Cotswold Way Marker in Chipping Campden

[Pauline]

The Cotswold Way National Trail (for walkers) runs 102 miles from Chipping Campden to Bath. The Bath end of the trail has a beautiful marker in front of Bath Abbey, the official start/end of the trail. Today, Saturday November 8, a similar marker at the other end of the trail in Chipping Campden was unveiled.

Steve and I were at the ceremony representing @Kathy 's European Experiences. She brings Americans to the Cotswolds (and France and Italy) on tours each year and donated to the fund for the marker in Chipping Campden, where her tours are based.

It poured rain all morning - really poured (tipping down)!! Steve and I got soaked, but it was really fun to be there. There were some speeches - Cotswold Way Wardens, Cotswold AONB (Area of Outstanding National Beauty) representative, National Trail representative, the artist Iain Cotton who made the stone and the Mayor of Chipping Campden. A young school boy who raised a lot of funds with his school and the Mayor did the unveiling. The stone was covered with a beautiful hand-made cover, representing the trail. This was covered with plastic because of the rain.

They removed the plastic, they said the speeches, they removed the cover, we marveled over the marker, then we all ran to the pubs and tea rooms to get dry.

The marker is beautiful and lists many of the towns and sights on the Cotswold Way, in the order that you walk to them. On the outer edge is a quote from TS Eliot from East Coker, the second of his Four Quartets.

"Now the light falls across the open fields leaving the deep lane shuttered with branches dark in the afternoon."

The marker in Bath has an old testament quote, from Jeremiah 6:16.

"Stand ye in the ways and see, ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."

Read about the making of the stone by artist Iain Cotton on his website.

Read more about the marker on BBC News - Second marker stone for Cotswold Way, August 2014.

I managed to stand right in front and got some good photos - Photos of the Cotswold Way Markers in Chipping Campden and Bath.

I will post a couple below.

The mayor of Chipping Campden and a school boy who helped raise a lot of the funds for the marker.

Me and Andrew who runs Cotswold Walks, self-guided walking tours in the Cotswolds. I do some work for Andrew (on his website).

 

[Kathy]

Sorry about the rain, but Charley and I were happy you and Steve could go to the ceremony for us today. Thanks for the photos Pauline! (I liked seeing you with Andrew too.) That's a beautiful covering, and I'm very impressed with the mayor's regalia! I also like the design of the marker and the quote.

The new marker is a great improvement on the designation of the start (or end) of the walk in Chipping Campden. The photo below shows what there was before... on the edge of the village hall and next to the bus stop. It wasn't a good place at all to take a photo... Charley is standing in the street to take this. Most people begin their Cotswold Way walk in Chipping Campden and walk to Bath. We started in Bath and walked to Chipping Campden, so I've just finished walking 102 miles (or 100 miles it says here) when this picture was taken. It's hard to see, but this old marker says "The beginning and the end."

We have gotten to know several wardens and the new marker is a big deal for them and for the people of Chipping Campden. I can't say enough good things about this village or for the great experience Charley and I had walking the Cotswold Way in the summer of 2013.

 

[Pauline]

They took that marker (in the photo above) and moved it near the new one. You can see it at the edge of the photo with me and Andrew.

I agree, they really needed this. Where you are in that photo is beside a parking lot and usually there is a car parked beside that bench! Not a gracious start to a long walk. Now the walkers can start at that beautiful marker.

 

[Kathy]

I do see where they've moved the old marker... that's a much better place for it as well!

All this inspires me to want to do the walk again! (Not really... we're now thinking of Offa's Dyke for 2016.)

 

[Pauline]

Offa's Dyke National Trail is an interesting one, going along an 8th century dike on the England/Wales border the whole length of Wales.

Offa's Dyke is an 8th century "linear earthwork which roughly follows the Welsh/English boundary. It consists of a ditch and rampart constructed with the ditch on the Welsh-facing side, and appears to have been carefully aligned to present an open view into Wales from along its length. As originally constructed, it must have been about 27 metres wide and 8 metres from the ditch bottom to the bank top." (from Offa's Dyke Association website)

We walked part of it in the Wye Valley, near Tinturn. It would be very different from the Cotswold Way and the Coast to Coast paths that you have done because it would be mostly flat - no big climbs once or twice a day. Imagine the mileage you could do each day!