Day 15 - Chedworth Roman Villa, Bourton-on-Water and Chastleton House

We decided to have a look around the local area today.  We had seen a signpost to Chedworth Roman Villa when we drove from Cirenchester to Longborough where we are staying.  The National Trust guide book describes the site as one of the country's largest Roman villas with all weather access to the distinctive mosaics.

So, before we started off  we went for a walk to the local shop to buy some more milk and some stamps.  The milk was fine, but the post office is open on Monday and Friday mornings and Wednesday afternoon...  It turns out the shop has a tea room attached and free wi-fi!  Who knew!!!!  It is a lovely little shop and run by the community for the community.

So we walked back home to Dairy Cottage.  The cottage is delightful.  Two bedrooms upstairs with a bathroom, and another loo downstairs and a large lounge, and kitchen.  It is quite delightfully furnished and decorated.  

The toilet downstairs has a very interesting tap...

So we headed down the A429 towards Cirenchester.  Then turned off to go to the Roman villa.  We started seeing partridges on the side of the road, and then on the road!  I'm not sure how many, but over a hundred!

When we got to the villa they were In the garden there too!

There was a school group there, the children were probably 8 and 9 year olds.  They were learning about how the Romans lived, and were given a shift for each of them to wear!  The woman taking the class was excellent.  They were in the building which houses the mosaics.  The mosaics were worth visiting!

I didn't take any photos of the actual villa site, probably because the site was rediscovered in the 1800s and they built up the walls.  It is an impressive site, none the less, and in a lovely setting which used to be in a strategic situation.

As we were close to Bouton-on-Water, we decided to go there for lunch.  It is a lovely little village with a river running thru the centre of it, lovely, and touristy!  There are heaps of places to choose to eat at, however as there were a number of buses there, we were limited as to choice.  We ended up in a tea room, and I ordered the wild mushroom soup, which when it came out was really delicious, but the bread roll was very ordinary!!!  WhenDad took us to England in 1978, we visited Bourton, and I remembered it as a very charming village.  It still is, so long as you don't mind the crowds!!!

So after lunch, we went on to Chastleton House and Gardens.  This house was built between 1607 and 1612 and due to family history is largely unchanged as the family fortunes waxed and waned.  It stayed in the family until 1991 when it was bought by the National Heritage Memorial Fund including all the furniture and then transferred to the National Trust.  Because it had been in the same family for all that time, the house is an amazing time capsule, and the National Trust has decided to preserve the property rather than restore it.

There are some amazing rooms and furniture and furnishings...  The Great Hall has an amazing screen, and a lot of the rooms have their original wood panelling in place, there are some amazing ceilings and cornices.  The White Parlour has just has the wood panelling painted.  The good stair case is quite beautiful.  It is thought the family's parlous financial situation was also a result of them being on the wrong side of the Civil War and also for supporting the Jacobite cause...  There is a collection of Jacobite glass.

The bed in the above photo has a quilted bedspread on it which was hand made by Anne Whitmore which is said to have taken her 15 years to make.  In her will of 1739 she left it the first of her two daughters to have a child!  Neither daughter did...  So it has remained with the house.  There were also pillow slips to go with it.  It is amazing work.

And this is Anne Whitmore...

She must have been an amazing woman.  She was only married for seven years when in 1704 her husband died, leaving her with four children and a debt of £735.  She had this paid off by 1714.  I imagine this was an amazing amount of money at that time.

The house has an interesting topiary garden!  Not sure what the shapes are!  And espaliered trees against the garden walls.

The house doesn't have it's own tea tooms.  The local church, which ajoins the grounds, offers afternoon tea.  So we had a drink and a slice.  The church itself is older than the house as the oldest part of the church was built in the 1200s.

One thing I did forget was the tour of the house finishes in the basement, including the kitchen.  In the basement itself there is a really long ladder.  I bought a booklet about the house and in it it mentions the ladder is 20metres long!  I have no idea how many people it took to use it as what remains looks very heavy and of course, very long!

When we had finished, we drove back down past Bourton to Fosse Manor as they advertise that they have free wifi and it has been very annoying how bad Internet coverage is where we've been staying and visiting.  We went in and had a drink, and then decided to stay for dinner.  It is quite posh, I'm not really sure we were well enough dressed!!!!

Peter had guinea fowl and I had fish and chips.  The guinea fowl was quite nice.  So was my fish.  However the really nice thing was desert!!!!  I had a passionfruit parfait with brandy snap and fresh berries.  It was delicious!

Then it was home to bed, so we could get up tomorrow, pack and leave to move on north.