Tuesday, May 19 – We ate breakfast at Windylands and met two men walking the Cotswolds who had also stayed the night. Greg & Paul were from Northern England and told us that the weather they had experienced was much cooler than normal. So far, he haven’t had any regrets about driving versus the original plan of walking.
Following breakfast, we drove into the town of Old Sodbury and found a roadside laundromat. It was literally in the parking lot of a Texaco station. We filled one of the two machines and drove off to find a short walk while our clothes washed – the machine promising to send us a text five minutes before the cycle completed. We found a large commons and enjoyed walking through a dog park until it was time to return. Transferring our clothes to the dryer, we decided to just stay on site for the 30 minutes it took.
Our next stop was Dyrham Park, a late 17th Century estate featuring a mansion and 270 acres of grounds managed by the National Trust. The mansion was constructed by William Blathwayt, who served as both Minister of Finance and Secretary of State during the reign of William and Mary. He inherited the estate, but the previous mansion had fallen into disrepair, so he hired the most famous architect and landscape architect of the era to design the structure and accompanying grounds.
Today, it is open to the public and a herd of nearly 50 Farrow Deer live within the estate. The name, Dyrham, comes from Old English and the original estate owners had been granted a royal charter to build a fence and enclose the estate for exclusive hunting rights to the game within.
We spent about three hours on site, mostly walking the grounds and formal gardens, In that time the sky looked threatening, but as has been our luck so far, the rain held off until literally the minute we got back to the car.
For the next two nights, we are staying in a Shepherd’s hut in the tiny village of Beach. If you’ve not heard of a shepherds hut before, visualize taking a tiny house and then making it smaller. It’s probably 8’ x 15’ in total size, but incredibly efficient in layout. We have a full bath, kitchenette, double bed and small table and chairs.
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