2013-06-05 Driving around the Cotswolds

June 5, 2013 - Wednesday

Bibury-on River Coln 9 miles from Burford; Arlinton Row-ancient cottages with steeply pitched roofs-16th century; Bibury Trout Farm & Restaurant-catch your own trout; serves fresh trout; the village was once described by William Morris as 'the most beautiful village in the Cotswolds'. - that's the information we had on Bibury.  

It sounded like a great little village to explore so we had it on our agenda.  We decided to go straight to Bibury and then have breakfast there.  It was a pleasant drive to Bibury and we found Arlington Row and parked the car on the road like all the other tourists and tour buses.  We admired the river that ran along the side of the road and crossed the bridge to get a closer look at the row of houses that were built for poor women back in the day.  

Cottage in Bibury

Bridge in Bibury

Arlington Row

Arlington Row

We walked up the hill past the row and stopped to pat a dog barking at us from behind a closed gate.  The owner stopped her gardening and came over to chat for a bit.  We got a recommendation for breakfast at the Catherine Wheel, just down the other side of the hill.  We found the place and went in for another full English breakfast, this time with toast and not fried bread.  We were served sausage, bacon, black pudding, egg, mushroom and tomatoes.  It was all good, but much bigger than my usual breakfast.  After breakfast, we walked around the other side of the hill to get back to the car.  Along the way, we went into the gift shop at the trout farm.  There was also a restaurant and the setting was quite pretty.  It was a very pleasant walk along the river to the car.

Petros and Florine, waiting for our breakfast at The Catherine Wheel

Breakfast of sausage, bacon, fried egg, tomatoes. mushroom and black pudding.

View of the restaurant and trout farm in Bibury

Swans and ducks in the river in Bibury

From Bibury, we drove over to Cirencester. Cirencester is often referred to as the Capital of the Cotswold. There is a market square which is dominated by the Parish Church of St. John Baptist which has a south porch with impressive fan vaulting built around 1490.  Street market days are Mondays & Fridays with a cattle market on Tuesdays. I don't think Florine was too keen on visiting Cirencester as it was a bigger town and not a village.  We found parking near a supermarket and tried to find our way to the tourist information office.  It was not the easiest place to find, but we did eventually locate it.  Along the way, we passed the tallest/largest yew hedge in Europe.  It gets trimmed twice a year at a cost of about GPB 5,000 per trim.  The trimmings are then gathered and sent to Switzerland to be used in making tamoxifen, an anti-cancer drug.  We admired the Church of St. John Baptist, walked along a little river, passing some nice buildings and what looked like a fort (probably the armoury or barracks) before turning back to go on to the next village, Painswick, another award winning village.

Yew tree hedge in Cirencester

Cirencester

Countryside

Thatched roof cottage

At Painswick, we parked near the church.  The church is unique in that it has 99 yew trees growing on the grounds.  Over the years, attempts have been made to grow a 100th tree, but without success.  We wandered around the church grounds, looking at the yew trees and some of the tombs.  After that, we walked into the town.  We wandered around the various streets until we decided we were hungry enough to eat.  We settled for Olivas, where we shared some tapas and Florine had a scone with clotted cream and jam.  We also had frozen lemonades which were absolutely delicious.  The little tapas dishes were very tasty and quite plentiful  After lunch, it was time to work off the extra calories so we walked down a fairly steep hill to a grist mill.  We found a footpath so followed it to the next mill.  The footpath went through some people's backyards.  We had a quick chat with a guy in his backyard and saw a couple of horses which belonged to his wife.  He had a dog with him, a Border terrier which seemed quite popular around the area.  At the next mill, we went back to the road.  Then we left it for another little footpath, which eventually took us back to the town. 

Painswick

Church graveyard with a few of the 99 yew trees

Onward to the next village, Bourton-on-the-Water.  It is a very pretty town with a river, straddled by a series of elegant low bridges, running through it.  It is also known as the Little Venice of the Cotswold.  We had ice cream cones (very delicious) and walked by the river, where a bunch of French school kinds were wading and playing in the water.  That seemed to raise the ire of some of the locals, but it was a nice day to be in the river, even if the water is only ankle deep.

Bourton-on-the-Water

Lower Slaughter and a visit to the mill there was next on the agenda.  Lower Slaughter sits beside the little Eye stream and is known for unspoilt limestone collages in traditional Cotswold style. Lower Slaughter was only a short drive from Bourton-on-the-Water.  It is another pretty village, and we walked by the river until we found the mill.  Petros was almost tempted into buying a reindeer skin but the store did not ship so that would have meant that we had to find a box to put it in and then mail it ourselves.  We were told that reindeer skins were not that robust so it had to be packed in a fairly big box so as not to damage it.  After much thought, Petros finally decided against buying the skin.

We watched a couple of dogs play in the water beside the mill.  They looked like they were having great fun.  We also watched the water wheel turn.  It was all rather pretty.

Lower Slaughter

The mill in Lower Slaughter, which now houses a craft store

After that, we drove through Broadway and went to Chipping Campden, one of the loveliest small towns in the Cotswold.  It is an old market town and boasts an ancient Market Hall, basically a shelter for selling cheese, butter and poultry and not wool).  We found parking in the centre of town and walked around for about a half hour, looking at the various old buildings and the Market Hall.  Most of the stores were closed for the day. Then it was time to get back into the car for our drive back to the Lamb Inn for dinner.

Chipping Campden

Petros, by the Market Hall in Chipping Campden

The drive to The Lamb Inn in Crawley did not take very long and we made it there just before 8:00 pm. We had a nice table in the corner as the chef's parents and partner were at the table that Petros had wanted.  It was okay.  We were given a complimentary amuse bouche to start the dinner.  We ordered 4 appetizers (Barbary duck, gazpacho, pheasant egg with asparagus and venison tartare) and they tasted so good that we decided to add the other appetizer on the menu, a scallop dish, as well.  

Venison tartare

Pheasant egg with asparagus

Scallops

The chef, Anthony Pitcher,had excellent food presentation and mixing of flavours and we really enjoyed the food.  We had rump of lamb and Florine, who does not really enjoy lamb, had a ribeye steak.  The ribeye had truffle oil on it and tasted great.  The lamb was very tasty too.  For dessert, we had lemon jelly, chocolate horseradish mousse, raspberry jam toast ice cream and affogatto.

Raspberry jam toast ice cream

Everything was excellent.  We had a bottle of wine with dinner and Petros had an Oxford beer and 2 glasses of Monkey Shoulder blended whiskey.

Anthony's parents were also having dinner at the Lamb that night.  After his dinner, on his way out, we had a chance to speak to Anthony's father.  Mr. Pitcher told us that Anthony had opened the restaurant 6 weeks and 5 days ago and that he had signed a 5 year lease for the builiding, which had been renovated by the brewery that owned it. We had been told by Fraser, one of the servers and bartender, that he did not think that Anthony would be able to meet us tonight when we had requested an opportunity to thank him in person for an excellent dinner.  So, it was nice to chat with his father.

However, we were there long enough for Anthony to finish up in the kitchen and we were able to meet him and shake his hand and thank him for an excellent meal.  We chatted for a while - he told us about working for Jamie Oliver, getting a job as a sous chef in Oxford and then taking over as chef when his predecessor left before deciding to open his own restaurant.  It was very much a family affair, with his partner pitching in on weekends when she was off from her job as a teacher in Oxford and her dad and brother and Anthony's father helping with renovating another room in the inn.  He hoped to be able to use the room once he found another sous chef.

After an awesome dinner, I drove us back to the Old Stables, which was only about 1 km away.  We had a great day with lots of sightseeing and topped that off with a great dinner.  The weather was great and we had fun.  It was a fitting end to our stay in Witney.  Tomorrow, we are planning to go to Stonehenge and Bath before heading to our next B&B in Cornwall.

Here are a couple of photos taken earlier in the day.  It was pretty dark by the time we got home.

The Old Stables where we stayed.  Our bedrooms were up in the loft and you had to watch your head  because of the low ceilings at the side of the building.

Burycroft Farm, the main building, which is also available for rent.

Horse at a field behind the farm

Where we stayed:  The Old Stables