Cirencester - Christmas Trees, Hope and Heavy Rain

The fact that I’m writing this blog post on Christmas Eve shows how busy life has been since we did our last Chester walk, more than a month ago, up in the wilds of the Gloucestershire/Wiltshire border.

There’s no train station in Cirencester (pronounced Siren-sester) which seems like a bit of an oversight, so we found ourselves jumping off the train at Kemble, late on a Friday evening, then catching a taxi from Kemble to Cirencester, a mere 12 minutes by car.

Lodgings and victuals

Cirencester

We stayed in the delightful Ivy House BnB, which is on Victoria Road in Cirencester. The BnB owners are just about to retire, so they may not be running Ivy House by the time you read this blog post. It was a bitterly cold night, but we ventured out for a night cap and found a warm welcome at The Bear Inn on Dyer Street, a bar which has loads of books, which made me happy - even if I didn’t have time to read any of the books, I still liked the idea of being surrounded by them.

Church of St John the Baptist to Upper Siddington (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

We really liked Cirencester and I could think of worse places to live, even if, what had been forecast to be a sunny winter’s day turned into a bit of a washout and the rain had come on before we’d properly set out on our walk. We’ve visited many beautiful churches during our series of Chester walks, but I really loved Cirencester’s main church, St John the Baptist. It’s an interesting building, architecturally, and there was a really lovely feeling inside and lots going on, including a display of Christmas trees and a bookshop selling cards, as well as books.

Inside St John the Baptist church in Cirencester

Detail of church organ in Cirencester

Unusual Christmas tree decoration

Hard to believe nowadays, but Cirencester was once one of the most important settlements in Britain, during Roman times, right up there with Colchester and St Alban’s and there is an area of the town, known as the Querns, where you can see the remains of Cirencester's Roman life in the Cirencester Amphitheatre.

We faffed around quite a bit, trying to find a way into the Amphitheatre, walking as far as the roundabout on the Bristol Road, then wandering around Waitrose car park, before we headed along Sheep Street and over the bridge to Cotswold Avenue. The Amphitheatre today is a covered mound of grass and reminded me of the Maumbury Rings in Dorchester, although on a much larger scale.

Roman Amphitheatre at the Querns in Cirencester

The rain started coming on quite heavily, as we made our way through the Love Lane industrial estate, on the edge of Cirencester, towards the suburban village of Siddington.

Upper Siddington to South Cerney (2.8 miles/4.5 kilometres)

We didn't actually pass through Siddington village, but we could see it on the other side of the canal, as we followed the Thames and Severn Way in the direction of South Cerney.  We saw the Thames and Severn Way very briefly, when we were in Stroud last year for the Frocester and Woodchester walk and this is a handy path that, quite literally, links the Thames to the Severn, the Thames side starting in Lechlade, finishing on the Severn at a little village called Upper Framilode. It's 43 miles (69km) in total and follows the old Thames and Severn canal, formerly an important transport route for produce and people across the Cotswolds area.

Canal bridge at Siddington

It took a while to figure out what the symbol of the Thames and Severn Way represents - at first, we thought it might be a train passing through a tunnel, until we realised, it represents a canal boat sailing under a bridge.  It made for pleasant walking and I was quite pleased to find that the ominously named Cowground Bridge didn't have any cows underneath it, just some dog-walkers, bravely bracing the elements.

Symbol of the Thames and Severn Way

We left the Thames and Severn Way just outside South Cerney, as we turned down Northmoor Lane, much to BAM's horror, as it meant walking on the roadside into oncoming traffic (BAM's idea of hell!) It didn't take very long though until we got to the end of Northmoor Lane and turned left into the village.

BAM walking towards South Cerney

South Cerney to Ashton Keynes (2.5 miles/4 kilometres)

We had a short break in South Cerney, sheltering from the rain in the porch of All Hallows church.  South Cerney gets its name, as Cirencester does, from the River Churn, a great name for a river if ever I heard one! It certainly felt like we were churning through the mud and rain on as wet a November day as one could hope to experience.

All Hallows church in South Cerney

Interestingly, the noticeboard at the church had the word Hope in different fonts and it got us thinking about the world we live in today and how important Hope is to people - hope that we won't completely destroy the environment, hope that we won't kill each other in a nuclear war, hope that the next US President might be someone to feel hopeful about!

Noticeboard at All Hallows Church, South Cerney

With hope in our hearts, we continued our walk, passing through beautiful old buildings in South Cerney, having a giggle at the curiously named Bow Wow Lane before turning onto Broadway Lane. Halfway down Broadway Lane, we turned onto a very narrow path between a residential area and an industrial estate, before coming out into the Cotswold Water park and making our way on to the village of Ashton Keynes.

Narrow path off Broadway Lane in South Cerney

Ashton Keynes to Kemble (5.9 miles/9.5 kilometres)

We've been in Ashton Keynes before and, actually, the rest of this walk we'd already done in the opposite direction, when we walked the Thames Path a few years ago. As we left Ashton Keynes, the rain got even heavier and the light was quite dim on this last part of our walk.

Ashton Keynes (Wiltshire)

There weren't many people around, so it felt like we had the countryside all to ourselves. It got dark just as we reached the road into Kemble and, by the time we got there, we were soaked through. We were pretty happy to reach The Tavern Inn near Kemble station, where we changed into our jeans and soft shoes, then dried off a bit, before getting the train back to London.

Thames path near Kemble

Access for Wheelchair Users

Unfortunately, not much of this walk would really be accessible to wheelchair users, although it would be possible to get to the Amphitheatre in Cirencester and wheelchair around there.  In our experience, the roads around this part of Gloucestershire are quite busy, with no footpaths and, therefore, dangerous for wheelchairing.  There's a nice path through the Cotswolds Water Park though that seemed pretty accessible.  

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

Attribution (especially to this blog post)
Share-alike

Non-commercial