Wednesday December 28, 2005

Day one at the Howard's Arms

For many years now we have toyed with the idea of staying in a nice pub or hotel over the xmas break. However few are open on xmas day and the costs are high. So this year we did a compromise and took two days off just before the big day. We stayed at the excellent Howard Arms in the pretty Cotswold village of Ilmington. We drove straight to the pub on our first day and checked in. We had decided to do a walk from the village to the nearby village of Ebrington a walk of seven miles. The walk started at the other end of Ilmington from the pub and for the first time ever we walked through the village. Previous visits (two) it has always been wet and not allowed us to explore the village. The path we took to the starting point of the walk passed pretty houses all well away from any roads and adjacent to a stream. A steep walk up a grassy hill then followed, the top of which would have given us lovely views had it not been so overcast. The path then levelled out and we soon passed Foxcote house a early 18th century building.

Just after the house was a flat field with an air sock. A car track could be seen going to the centre of this field. The Sherlock Holmes inside me decided this was the owners usual way of arriving - by helicopter. We carried on and soon entered the village of Ebrington. There is always the danger when doing these walks when you only pass through one village isthat the source of refreshement you are relying on may be closed and we knew from the size of the village there was only one pub. It was open but in the process of changing hands so there was no food of coffee. After this stop we then left the village and started a long climb up through several fields. Again a view of nearby Chipping Campden church eluded us because of the weather. We were heading onto Ilmingston down and our path was now of tarmac towards a radio mast which marks the highest point in the county of Warwickshire at 856ft/261m. We the followed this track for 1.25 miles now downwards. After this we turned right and here the age of our walking book had us lost but a bit of calculated guesswork had us back into the village of Ilmington where we passed its pretty church.

The church had a pretty Xmas tree on the top of its tower now lit as it was getting dark. We followed our original path back to the pub.