The Cotswold Way. Kev Reynolds

smaller enclosures perhaps were the fortified homes of Dobunni tribal chieftains. Yet whatever their function, they conformed to set patterns, being protected by deep, rock-cut ditches and tall, near-vertical walls. Nowadays they invariably appear as rounded, grass-covered mounds, some saucer-shaped and distinctive, others perhaps with sections of wall having been lost under centuries of ploughing.

      There are many fine examples of these hill forts along the route, the largest being at Little Sodbury, where Sodbury Hill Fort covers 11 acres (4½ hectares), enclosed by ditches and earth ramparts. Uleybury is even larger, at more than 30 acres (12 hectares), but is just off the route. Set on the escarpment above Dursley it had the additional protection of a 300ft (90m) drop down the scarp face. Other hill forts may be seen along the way on Cleeve Common, Leckhampton Hill, Crickley Hill and Painswick Beacon, among others.

      The arrival of the Romans

      The Roman baths, near Bath Abbey

      When the Romans came in AD 43 they adopted some of these Iron Age camps for their own use. In addition they built a fortress at Cirencester and another near Gloucester, then linked the two with Ermin Street, which is met on the Cotswold Way at Birdlip. Away from the towns – and none is greater in this part of Britain than the world heritage city of Bath – agricultural estates were established and well-to-do citizens built villas for themselves, usually richly decorated with mosaics, on well-chosen sites that caught the sun. The Cotswold Way passes near two of these, one above Wadfield Farm near Winchcombe, the other at Witcombe below Cooper’s Hill.

      The Saxon era

      The Roman occupation of the Cotswolds ended in AD 410 with the withdrawal of the legions and the advance of the Saxons. The Dark Ages that followed are shrouded in mystery, but it is thought that these latest newcomers brought with them a way of life that was not ordered with the same degree of Roman culture and organisation, and there seem to have been many tribal differences to settle. It was during this period that Arthur rose as defender of Britain.

      Tales of King Arthur are a muddle of historic evidence and legend, but that these were unsettled times cannot be in doubt. What seems certain is that towards the end of the sixth century a battle took place on Hinton Hill, near Dyrham, between West Saxon warlords Cuthwine and Cealwin, and three kings of the Britons. The kings – Coinmail, Condidan and Farinmail – were slaughtered and the Britons pushed back to Wales and Somerset leaving the towns of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester in Saxon hands.

      The Cotswolds were then ruled by West Saxons in the south, and Mercian Saxons in the north. The Mercian capital was established at Winchcombe where a monastery was founded. At the abbey at Bath, which became an important and substantial Saxon town, King Edgar was crowned the first King of all England in AD 973. The Church grew in power, and by the end of the Saxon period actually owned a good proportion of the Cotswolds. It was during this period that whole sheepskins were being exported to serve English missionaries on the continent, an export that began as early as AD 700.

      Norman rule

      Tormarton church and its table tombs (Stage 11, Southbound; Stage 3, Northbound)

      Under Norman rule, following the invasion of 1066, the Cotswolds remained a place of some importance in the country, with England’s capital being very briefly centred at Gloucester. A new phase of building began, evidence of which can still be seen today, particularly in the churches. Horton Court, a few yards off the route of the Cotswold Way, also dates from Norman times and is still in use.

      The Domesday Survey of 1086 showed that the region was already largely cultivated, but with woodland covering much of the western escarpment. More clearings were made during the following centuries and the open fields then turned to extensive sheep pasture. ‘In Europe the best wool is English; in England the best wool is Cotswold.’ This saying held true throughout the Norman era, when sheep outnumbered people by four to one and exports of Cotswold wool increased accordingly.

      The traditional animal of these vast sheep-walks was known as the Cotswold Lion, a breed of sheep ‘with the whitest wool, having long necks and square bodies’. These long necks were adorned with a shaggy woollen ‘mane’, which led to their nickname.

      By the Middle Ages the wolds were almost entirely given over to grazing these sheep, and the wool masters used their great wealth to build some of the grand houses and elegant churches (complete with lavish stained glass and intricate carvings) that now form such a feature of the Cotswold Way. Chipping Campden owes both its charm and its architectural splendour to the wool masters; its church is a monument built on the proceeds of wool sales, as are those at Wotton-under-Edge and several other places along the route.

      The decline in the export of raw wool began in the early 15th century with crippling taxes. (Revenue from wool at one time accounted for more than half of England’s fortune.) But this decline was partly addressed by the home manufacture of cloth, when the new masters of the Cotswolds were mill owners and middlemen who built fine houses for themselves in Painswick and the Stroud Valley, taking over from the sheep owners as financiers of a fresh spate of church building, creating a new middle class in the process.

      The Civil War and the enclosures

      In the 17th century the Civil War was fought here, as elsewhere, forcing a temporary halt in the fortunes that were being made. Along the escarpment several battle sites are passed on the Cotswold Way, among them a hilltop area still known today as the Battlefields, where the Battle of Lansdown was fought on 5 July 1643. At the other end of the walk, Campden House, next to Chipping Campden’s parish church, was taken as a garrison for Royalist troops, but when they left in 1645 they destroyed it by fire. Painswick’s church still bears signs of a Civil War skirmish, and one of the last of the battles was fought on the slopes of Dover’s Hill.

      Between 1700 and 1840 large areas of open land were enclosed by Acts of Parliament, which brought about the countryside’s greatest change in appearance for hundreds of years. This was when drystone walls and hedges began to divide the wolds into the criss-cross grid patterns we see today. Large estates were planted with shelter belts for the raising of game birds, while the Cotswolds as a whole became much less dependent on sheep and turned instead to a broader agricultural base with arable land replacing the sheep-walks of old.

      To all intents and purposes, this is the landscape explored by walkers of the Cotswold Way in the early years of the 21st century.

      SOUTHBOUND

      Chipping Campden to Bath

      Stanton Reservoir (Stage 1)

      INTRODUCTION

      The official start or finish of the Cotswold Way on Chipping Campden High Street (photo: Lesley Williams)

      To walk south along the Cotswold Way is to make a pilgrimage with Bath, its Regency splendour and the glory of its abbey, beckoning from afar. Although you may well have the prevailing wind in your face, this should be adequately compensated for by long views and sunshine on your brow. The southbound route is a little less strenuous than walking northward, where there’s rather more up than down, and – this is important – when you begin in Chipping Campden the essential harmony of the Cotswolds is with you from the very start.

      Before setting out, time should be allowed to explore the town. There’s much to see and admire, to absorb and file away in memory and recall in other towns and villages along the way. Almost as soon as Campden is left behind there are long views to soak in, and the first of many walks along the escarpment, this time to Broadway Tower, then down to Broadway and up again before you reach Stanton and Stanway.

      The escarpment is gained and lost countless times on the way to Bath, the first day or