Thursday December 29, 2005

Day two at the Howards Arms

After a nice meal and an excellent breakfast at the Howard Arms we were to drive to nearby Bidford-on-Avon for our next walk. The Howard Arms has many nice qualities which have caused us to revisit over the years but a recent decision to make the pub no smoking throughout makes a stay even more enjoyable. The room is superb, really nice old furniture and another nice touch is you get a thermos flask of real milk to use when you make yourself tea or coffee. Back to the walk.

We left Bidford-on-Avon by crossing its narrow bridge over the river and heading through its playing field. After a few fields we entered the first of three villages on the outward journey. Behind us was this view of Bidford-on-Avon.

Marlcliff was the first of the three villages we were to pass through; quite a pretty little village. We then took a steep climb up a hill and headed across a series of fields. Where sheep had gathered or walked in numbers the grass was compacted into bare mud with their hoofprints peppering the surface like stilleto heels do on wooden floors. We could soon see our next destination Cleeve Prior and its attractive church. This village had a lot more of the traditional stone houses you get in this area.The church of Cleeve Prior is of 13-14th century origin.

With no pub evident we carried on to the next village. In fact the next village is two and are two known as Middle and North Littleton. Again the sight of the church confirmed our path to the village. This church has a large Tithe Barn right next door to it used by the monks of Evesham abbey. It is 136 feet long. We entered the village and found its pub. Called the Ivy but of no relation to the fashionable restaurant in London. Here a cheese sandwich would only set you back two pounds! Suitably refreshed we then retraced our steps and headed uphill to a ridge that would follow the river Avon back to Bidford. Before we reached the top a walk through a field revealed the herb thyme was being grown and Rhubarb. We then followed the ridge for almost three miles and were gaps in the trees allowed we could see the Vale of Evesham and the river. There were lots of wildlife to be seen, squirels, pheasants, pigeons. We did see prints in the ground that meant deer had passed here but no visual evidence of them was seen. We reentered the village of Marlcliff after the ridge gently reduced in height and then followed a nice winding path over meadows back to our starting point. On the other bank were boats - the ones hired out in summer months.