It’s another beautiful sunny day and, for the first time in ages, I’m starting the day with my sun hat on. We buy lunch and cakes from Knead bakery opposite our hotel, top up with bits from the Co-op next door and set off out of Tetbury.
We turn off onto a track and, almost immediately, a man tells us we’re going the wrong way. As ever, the local knowledge is correct and we retrace our steps to take a well-kept path into the Estcourt estate.
The estate comprises 65 acres of farmland and, although it is lovely, the signs make it clear that we may not leave the path to explore. We see sheep, stud horses and inquisitive cattle but no people. The estate was owned by the Estcourt family until 1996 and all available literature states that ‘it remains in private hands’. It does. It’s owned by a Saudi Arabian prince. We leave the estate by another high stile that challenges legs in their sixth and seventh decades and enter the village of Shipton Moyne, complete with mobile post office.
We cross the road to a track that becomes a footpath leading to the Fosse Way, which at this site is a byway. Both of us were expecting the Fosse Way to be a straight, wide open track with views across the countryside. Here, it is in fact a broad path overshadowed by trees. On a warm day like this one, this is a much more welcome proposition. We walk on up to and across a road and realise that we are now in Wiltshire.
The Way around Easton Grey now becomes a restricted byway. It is an ancient monument in this section, with remnants of the Roman road visible and earthworks representing the original settlement nearby. We cross the river Avon and head up the hill, looking for somewhere for a break.
As we head uphill way from the river, we start to see evidence that this part of the Way was a vehicular roadway in the 20th century but has now been returned to a path. A little further on, the path returns to a road and we finally find a shady spot in a field for a well-earned rest.
The Way soon becomes a path again and the view begins to open up. It feels as if we really have now left the high Cotswolds behind. The ground is still limestone though and it seems strange that post-ice age glaciers cut such deep valleys further north, but not here. We head past a couple of farms and then leave the Way, taking the Pig Lane overbridge above the railway on a road which becomes a track and then a path. At this point, there should be a footpath off to the right, but there is just a post into undergrowth. This is not a problem as there is an alternative that is only slightly longer. It is, however, a portent of things to come.
We turn off a track to find the footpath marked into a thicket. There is no way through here but we enter the next door field by passing through a gate and disconnecting and reconnecting an electric fence. We find a route across the brook and into the field where the path should be. There is a kissing gate at the top of the field with an electric fence with a bit of insulation on one side and a double electric fence with added barbed wire on the other! Richard attributes this just to thoughtlessness, but he’s more charitable than I am.
We walk on into the next field, looking back to admire the high Cotswolds behind us, then turning round to discover some cows gambolling over excitedly to say hello. We have to say goodbye to them though and they eye us dolefully as we leave them via another electric fence. I suspect they don’t get many walkers in their field. We go through the farm and then find a grassy verge for a lunch break.
After lunch, our route is rather circuitous as we have to find a road to take us across the M4. We identify the path we need as, although it has no obvious way, it is marked by a dilapidated, rusty gate. All the other gates in this area are padlocked and reinforced by barbed wire. We are actually on the Palladian Way again too.
The first crop is easy to pass, though the next is oil seed rape but, fortunately, the path is marked here. We surprise a roe deer, who makes heavy weather of escaping through the rape. We haven’t seen as much wildlife as usual or as we do at home. The reason for this is not clear but perhaps the barriers, including the high, thick dry stone walls, are a factor in this. We reach an unclassified road and cross the M4.
We continue along the road through the hamlet of Sevington, where primary school children can re-enact Victorian education in the old school. We carry on along roads then eventually take a footpath downhill that disgorges us right outside the Castle Inn, just in time for the England match.
Total distance: 268 miles
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