Our accommodation for the next week has a full kitchen and our plan is to cook most of our meals there, so today was partly about touring and partly shopping for provisions.
The Diddly Squat Farm Shop just south of Chippy was made ‘famous’ by a British TV show. We don’t totally understand the fuss, but they sell local Hawkstone beer, cheeses and bearnaise sauce in a jar!
There were so many visitors, the farm had hired extra staff to help park the hundreds of cars and to act as de facto security. It was a little crazy!
The brewery at Hook Norton was founded in 1849. This is the traditional Victorian brewing tower in which all the stages of the brewing process flow logically from floor to floor – mashing at the top, boiling in the middle, fermentation and racking at the bottom.
Originally, the brewing process was powered by steam; the Victorian steam engine from 1899 is on display inside.
The beer is still delivered to market by horse-drawn carriage/dray (Shire horses have Monday & Tuesday off!). The tasting was yummy and the artifacts in their small museum were interesting.
Kris purchased a porter and a double stout and Dave was happy to find some Hooky Cider.
The Milk vending machine at the North Cotswolds Dairy – Kris needs milk for her tea!
We are finding the roads here in the Cotswolds to be very narrow – not only is this a two-lane road (highway) but the speed limit is 60 mph (pretty much 100 km/h)! We have had a few rear-end muscle tightening situations passing larger vehicles!
The circle of the Rollright Stones is made up of 77 stones dating from around 3000 BC.
A group of standing stones nearby is called the Whispering Knights and the single stone is called the King Stone. The name probably comes from Hrolla-landriht meaning the land belonging to Hrolla. Legend says the stones were once the army of a king, and were turned to stone by a witch for trying to betray their king.
We had late lunch at The Porch House Pub, the oldest inn in England.
We stopped at Kiln Bank Farm to buy from Billy’s Eggs. They say they have over 5000 hens roaming free in the woods behind the farm. We’re looking forward to fried eggs for breakfast!
Then we made a trip to Tesco in Stow-on-the-Wold to fill up our fridge.
Later in the afternoon we finally made it into Winchcombe to check into our cottage. We are staying at the Sudeley Castle Country Cottages, renovated original buildings that are on the castle property (paper mill, forge, weaver’s cottages). Our cottage is called Emma Dent, named for the woman who was responsible for the restoration of Sudeley Castle in the 19th century.
Emma Dent laid out the gardens of the castle and planted the magnificent yew hedges. She is also credited with providing the town of Winchcombe with its first piped water supply in celebration of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887.
After a nice steak dinner we are heading off to bed in anticipation of another busy day tomorrow!
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