Barnsley

I wrote about Barnsley seven years ago, in 2012 – see “PB to RT” above – and now we are back.  I cheated on my previous visit because I drove much of the way, but this time I wasn't allowed to.  (She is strict about cheating.)  We walked the 11 miles from SP 002056, where the Cirencester bus dropped us off, through Perrotts Brook and Barnsley to Fairford, along the so-called Welsh Way.  Tiring but brilliant.

The road from PB hasn't changed in the last seven years, but I thought Barnsley deserved more attention.  #1 shows a splendid pound on the hill 200m above the village, probably to hold stray Welsh cattle.

Drovers would have reached the Ready Token road by walking their beasts almost straight across “The [High] Street” on to a gravel track that leads round the back of the village.  Go through a gate almost immediately and after a right turn you'll see a ten-acre field containing pasture & allotments (#2).  The Revd Coxwell owned it in the late C18 and a page from his account book (#3) shows three visits by his Welsh (paying-) guests on their way to London.  Coxwell's family had been in the area since the early 16C at least and he was rector of the village for 59 years, in which time he had 5 sons & 5 daughters, one of the sons a celebrated balloonist.  59 years!  Hope he was well-liked...

Another swerve takes you through a farmyard – and Hey Ho you have a green lane going round the back of the houses (#4,5).  Climb over the barricade at 052082 – anti-quad-bike? – and turn right on to the Ready Token road… The next 2 miles up the hill to RT are a treat.

I've left out details of the stretch from RT to the edge of Fairford…it's a fine walk via Sunhill crossroads and Honeycombe Leaze, but a bit of an anticlimax after  the previous stretches.  It would have been better 50 years ago when Edith Brill described "heavy-topped elms" lining the route to Fairford. 


The latter is such a smashing little market town that I concentrate on that in a separate article.  (See Fair Ford Indeed! on this tab.)