River Severn | Life in the English Cotswolds

It may seem odd that having moved from the depths of the countryside to the centre of a town that the first piece I write about after the move should be about escaping back into the wilds. It isn’t that I’m yearning for open space away from the crowds for, to my surprise, I’m finding life in Cheltenham to be remarkably exciting in ways that I didn’t expect, namely people watching, shopping and architecture (well, I half-expected the latter). What has surprised me, however, is how just yards from my front door there are ‘green ways’ that lead up into the hills. I tend to think of them as my escape routes although I’m really loving the change of pace and lifestyle, albeit it’s early days.

*The old railway track is now a green pathway that links the town centre to the countryside*

Cheltenham has a reputation of having more trees than people and I think it could well be true for the photo below of the Promenade, one of the main shopping streets in the town (and a four minute walk from our door) demonstrates this so well. There are numerous parks as well, and these interconnect with the green ways: not only do they give me a way to exit the town it also gives wild animals and birds a route to enter it. In time I shall be writing about the wildlife I come across and the parks in more detail. Suffice to say, that it is something that I hadn’t really considered: I thought I was leaving the world of deer, fox, badger and otter behind but apparently not for all live within the town centre. Of course, I’m not trying to pretend that I don’t have to walk along pavements and sometimes busy roads as well, it is just that I had assumed that would be my only option to reach open country.

*They say Cheltenham has more trees than people. The Promenade, one of the town’s main shopping streets proving the point!*

*Cheltenham from the roof of the Cotswolds showing just how many trees there are in the town*

The path that is so close to my new home, known as the Honeybourne Line, started life in the mid-1800s as the branch line of the railway bringing in services and visitors into the heart of the town. When it closed in 1976 the station was demolished (it’s now the site of our local Waitrose supermarket) and the area gradually became forgotten and overgrown. It wasn’t until the Millenium that various groups and the town council began to clear it to create a traffic-free walking and cycling route. When finally completed it will link several local towns and communities along its 26-mile course.

*The Millennium bridge spanning a busy road junction – part of what will be a 26 mile traffic-free, green route for cyclists and walkers*

My first venture along this path took me northwards to the racecourse. Cheltenham is famous for its horse racing and it is here, each March that the Gold Cup, one of the world’s major sporting events is held. On the day that I walked there was no racing and so I had the place to myself. A public footpath alongside the gallops would have lead me high into the (Cotswold) hills but I chose to turn towards the town, this time choosing a route through Pitville Park with its beautiful lake and spa building. There will be other days, I thought, when I can climb the hills.

*The Cotswolds rise steeply from the very edge of the racecourse* *giving endless walking possibilities*

*The lake at Pittville Park with its beautiful Regency Spa building beyond*

For my second walk I tried to find a way west and although I finally did reach farmland to walk over, this route involved just a few too many roads for my liking. However, I was rewarded with hazy views of the Malvern Hills and also by stumbling across a mid-length long-distance path known as the Cheltenham Circular Path. This, I have since discovered, starts at Pittville Park and would have taken me on a much nicer and quieter route out of town. A little further on I came across a derelict farm to explore before finding myself back on a stretch of the Honeybourne Line to lead me back home.

*It is just possible to see the centuries-old crown of trees on distant May Hill,*
*a solitary outlier of the Malverns* *over 15 miles away*

The third walk was through a different park – Sandford Park. This was also a surprise for the path followed the course of the little River Chelt and led through well-maintained gardens before opening out into a much wilder part of the park, kept that way as part of the flood defences for the town. Rather like the little winding river back in the secret valley the Chelt can rise very rapidly after heavy rain. As with my first walk, I thought I would leave exploring the hills for a later date, but it was such a glorious day and the path so tempting that I climbed the 900 feet to the top. There I was rewarded by stupendous views of not just the Cotswold and Malvern Hills but also, way off in the far-distance, the misty shapes of the Long Myndd and Shropshire Hills, fifty miles away. It is also here that my path linked to the Cotswold Way, another National Trail of over 100 miles length so the possibilities are literally endless.

*It’s hard to believe this is still within the town*
*– a tranquil stretch of the River Chelt by Sandford Park*

*Formal gardens at Sandford Park give way to much wilder, natural areas, rich in wildlife*

When I was a young man before the responsibilities of home ownership, career and all the other things in life that get in the way, I used to spend a lot of my time walking these long-distance paths. Now that I have finally retired, I’m looking forward to spending much more time clocking up the miles although I doubt I shall be walking the 25 miles a day I would do in my youth. Moving to a new area, although still in the Cotswolds, there is much to explore both in the town and the country. The town with its rich history of its development as a spa in the 1800s when the fashionable and wealthy came to ‘take the waters’, the hill country and its villages or the vale of the River Severn – England’s longest river – will give me plenty of walking opportunities and plenty to write about. I can’t wait to get going!

*When I reached this enticing path, I just couldn’t stop myself from exploring further!*

*I reached the top and the Cotswold Way long-distance trail. From here it is possible to walk over 100 miles*

I think it would be fair to say that the chances of my viewing Earth from the Moon is so improbable that I have never even considered it. That changed when, with an hour to spare en route elsewhere, I decided to explore the Abbey Church of Tewkesbury, little knowing that I would leave having had an out-of-space experience.

The name Tewkesbury Abbey, as it is usually called, is really a misnomer for the church has been the Parish Church of the Gloucestershire town of Tewkesbury for centuries. When, in 1087, Robert Fitzhamon was gifted Tewkesbury by his cousin William the Conqueror, there had already been a monastery on the site for four hundred years. However, in 1102 the building of the present church commenced, its stone coming from Caen in Normandy, France and floated up the River Severn which passes just yards from the door. For the next four hundred years, as part of the Benedictine monastery, it really was Tewkesbury Abbey.

Ancient buildings line the streets that lead to Tewkesbury Abbey

I’ve driven through Tewkesbury dozens of times. It’s an interesting town with some beautiful old buildings and I’d always intended to stop and explore. With limited time, the town would have to wait for another day. I entered the Abbey church expecting to be overawed by it for it for several reasons: it is now almost a thousand years old, it is one of the finest Norman buildings in England, it has the largest Romanesque cross-tower in Europe and contains more medieval monuments than any other church apart from Westminster Abbey in London. I hadn’t however expected to be be confronted, upon entering, by a large, hanging globe – our Planet Earth.

Rotating slowly, the seven metre diameter Earth sculpture is as seen from the Moon. As Luke Jerram, who created this Gaia exhibit states, “man has been gazing at the moon for Millenia but it was only in 1972, with the Apollo 17 mission, that man was able to see our planet floating through space – a sight that changed our perception of Earth forever.” When standing 211 metres away from the globe, viewers see the Earth to scale, exactly as it was viewed from the Moon.

The Abbey, of course, has many wonders of its own to be viewed. For me, an unexpected delight was the chantry chapel built as a memorial to Isabella, Countess of Warwick and her two husbands, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester and, later, (another) Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Erected in 1430, Isabella’s first husband was killed during the Battle of Mieux and she died in 1439. It was her second husband, the Earl of Warwick, that excited me the most. For his first marriage to Elizabeth de Berkeley (who died in 1422) is part of a long line that I can trace back to in my family tree: Richard and Elizabeth were my 15x great-grandparents. Over the generations, the women in my ancestry have often been rebellious and married against their parent’s wishes (see A Rebel in the Family for an example) – hence the fact that I am just a plain old commoner! Grandfather Richard commissioned another, more splendid brass tomb for himself in Warwick – another place on my list of ‘must visits’.

Bronze effigy of Richard Beauchamp who died in 1439 [*Wikipedia: Robin Stevenson*]

So what caused the Abbey Church to become just a Parish Church? It was, of course, due to the desire of Henry VIII to divorce and remarry brought about his separation from the Church of Rome. His subsequent Dissolution of the Monasteries swept away the buildings and created the spectacular ruins that we find dotted around the English countryside today. A similar fate would have happened to the church in Tewkesbury if it had not been for the argument, fortunately won, that to demolish the church would leave town without a place of worship. How fortunate for us today, for the architecture, history and splendour of the building makes it an almost unique example of early Norman ecclesiastical buildings.

The tall Norman arch is unmatched for size in England

Tewkesbury, as has been stated, is built along the banks of the River Severn, England’s longest river which is subject to tidal bores and rapid changes in it’s flow height. As a result, the town is often flooded. Despite being built so close to the river, the floodwaters have only entered the church on two occasions, in 1760 and, more recently, in 2007. It is often shown in news features totally surrounded by the flood waters.

Modern stained glass at Tewkesbury Abbey

The Gaia exhibit has now ended at Tewkesbury. It is being shown as an ongoing exhibition in the UK at UCL, London; International Centre for Life, Newcastle; Dynamic Earth, Scotland. In Ireland: Trinity College, Dublin. In Canada: Canadian Museum of Nature, Ontario. American readers have the opportunity of seeing it in the USA at Houston Museum of Natural Sciences 12-28 April 2024.

To find our more about the Abbey church, its history and other topics in this blog follow the links below:
Tewkesbury Abbey
Gaia / Luke Jerram Isabel, Countess of Warwick Dissolution of the Monasteries