Day 9 - only 3 days of walking to go!

Sunday 19 May

Little Sodbury to Tormarton (6.5 kms)

Only a little walk today. My Friend and I will walk into Old Sodbury (about 3 kms) and meet Kathryn and Regis (with car) possibly around midday (hence the shorter walk today). MF will then drive onto Tormarton.

If we have time, we will drive down to Dyrham Park: set location for Remains of the Day.

.............

In fact, we decided to leave Dyrham Park for tomorrow as the Cotswold Way goes right past it. Instead, we drove to Castle Combe which is a cutesy village.

This entailed leaving the car in a carpark at the top of a hill, and walking down. It was a pleasant afternoon with the sun emerging from the clouds in fits and starts: sometimes it was grey, other times it was quite hot. We had afternoon tea sitting in the sun at a cutesy cafe and then wandered through the St Andrew's church.

Castle Combe was originally a hill fort at one time occupied by the Romans. By the Middle Ages, the village in the valley had become an important centre for the wool industry. In more recent times the village has played host to many filming activities, the most famous of these being Doctor Dolittle in 1966; and more recently War Horse, Stardust and The Wolf Man.

Afterwards, we drove on to the village of Burton and stopped at the Fox & Hound but it wasn't open until later and this seems to be the case for many of the pubs, it being a Sunday.

Going back, earlier we (MF and I) had arrived at Old Sodbury (by the way, it appears that the town's name is recorded in Old English as Soppanbyrig = "Soppa's fort") on foot after about a 2 km walk from Little Sodbury. The Cotswold Way emerged from the fields at St John the Baptist church. 

We met the vicar going in to conduct the Sunday service and he invited us in, which we did so, leaving part-way through to return outside so as to be on lookout for the arrival of Kathryn and Regis about midday.

We sat in the churchyard overlooking the countryside to Chipping Sodbury ("Chipping" - from Old English cēping - means that a market was held there) and ended up chatting for a while to a retired research academic in haematology (as you do) out walking her 3 dogs (Prue: you'd love it here - women everywhere walking their dogs, often more than 1 dog).

When Kathryn and Regis arrived, we all returned to the church to have a look around and were invited to share tea and biscuits with some of the congregation (as you do) before we (finally!) set off about 1 p.m. to walk to Tormarton. 

Our Friend came with us part of the way, then he doubled back to collect the car. He arrived about 15 minutes before us at our lodging for the night. 

Meanwhile, Kathryn, Regis and I enjoyed a pleasant walk across fields and up a hill to the tiny hamlet of Tormarton; and Roberto (obviously from Italy) welcomed us to our accommodation, Chestnut Farm - and proceeded to talk passionately about politics, education & sundry other topics.

After our excursion to Castle Combe, we returned to Tormarton, left the car at the B&B and walked into "town" to the The Major's Retreat where Kathryn's wish for Sunday roast was granted.

The publican was quite a character (he had a sonorous voice: I wondered if he'd been an actor in a previous life) and he regaled the boys with tastes of the various beers/ales on offer. 

Before we left, he (attempted) to talk us through the remainder of the Cotswold Way - HIS WAY! (which he reckoned was the BETTER way, but I have no idea what he was talking about, so will follow the maps!!!).