Home » My End to End Land's End to John O'Groats long walk blog » My End to End walk: Leg 7: Days 26 to 29: Cold Ashton to Stroud, July 29 to August 1st 2017, 49.11 miles (79 km). Total walked so far: 378.25 miles (609 km)

My End to End walk: Leg 7: Days 26 to 29: Cold Ashton to Stroud, July 29 to August 1st 2017, 49.11 miles (79 km). Total walked so far: 378.25 miles (609 km)

My End to End walk: Leg 7: Days 26 to 29: Cold Ashton to Stroud, July 29 to August 1st 2017, 49.11 miles (79 km). Total walked so far: 378.25 miles (609 km)

 

Ken was our bus driver from Bath to Cold Ashton to begin the walk.  This was the very last ride of his life as a bus driver. He was so excited to be retired and free as the sparrow on this hand, which might mean that he is either an ex-Sailor of the British Royal Navy  or an ex-prisoner “done your bird, done your time”. Either way, he is free as a bird today..

Approching Wotton-under-Edge on the Cotswold Way.

Dyrham Park

We walked for a while through Dodington Park with this young couple from Bath, bit by the walking bug like us, and using every free weekend to walk and walk and walk….

A typical ‘lamb-scape’.

Craig Denny, aka “West Country Clegg” as he is known on YouTube, and his metal detector on the land of this Elizabethan manor house.

Before our very eyes, he pulled this coin, from 1740 out of the ground. For 277 years, this coin has been waiting here, unbeknownst to all, galloping horses, king George II, an American revolution, four more king Georges, a William, two Edwards, queen Victoria and of course Elizabeth II until the very moment Louise and I walked by and watched Craig discover it, see the light of day and be born again.

Craig told us that the most valuable coin he had found here was and Australian coin from 1840 or 1860 that had travelled back here from Australia in a sailor’s pocket from the days before Australia was a country, worth $500. In this very field, he has also found a silver groat, which was a day’s wage for an archer, an Elizabethan coin with the portrait of Elizabeth I, and the oldest, a coin from 1222!  This kind of thing really blows me away.

Entering the bronze age Dryham Hill Fort 3-4000 years old!

Inside the fort, we found this family of fieldfares, completely silent and a much too early arrival from Scandinavia. Took us a while to identify them. Well, Louise did, not me.

Eternal light, faithful path..

Entering Wotton-under-Edge on the Cotswold Way.

Leaving Wotton-under-Edge the next day.

Ray Cooper, from Petaluma California is walking like me, across Britain, but the opposite way, from John O’Groats to Land’s End, and with 25kg on his back (although not today) as opposed to my 8kg…  He is a vegan activist, and although I am a vegan-leaning vegetarian, it was all a bit much. He does epitomise the joke: “How do you know if you’re talking to a vegan? He tells you!” He calls himself the “Plant Powered Vegabond” and has a patch to prove it!

Go Vegan Power!

Tyndale monument, North Nibley.

William Tyndale, who was born here, was the first to translate the Bible into English, so people could actually understand what was really going on in there, and how did they thank him in Flanders in 1536? They burned him at the stake.

My brother Lawrence, who seems to me just as crazy about British history as I am (our father was a real buff) has asked me to contribute the following clarification re Tyndale, so here it is:

William Tyndale, born here in 1494, was the first to translate the Bible into English from the more ancient Hebrew and Greek texts, rather than the Vulgate Latin, this during a time early in the Reformation when the printing press was becoming widely available. 
 
Since Wycliffe’s translation of the Vulgate Latin bible into Middle English in 1382, English Bible translations were considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. They considered Tyndale’s translation a threat to their hegemony, and had Tyndale captured and sentenced to be burned at the stake, the traditional sentence for heretics.  On a side note, Thomas Cromwell appealed on Tydale’s behalf for leniency, so rather than being burned to death, Tyndale was strangled to death at the stake, and then his body burned, this in Flanders in 1536.  
 
Tyndale’s bible makes up 80% of the King James, and 90% of it’s New Testament. We use Tyndale’s words and phrases every day without knowing it.  Jehovah, Passover, atonement, scapegoat and the phrases “an eye for an eye”, “let my people go”, “my brother’s keeper”, “salt of the earth”, “let there be light”, “the powers that be”, “salt of the earth”, and “fight the good fight” among many, many others are Tyndale’s.  Tyndale and Shakespeare some 50 years later were the major shapers on the English language as we now know it.
 

If you do go on the Cotswold Way, do not miss Cam Long down, just north of Dursely. Really a stunning bit.

Reg and Andrea once walked the way with her 70-yr old mother, so it’s not too late. They also talked of her mother’s flight on the Concorde but more interesting, they told us all about the Eisteddfod Bach music festival in Wales. Something I had never heard of but want to go!

I love the magic of the trail, the warm encounters all along the way and the random stories and people that seem so colourful at the time.

Looking over to the Malvern Hills, where Louise’s sister lives, from Long Cam Down. She gave her a call and waved.

Frocester Hill

From Frocester hill, we watched this kestrel hunt for a long time. Amazing precision and flight. I wish I could describe him as well as the amazing JA Baker, but I’ll just say it was…awesome!

Here a a quote from him, who is also awesome:

“I have always longed to be part of the outward life, to be out there at the edge of things, to let the human taint wash away in emptiness and silence as the fox sloughs his smell into the cold unworldliness of water; to return to town a stranger. Wandering flushes a glory that fades with arrival.” 
― J.A. BakerThe Peregrine`”

In these woods, just south east of King Stanley, lurks a black panther! We did not know it at the time we walked through, but found out later. There have been more than 100 sightings!

http://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/growling-big-cat-stalked-lost-267525

View from Selsley Common.

That’s it for now, thanks for looking, and, as always, comments appreciated!

Come join me soon!