical and musical performances and all sorts of local events and meetings. Donna and I have very much enjoyed living in both places.

Our old patio

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image of the day – 202

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.

Click thumbnails to enlarge

Before we moved to Cirencester we lived in a big old detached property in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. We could seat 10 or 11 people around the big table in our dining room, and a similar number on the patio outside. Our friends called it ‘The Party House’. When we first moved in, the house and garden both needed a lot of work; the second photo shows our housewarming party in September 1999, soon after we moved there. The mix of people includes people from work (Unilever), friends from church (Open Door, St Neots), and neighbours.

September 1999

But Cirencester house prices are far higher than in St Neots so when we moved we bought a much smaller place and extended it, turning the garage into a bedroom and en suite bathroom. We still miss the spaciousness, but we love living in Cirencester. I began my life in this lovely, old, Cotswold town and it seems fitting to complete my life here too.

The local countryside

Arlington Row (Wikimedia)

Quite apart from the town of Cirencester itself, the Cotswold countryside is very special. The towns and villages are all built from the same honey-coloured Oolitic limestone. Although it’s a beautiful colour when it’s freshly quarried or pressure washed, the stone ages to a pleasant neutral grey and becomes mottled as it hosts the growth of white, yellow and black lichens. Many of the buildings have traditional anti-drip ridges above the windows and doors, the roof tiles are frequently of Cotswold stone as well, and gutters, downpipes, doors and window frames are usually painted in a sympathetic, dusky, greyish-pale-green hue as well. These old homes, farmhouses and outbuildings blend gracefully into the countryside. Some of these buildings are rightfully famous, like Bibury’s Arlington Row (pictured above right). It almost looks as if the houses have sprung out of the ground like the nearby trees and hedges!

Historical change

Historically things were very different. If you’d visited the Cotswolds in 1500, the only stone buildings would probably have been ecclesiastical or military: churches, cathedrals and castles would have been built in stone along with city walls, but all the houses and many businesses (shops, pubs, inns and so on) would have been built of heavy wooden frames with wall infill of wattle and daub, a building technique going right back to Neolithic times.

Some of the old houses in Cirencester were originally built this way, rich wool merchants replacing them with stone in Georgian times, and in some cases a stone front was built just outside the old timber frame walls giving the appearance of a stone structure at lower cost. Arlington Row in Bibury was built by a local monastery for wool storage and later divided up for use as weaver’s cottages.

Rivers

Cirencester’s River Churn is part of the headwaters of the Thames. As rivers go it’s very small, rising at Seven Springs just south of Cheltenham, high in the Cotswold hills, running through a wooded, winding valley twelve miles to Cirencester and then joining the Thames at Cricklade after a further ten miles through flatter land. From the confluence with the Thames the Churn is by far the longer of the two rivers, but both names are very old, going back to the Iron Age, and perhaps a good deal earlier. Where they meet, the Thames is wider and deeper than the Churn so would have been thought the main river.

More on St Neots

The River Great Ouse

I began this article with a photo of the patio at our old home in St Neots and I should say some more about that lovely old town before finishing. One of the main features of St Neots is the River Great Ouse, a huge and navigable river by comparison with the little Churn. Both the Thames and the Great Ouse enter the southern part of the North Sea on the east coast of England and at that point both are significant rivers.

Cirencester had an Abbey, St Neots had a Priory; both are long since gone, but both are remembered still. Cirencester has a lovely public park, The Abbey Grounds, St Neots has a public building called The Priory Centre for theatrical and musical performances and all sorts of local events and meetings. Donna and I have very much enjoyed living in both places.

St Neots is a good deal larger than Cirencester and both towns are still growing rapidly in size and population.

Being at home

As I was writing I began to see how important home is. Home can be anywhere on the land surface of this planet called ‘Earth’. But there is something special about home, this is true for all of us. The difference between St Neots and Cirencester is quite minor. English is the most spoken language in both towns. Food and drink are similar in both places, so are the customs and the public holidays and the way life is lived. I could feel at home in either place and I have friends in both places.

But the place where I currently live is special in certain ways. I know Cirencester very well, but St Neots will have changed slightly since we moved ten years ago. For all of us, home is the most familiar place in the world – quite literally.

And I began to see that the same is true in places that are not places at all. For me, heaven is a familiar ‘place’ too. Of course it’s not a physical place in the way St Neots or Cirencester are. But it’s certainly home for me, where everything is familiar and reliable. Heaven is where my heart is already, Jesus is there, his Spirit lives in me and with me day by day, hour by hour.

‘Home is where your heart is’, we are told. My heart is already in this mysterious non-place which is beyond any normal meaning of the word ‘place’. Thinking in terms of place just helps me relate the extraordinary to the ordinary of everyday life.

Perhaps in this last section I’ve lost many of my readers, but I know some of you understand what I’m trying to say. There is more mystery in this universe than we can grasp with everyday thoughts and ideas. Don’t dismiss these thoughts as the ramblings of a deluded old man, they are not that at all. Here is a hidden truth that we can all lean into; and there’s a treasure here that you do not want to miss. So take my advice – go on digging until you find the treasure. His name and his character are there for all who will look deep and long.

Consider starting by reading the gospels, or my personal story of discovering church, or what church is like when it’s growing as it should.

See also:

< Previous | Index | Next >

You might also like:

Ullswater
Sheep, a street, and a home
Caring on the water

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Cirencester at night

We are looking more or less along what was once a Roman street in old Corinium. Although it winds left and right here and there, nearly 2000 years ago it would have run almost entirely straight.

Jupiter and the church tower

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image of the day – 191

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Jupiter and the church tower

The town’s streetlights illuminate the lovely old architecture in Dollar Street, and Jupiter is bright enough to see high above the church tower’s flag pole. Click the thumbnail to enlarge it and you’ll also see a star a little further to the right, almost over the open window. This is Saiph, the bottom-left star of Orion. If you’re looking at the sky from the southern hemisphere Saiph will be Orion’s top-right star and Jupiter will be very low in the sky.

Looking south

We are looking more or less along what was once a Roman street in old Corinium. Although it winds left and right here and there, nearly 2000 years ago it would have run almost entirely straight, part of the Roman military road between Glevum (Gloucester) and Calleva (Silchester) through the local Iron Age kingdom of the Dobunni whose capital was about four miles to the north of Corinium in what is now the village of Bagendon. Behind you, in this view, the road continued north-west to Glevum where there was a military fortress. Some British tribes were allies of the Romans, including the local Dobunni. Some tribes opposed the Romans and their conquest of these islands. In the south-east direction the same Roman road (Ermin Way) passed through the town’s Forum, past the Basilica and made its way to Calleva to the south and east.

See also:

< Previous | Index | Next >

You might also like:

Mosaics underfoot
Image of the day – 64
Image of the day – 46
A view of ancient remains

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Arkell’s Brewery plaque

It’s likely the cracking will have been caused by differential thermal expansion and contraction with the iron changing its dimenions rather more than the ceramic glaze.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image of the day – 189

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Click images to enlarge

This is one of the old brewery plaques, once numerous across Britain. This example is in Castle Street, outside The Brewers Arms, not far from the junction with Querns Lane and Lewis Lane.

Arkell’s Brewery

The brewery originated in 1843, the year on the plaque. It was founded in Swindon by John Arkell, remains family-owned and operates as one of the oldest remaining brewery companies in Britain.

The plaque is probably of cast iron with enamel decoration and apart from some cracks seems to be in almost perfect condition. It’s likely the cracking will have been caused by differential thermal expansion and contraction with the iron changing its dimenions rather more than the ceramic glaze. The plaque has seen more than 180 day/night cycles in its time!

Brasso

The image is of Noah’s ark with a large capital letter ‘L’, so a play on Arkell (‘arkL’). There’s a long history of businesses advertising their presence with logos and other illustrations, it happens in all nations and cultures, sometimes the themes, names and images employed can become quite famous and long-lived. When I was a young child, Brasso (a British brass polish) was sold in steel containers with blue and white rays coming out in all directions. It’s still available today in cans with the same design. And it probably looked just the same in Victorian times as well! When I was young it was fitted with a low-profile, steel screw-cap, today it has a much larger, plastic cap. Otherwise, it looks identical to me.

See also:

< Previous | Index | Next >

You might also like:

The old Woolmarket
Castle Street
A grand old house in Cirencester

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Come on in!

The simplest and cheapest way to travel would have been to walk, and people often did exactly that. For an example look no further than the old story of Dick Whittington.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image of the day – 188

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Click images to enlarge

This photo was taken in Cirencester, peering in through an entrance to a courtyard beyond. If you are familiar with the town, I wonder if you know where this is? *The answer is at the bottom of the post.

There’s an invitation in this photo

That’s why I called it ‘Come right in!’ There seems to be an unspoken welcome here. What appeals to you most in this picture? Is it the warmth of the light? Or perhaps the sparkle of the decorative lights at the far end? Or the open doors beckoning you to enter? In days of yore, this double doorway might have allowed a horse to be brought inside for stabling, feeding, watering and grooming to recover for use the following day. The carriage would have remained on the street outside.

‘Days of yore’, this funny old expression is a poetical way of saying long ago. ‘yore’ is an Old English word closely related to the modern word ‘year’. So the sense is ‘in the days of years ago’. There’s a large garden at the back of the hotel, with a lawn scattered with tables and chairs, a lovely place to eat and drink with friends or family in the summer months. I imagine the horses sometimes being turned out to graze in a grassy field here, what a treat for them!

Shelter for travellers

Travelling on horseback or by horse and carriage was a slow affair, requiring regular stops for meals or to shelter for the night, and that’s why the old routes between towns in Britain are liberally scattered with pubs, inns and hostels. Practically every village of hamlet would have had one and towns would have had many more. They’re not hard to spot, although these days many have been converted to other uses.

It wouldn’t always have been necessary to pay for accommodation, friends or family along or near the route would have made travellers welcome and on dry, warm, summer nights it would have been possible to pull off the main roads and sleep outside or in the carriage. The simplest and cheapest way to travel would have been to walk, and people often did exactly that. For an example look no further than the old story of Dick Whittington. In Roman times there were parallel systems for official/military and public use. Every 30 to 50 km (a day’s journey) there were mansiones or official stops with good accomodation, fresh horses, dining areas, and perhaps even baths. And between these were mutationes, (literally ‘changes’) for a brief stop, a fresh horse, and perhaps some refreshments but without overnight facilities. Non-official, privately run facilities included cauponae and tabernae, some of these were a bit rough and disreputable, some were well appointed with courtyards, kitchens, and decorated dining rooms. Several modern English terms come from these words – mansion, mutation, and tavern are notable.

The Bible is usually regarded as a religious book, but it’s also a good historical source as well. Read the book of Acts, for example, to get a good idea of what travel by land and sea was like 2000 years ago. See for example Acts 28:11-16 where a place near Rome called ‘Three Taverns’ is mentioned (Tres Tabernae).

* It’s the Corinium Hotel in Gloucester Street, once the Corinium Court Hotel.

See also:

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

You might also like:

The old Woolmarket
Castle Street
A grand old house in Cirencester

The old Woolmarket

The idea of a wool market is an appropriate one for the town; in medieval times the wool trade was of high importance in the Cotswolds where a series of wool towns developed, of which Cirencester was the largest.

< Previous | Index | Next >

Image of the day – 184

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Woolmarket (click images to enlarge)

The Woolmarket is a small shopping area between Dyer Street and The Waterloo in Cirencester. It looks old, it’s presented as old, but in fact it’s a relatively recent development, created in the 1980s and further improved in 1996. The idea of a wool market is an appropriate one for the town; in medieval times the wool trade was of high importance in the Cotswolds where a series of wool towns developed, of which Cirencester was the largest. The town’s Parish Church of John Baptist was built and extended in part with money from the wool trade as was the old Abbey before it.

Many of the Georgian frontages around the centre of the town began their lives as the homes of wealthy wool merchants. They are now mostly offices or flats, and sometimes have the ground floors replaced by retail businesses with large windows for display. But look up and you’ll see right away two or three floors of Georgian architecture above those ground floors.

The photo

I took this photo on a wet evening on 18th January 2026, the paving slabs of natural stone glistening in the overhead lighting and the more distant buildings softened by descending mist as the damp atmosphere cooled down following sunset. It’s very typical of January in the Cotswolds. Sometimes we get snow, and heavy frosts are possible, but often it’s just a chill damp with muddy fields and foggy mornings.

The sheep statue

In the middle of the photo, look into the middle distance and you may spot the statue of a traditional Cotswold Lion sheep. This famous old breed was once widespread across a huge expanse of the Cotswolds, though now it is a rarity.

See also:

< Previous | Index | Next >

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

You might also like:

The higher you look, the less you see
Fog…
A grand old house in Cirencester