On the Sunday we headed for the outskirts of Stroud for a big antique centre (and café) called the Malthouse Collective.
Lunch was the first item on the agenda - we had to move away from the big picture windows to the slightly warmer booths at the back of the room. It really was chilly. The food was a bit slow in coming, but when it did arrive it was delicious - my friends had variations on a fried breakfast and I had the salmon bagel from the lunch menu.
Then we went through to the main body of the shop, which is on two floors, for some gentle retail therapy. My friend who is just moving house now has an open fire to play with, and she found a magnificent copper coal scuttle, with matching little shovel. She also found one of those printers' drawers, to display small items.
I was looking for anything with badgers, and came away with a pretty little pottery dish lid showing a family of badgers playing around the entrance to their sett, and my other friend got a few last minute Christmas presents.
There were crafts for sale, as well as antiques, and even a stall selling vinyl and comics, so a good mix. I have to say I was greatly tempted by the Kenyan spear which had reputedly been used to defend the village's goats from wild animals - but I'd never have been able to get it home on the train!
Showing posts with label Cotswolds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cotswolds. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 December 2019
Friday, 20 December 2019
Rodmarton
I've been looking up some details about the village of Rodmarton - and there's lots of interesting stuff. I'll have to make sure my friend invites me to stay again!
Evidence of a Roman settlement has been found, and several major Roman roads pass close by. Cirencester (a Roman town) is only 6 miles away. There's also a nearby long barrow which looks very interesting. It's called Windmill Tump, and seems to be Neolithic, and is part of the Severn-Cotswold group of long barrows.
While the village was historically inhabited by agricultural workers, the present population of 333 people are mainly in managerial or professional jobs, according to Wikipedia. It's part of the Kemble Estate, and Kemble railway station is nearby. There's even a vaguely local link, as Michael Biddulph, who inherited the Estate in 1884, came from Ledbury in Herefordshire.
There are also strong links to the Arts and Crafts Movement in the area. The nearby hamlet of Tarlton was the site of a pottery which did design work for Wedgewood, and the manor house - well, the manor house is a gem, though it's also very hard to photograph from the road, being very long, and well screened by hedges and walled gardens and orchards.
The present building was built between 1909 and 1929, in the Arts and Crafts style, with Arts and Crafts furniture. Everything was done by hand with local materials and local craftsmen. The stone for the building was quarried locally and brought to the site by a private railway line.
The present owners are the fourth generation of the Biddulph family to live there. Michael Biddulph's son Claud (there's a plaque to his memory in St Peter's Church) provided the money, and the house was built by architect Ernest Barnsley, one of the leading lights of the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement, his brother Sidney and his son-in-law. The Biddulphs also wanted to use the house as a place to teach traditional crafts. There are 74 rooms, including one of the last private chapels to be built in England.
Ernest also laid out the 8 acres of gardens, and they are advertising opening times in February to see the snowdrops (I love snowdrops). They also host opera (which I can take or leave) and a rare plant fair.
Evidence of a Roman settlement has been found, and several major Roman roads pass close by. Cirencester (a Roman town) is only 6 miles away. There's also a nearby long barrow which looks very interesting. It's called Windmill Tump, and seems to be Neolithic, and is part of the Severn-Cotswold group of long barrows.
While the village was historically inhabited by agricultural workers, the present population of 333 people are mainly in managerial or professional jobs, according to Wikipedia. It's part of the Kemble Estate, and Kemble railway station is nearby. There's even a vaguely local link, as Michael Biddulph, who inherited the Estate in 1884, came from Ledbury in Herefordshire.
There are also strong links to the Arts and Crafts Movement in the area. The nearby hamlet of Tarlton was the site of a pottery which did design work for Wedgewood, and the manor house - well, the manor house is a gem, though it's also very hard to photograph from the road, being very long, and well screened by hedges and walled gardens and orchards.
The present building was built between 1909 and 1929, in the Arts and Crafts style, with Arts and Crafts furniture. Everything was done by hand with local materials and local craftsmen. The stone for the building was quarried locally and brought to the site by a private railway line.
The present owners are the fourth generation of the Biddulph family to live there. Michael Biddulph's son Claud (there's a plaque to his memory in St Peter's Church) provided the money, and the house was built by architect Ernest Barnsley, one of the leading lights of the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement, his brother Sidney and his son-in-law. The Biddulphs also wanted to use the house as a place to teach traditional crafts. There are 74 rooms, including one of the last private chapels to be built in England.
Ernest also laid out the 8 acres of gardens, and they are advertising opening times in February to see the snowdrops (I love snowdrops). They also host opera (which I can take or leave) and a rare plant fair.
Tuesday, 17 December 2019
Idyllic Cotswold Weekend
Every year, two old school friends of mine meet up near Christmas to go for lunch at Highgrove, Prince Charles' house just outside Tetbury. For the past three years, I've been going too, and we always have such wonderful fun.
This year was a bit different, because my friend who lives in the Cotswolds is in the middle of moving house, so we decided to camp out at the new place, in the beautiful village of Rodmarton:
This was the original village school, built in 1828, and it's right next to St Peter's Church (which may well have Saxon origins) and looks out onto the village green.
The lunches at Highgrove raise money for the Prince's Trust, but they also have to work around the Prince's diary. In previous years, they've opened for six weeks, and got a lot of extra stock in the shop for Christmas, but this year they were only able to do it for two weeks, so we were quite lucky to get tickets. The food is excellent - I had beef that melted in the mouth, followed by a gingery sweet pudding.
The shop, too, was just the usual shop for people visiting the gardens, with a few extra Christmas things. I was very pleased to see the Christmas Pudding Wine was there, and also managed to get a few Christmas presents.
We also stop at the Honesty shop attached to the Prince's organic farm - you turn up a side lane next to a giant sculpture of a carrot:
So these are the ladies who were in the same class as me at school.
On the way back to the house, we passed a gypsy caravan parked on the grass verge. The chap was selling Christmas wreaths and mistletoe, and we made a fuss of his dog Duchess. The horse was grazing a little way further along the verge.
I've got some lovely mistletoe hanging up in my window now.
This year was a bit different, because my friend who lives in the Cotswolds is in the middle of moving house, so we decided to camp out at the new place, in the beautiful village of Rodmarton:
This was the original village school, built in 1828, and it's right next to St Peter's Church (which may well have Saxon origins) and looks out onto the village green.
The lunches at Highgrove raise money for the Prince's Trust, but they also have to work around the Prince's diary. In previous years, they've opened for six weeks, and got a lot of extra stock in the shop for Christmas, but this year they were only able to do it for two weeks, so we were quite lucky to get tickets. The food is excellent - I had beef that melted in the mouth, followed by a gingery sweet pudding.
The shop, too, was just the usual shop for people visiting the gardens, with a few extra Christmas things. I was very pleased to see the Christmas Pudding Wine was there, and also managed to get a few Christmas presents.
We also stop at the Honesty shop attached to the Prince's organic farm - you turn up a side lane next to a giant sculpture of a carrot:
So these are the ladies who were in the same class as me at school.
On the way back to the house, we passed a gypsy caravan parked on the grass verge. The chap was selling Christmas wreaths and mistletoe, and we made a fuss of his dog Duchess. The horse was grazing a little way further along the verge.
I've got some lovely mistletoe hanging up in my window now.
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