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hg137
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Another hot day, and another 7 miles of the Shakespeare’s Way. This time through the mid-southern parts of Oxfordshire.
Chalgrove
We needed 2 cars for this section and we drove to our destination Britwell Salome to park one of the cars. This meant driving through Watlington. We have driven through Watlington enough times, and even cached in Watlington that we should know the road layout. Sadly for us, a ‘navigational fog’ descended upon as we drove through the narrow roads and parked cars…and we took the wrong road out of Watlington. It took us some miles before we could turn our cars around and go back for another attempt. So we arrived at Britwell Salome much later than we envisaged, and consequently we arrived at Stadhampton later too.
We parked next to the Church again, which is about half a mile East of Stadhampton village. This part of Stadhampton is open, we guess common, land ideal for a myriad of sporting activities. We took the opportunity to pause for coffee at one of the seats, before setting off. (We reckoned, correctly, that this would be the last set of seats we would see for a while).
Our route took us further away from Stadhampton towards and through Ascott Park. Ascott Park was to be manor house of William Dormer in 1662, but burnt down before it was fully built. The surviving building was rebult as a dower house, though this too had disappeared off maps by 1838. What remains though are entrance posts, granary buildings and a dovecote. A walking trail visits many of the ‘ghosts of Ascott Park’ – we saw a couple and headed onwards.
The route had very few caches on it – one was on the Northern outskirts of Chalgrove. With so few caches to find, we would normally have strayed 100 yards or so away from our route to go caching. However the cache had had a string of Did-Not-Finds and even from 100 yards away we could see why. Chalgrove was expanding and a new housing estate was being built at GZ.
Shortly after we arrived in Chalgrove, and our route took us through this delightful small town. It seemed to be a thriving location, three pubs, lots of shops, a school, a village hall, a church and some allotments.
The church hosted the only cache in the village, hidden some way from the main street. We crossed a large playing area, and arrived at some railings at the churchyard edge. It took us some time to find the cache. The railings had recently been replaced and the previous cache finder had noted that they had hidden in a place not quite as the cache owner’s hint suggested.
Our guidebook mentioned that inside the church were some stunning mediaeval wall paintings, but the church may be locked. We were lucky, the church was open… and the paintings didn’t disappoint.
We returned to the Chalgrove centre, and continued our pavement walk through the town. Some towns are tedious to walk through, but Chalgrove a real delight.
The route of Shakepeare’s Way leaving Chalgrove as a series of 100-200 yard sections of footpaths crossing fields, crossing woodland as well as some tarmac walking. At one point in the book the instructions read ‘aim for the large Cedar of Lebanon ahead’. All very twist-turny directions which we had to be quite alert to.
The path eventually took us through Brightwell Park. This area, like Ascott Park earlier, was the parkland associated with another 17th century manor house. This manor house survived until 1947 when it was demolished. Large areas of parkland remain as well as an unusual dovecote.
Brightwell Park is to the north of the hamlet of Brightwell Baldwin, where there was a cache to find! Inside a phone box! Now there aren’t many places to hid a cache in a phone box – and yet we struggled. In fact the cache has subsequently been replaced..it was missing when we searched!
Leaving Brightwell Baldwin, we had a short road walk before a mile-long footpath to our car at Britwell Salome. Here we encountered a rarity – a hill. An outcrop of the Chiltern Hills, which had been visible on the horizon, and had been getting closer and closer.
So a 7 mile relatively cache-less section of Shakespeare’s Way. Open Oxfordshire countryside punctuated by the lively town of Chalgrove and the two ‘ghost parks’ of former times.
Chalgrove
We needed 2 cars for this section and we drove to our destination Britwell Salome to park one of the cars. This meant driving through Watlington. We have driven through Watlington enough times, and even cached in Watlington that we should know the road layout. Sadly for us, a ‘navigational fog’ descended upon as we drove through the narrow roads and parked cars…and we took the wrong road out of Watlington. It took us some miles before we could turn our cars around and go back for another attempt. So we arrived at Britwell Salome much later than we envisaged, and consequently we arrived at Stadhampton later too.
We parked next to the Church again, which is about half a mile East of Stadhampton village. This part of Stadhampton is open, we guess common, land ideal for a myriad of sporting activities. We took the opportunity to pause for coffee at one of the seats, before setting off. (We reckoned, correctly, that this would be the last set of seats we would see for a while).
Our route took us further away from Stadhampton towards and through Ascott Park. Ascott Park was to be manor house of William Dormer in 1662, but burnt down before it was fully built. The surviving building was rebult as a dower house, though this too had disappeared off maps by 1838. What remains though are entrance posts, granary buildings and a dovecote. A walking trail visits many of the ‘ghosts of Ascott Park’ – we saw a couple and headed onwards.
The route had very few caches on it – one was on the Northern outskirts of Chalgrove. With so few caches to find, we would normally have strayed 100 yards or so away from our route to go caching. However the cache had had a string of Did-Not-Finds and even from 100 yards away we could see why. Chalgrove was expanding and a new housing estate was being built at GZ.
Shortly after we arrived in Chalgrove, and our route took us through this delightful small town. It seemed to be a thriving location, three pubs, lots of shops, a school, a village hall, a church and some allotments.
The church hosted the only cache in the village, hidden some way from the main street. We crossed a large playing area, and arrived at some railings at the churchyard edge. It took us some time to find the cache. The railings had recently been replaced and the previous cache finder had noted that they had hidden in a place not quite as the cache owner’s hint suggested.
Our guidebook mentioned that inside the church were some stunning mediaeval wall paintings, but the church may be locked. We were lucky, the church was open… and the paintings didn’t disappoint.
We returned to the Chalgrove centre, and continued our pavement walk through the town. Some towns are tedious to walk through, but Chalgrove a real delight.
The route of Shakepeare’s Way leaving Chalgrove as a series of 100-200 yard sections of footpaths crossing fields, crossing woodland as well as some tarmac walking. At one point in the book the instructions read ‘aim for the large Cedar of Lebanon ahead’. All very twist-turny directions which we had to be quite alert to.
The path eventually took us through Brightwell Park. This area, like Ascott Park earlier, was the parkland associated with another 17th century manor house. This manor house survived until 1947 when it was demolished. Large areas of parkland remain as well as an unusual dovecote.
Brightwell Park is to the north of the hamlet of Brightwell Baldwin, where there was a cache to find! Inside a phone box! Now there aren’t many places to hid a cache in a phone box – and yet we struggled. In fact the cache has subsequently been replaced..it was missing when we searched!
Leaving Brightwell Baldwin, we had a short road walk before a mile-long footpath to our car at Britwell Salome. Here we encountered a rarity – a hill. An outcrop of the Chiltern Hills, which had been visible on the horizon, and had been getting closer and closer.
So a 7 mile relatively cache-less section of Shakespeare’s Way. Open Oxfordshire countryside punctuated by the lively town of Chalgrove and the two ‘ghost parks’ of former times.
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