A Cotswold challenge

Well, we’re approaching the end of second week in October, and the nights are really starting to draw in. Although the weather was kind last weekend, the incessant wind and rain have now returned with a vengeance. As I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous posts, the deluges we’ve been experiencing recently aren’t good news for those of us who would rather be out an about, enjoying the English countryside. This is especially true for me, because I missed most of last year’s October in the UK. It seemed strange arriving back in Blighty and realising this, after three weeks (19 days) away, cruising around the Mediterranean, and enjoying the delights of Crete, Athens, Kefalonia and Sardinia, although such places now seem a distant memory.

Time then to enjoy a few home-grown delights. I’m sorry to be the first to mention the dreaded “C” world, but I discovered following our return from a most enjoyable week away in Northumberland, that plans had already being drawn up at work for the firm’s Yuletide bash, with a choice of venue that is rather “left field” as our friends/relations from Norh America would say. More about that, closer to the event. In the meantime, we’ve got two groups of visitors coming over from our parent company, in Japan to look after. So, after the formalities of an audit, plus a board meeting (I’m obviously not involved with the latter), there will be a couple of evenings entertaining our visitors at a local restaurant or hostelry and watching hem drink too much.

These corporate “dos” are alright, and have their place, but what I’m really after is a relaxed and proper day out, with people I know and like. You know the idea, by now, meet up in a distant location – preferably one I’ve never been to before, and then spend the day visiting a sprinkling of delightful pubs, carefully selected for their atmosphere, beer selection, history, unspoiled interiors and general ambience whilst, of course, enjoying some equally fine beers.

I’ve been on quite a few of these trips now, to various towns and cities across the UK, including Stockport, Bath, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Burton-on-Trent, and a Shropshire town with the unusual name of Shifnal. Attendances have varied, ranging from just a handful, into double figures, but all have been enjoyable, with different merits, depending on location, with the common factor of allowing the group to visit a wide range of different pubs, and enjoy some excellent beers. Not for nothing have these trips become officially known as “Proper Days Out. “

I’m in the early stages of planning a possible day out, in a part of the country that I haven’t visited for nigh on 40 years. You probably won’t guess the region I’m referring to, but it’s the Cotswolds, and it was a light-hearted and rather flippant, throw-away remark, on one of my recent blog posts, that pointed me towards this area. My flippant comment was followed by a far more serious response from someone who, after setting me a challenge, left me in little doubt that he was serious. Confused? You ought to be because I’m also struggling to determine how we arrived at this point.

Basically, I was set a challenge, that was one of my own making, and it followed on from a remark about Donnington beers made by Stafford Paul, after he suggested I have a crack at the Donnington Way. This is a meandering  croos-country footpath through the heart of the Cotswolds, that connects all 17 Donnington Brewery pubs. I responded to Paul’s comment, by suggesting pub-ticker extraordinaire Retired Martin, might like to join me. This was a very tongue in cheek remark, as Martin has a very low opinion of Donnington ales. I’m not sure where this abhorrence came from, but I thought I was on steady ground when I made that suggestion of him accompanying me. To my surprise, his response was, “If you pick a date, I shall come.” I replied, “Thanks Martin, I knew you wouldn't resist a challenge. I shall sort out the practicalities, and let you know.”

That was the easy part; the hard part was sorting out the logistics of such a trip. I knew from past experience how difficult this would be, because 40 years ago, on a cycling holiday in the Cotswolds, I once attempted to visit all 17 Donnington pubs. I failed, primarily because the Donnington tied estate is spread across quite a large area, and it is one that is also hilly and, in many places, connected by a network of narrow country roads. So, if I couldn’t achieve this quest on a bike, how could I possibly do so using public transport?

The Cotswolds are an area of limestone hills, covering over 800 square miles, across six English counties so, by their very nature, there isn’t much of a rail network covering the area.  Towns on the periphery of the Cotswolds are well served by rail, with Banbury, Bath, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stroud, and Oxford the main examples, but should the traveller wish to venture further into the region, then it’s bus or walk. One could always drive of course, but that rather negates the main reason for visiting the area in the first place.

I already knew that Donnington’s have a pub at Moreton-in-Marsh, the Black Bear Inn. Moreton is one of the few locations in that part of the Cotswolds to have its own railway station, on the Cotswold Line, which runs between Oxford and Evesham. So that’s the first pub sorted, and I also gives a toehold into both the Cotswolds and Donnington country, but what about the rest of the area? Depending on which source you refer to, Donnington now have 20 tied pubs, with the majority centred around the small town of Stow-on-the-Wold, which is close to the location of the brewery itself.  

Local bus service No. 801, operates an hourly service to Stow from Moreton, and this pleasant Cotswold town would make the ideal base for most of a Donnington-centred, “Proper Day Out.” As well as the Donnington-owned Queen’s Head in the centre of Stow, there is the Stag, which is a rare outpost for Arkell’s of Swindon, plus the Talbot, which is a Wadworth tied pub. A mile or so to the west of Stow, (slightly further by public footpath) is the Golden Ball, at Lower Swell, which would be the third, and probably the final Donnington pub of the day.

Given there is a section of cross-country walking involved, this “Proper Day Out” would be more suited to the summer months. I haven’t yet finished working out the timings, for such an event, but if anyone is interested, as well as Retired Martin of course, please let me know and we can then come up with a visit to a lovely part of the country that not many of us get to visit – unless it’s for a specific holiday, of course.